Emma

Emma Woodhouse has money, a comfortable home and very few people willing to tell her she is wrong. When her former governess marries, Emma takes some credit for arranging the match. The success suggests a useful occupation for a clever young woman whose own future seems perfectly secure: she can organise other people’s happiness.

Harriet Smith, a pretty, impressionable girl from the local school, makes an appealing new friend. Her parentage is unknown, which gives Emma plenty of room to imagine a distinguished origin and a suitable husband. Mr Knightley, a neighbour who has known Emma since childhood, is less impressed by these plans. Around them, Highbury carries on with its dinners, calls and small disputes over who ought to visit whom. Emma’s father worries about the dangers of rich food and going out in the evening; his daughter worries that an ordinary acquaintance might be wasting a romantic opportunity.

Austen makes this small Surrey community feel full of people you gradually learn to recognise by their habits of speech. A compliment or an invitation can occupy everyone for days, and Emma is always ready with an explanation. Staying close to her thoughts is companionable and often very funny, particularly when her generous intentions become difficult to separate from her pleasure in being right. The novel rewards a reader who enjoys listening closely to social conversation. Every gathering offers the chance to weigh what someone has actually said against the confident meaning Emma has supplied for it.