Emma

Emma is perhaps Austen's most sunny novel. It is one of the works of her maturity, and I think it is the only one where the herone is well off, compared with the hero. Emma is handsome and rich, and quite clever, and she is the spoiled younger daughter of a wealthy doting father. She is an heiress living near to a fictional village called Highbury, which is quite near to London. Emma keeps house for her father, who is a lot older than her and who is constantly worried about his own health and that of all his friends. At the beginning of the novel, her governess and companion, Miss Anne Taylor, has just married a local squire and Emma is rather depressed. Miss Taylor was her friend for years and while she loves her father, he is not intelligent enough to be much company for her. Miss Taylor is a mature lady who has fallen in love with Mr Weston who owns a small estate nearby, and who was married already. He has a son, Frank who lives with his mother's family, the Churchills who adopted him as a small child. Frank has been treated as the heir to his uncle and aunt and has not spent much time with his father, who was busy making his fortune... Emma at 21 claims that she will never marry, but she is quite lonely now that Miss Taylor has gone. Their other close neighbour is Mr Knightley, who owns a large estate, Donwell, and whose brother John is a lawyer who lives in London and who is married to Isabella, Emma's sister. He visits the Woodhouses often..