Emma

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY GILL HORNBYHandsome, clever and rich, Emma Woodhouse has no desire to fall in love or be married. Playing Cupid for her peers is far more appealing. But when Emma's well-intentioned schemes for her friend Harriet Smith begin to go awry, Emma must navigate misunderstandings, mismatched suitors and the realisation that perhaps love was closer to home than she realised.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born in 1775 in Hampshire, the seventh of eight children. Austen received an informal education at home, developing a love for reading and writing. As a child and teenager, she wrote stories for her family's amusement, as well as a novella, Lady Susan. Her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, appeared in 1811 and was soon followed by Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. Despite her growing success, Austen published under the pseudonym 'By a Lady', and remained anonymous during her lifetime. After her death in 1817, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously in 1818.