Emma: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Reviews and Criticism Austen, Jane and Parrish, Stephen M.

The text reprinted in this new edition of Austen’s comedic novel is based on the 1816 text, which has been carefully edited in light of later editions, including the Chapman edition.

"Backgrounds" supplies an abundance of documents that shed light on Austen's life and reveal some of her private attitudes toward her writing.

"Reviews and Criticism" presents a wide variety of perspectives, both contemporary and recent, including essays by Sir Walter Scott, Henry James, A. C. Bradley, E. M. Forster, Robert Alan Donovan, Marilyn Butler, Mary Poovey, Claudia Johnson, Juliet McMaster, Ian Watt, and Suzanne Juhasz.  New to this edition are essays by Maggie Lane, Edward Copeland, and Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield, the last of which discusses film adaptations of Emma.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, in England. Her father, an Anglican clergyman, encouraged her literary pursuits from a young age and by her mid-twenties, Austen had drafted three novels. Following the success of Sense and Sensibility in 1811, she went on to publish Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously in 1818. Despite her fondness for marriage plots–all six of her novels end in weddings–Austen never married, living with her mother and sister in the years leading up to her death. She died on July 18, 1817, in the city of Winchester. Over two centuries later, Austen’s novels remain beloved classics, and she is considered one of the foremost writers in English literary history.

Stephen Parrish is Goldwin Smith Professor of English Emeritus at Cornell University. He is the general editor of The Cornell Concordances, The Cornell Yeats, and The Cornell Wordsworth, all multi-volume projects.