Emma

Unabridged, 8.5" x 11" edition (21.59 x 27.94 cm) with small type (9-point) and three column format on cream paper.
1814, as Jane Austen starts her fourth novel, she is 41 and an accomplished author. Her language sharpness and wittiness in works none less than Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park are widely acclaimed. She has just three years left to live and will spend half of that time working on her longest and most matured work, Emma. Emma pushes her typical use of indirect discourse closer to perfection. Emma is Austen most subtle and complex heroine. Emma has the most detailed descriptions of any work of that time and sets the tone for novels to come under the labels of realism and naturalism.
The story is set in fictional Highbury, Surrey, during the Regency of George IV (1811-1820). Although handsome, clever and rich, Emma has to undergo the whole Austen cycle of wrong-headedness, remorse and repentance to understand her own feelings and reach the perfect happiness of the union.
Emma is a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.— Jane Austen, 1815