Emma

Austen's most playful heroine meets her match in this sparkling comedy of manners. Emma Woodhouse is rich, clever, and absolutely certain she knows what's best for everyone except herself. Armed with nothing but confidence and a talent for misreading situations, she sets about matchmaking her friends with catastrophic and hilarious results. As her schemes unravel and her own feelings remain stubbornly invisible to her, Austen's sharp eye turns its gaze on the comfortable illusions we build around ourselves. What makes Emma endure is less its plot than its portrait of a mind so busy arranging others' futures that it cannot see its own heart. Austen's wit cuts through every social gathering, revealing the anxieties and desires beneath Regency England's polished surface. For readers who savor sharp social comedy, characters who are frustratingly human, and the peculiar satisfaction of watching a clever person finally understand herself.