Authors: Jane Austen, Fiona Stafford
ISBN-13: 9780141192475, ISBN-10: 014119247X
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Date Published: March 2010
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Jane Austen's delightful, carefully wrought novels of manners remain surprisingly relevant, nearly 200 years after they were first published. Her novels -- Pride and Prejudice and Emma among them -- are those rare books that offer us a glimpse at the mores of a specific period while addressing the complexities of love, honor, and responsibility that still intrigue us today.
Emma is the story of the eponymous Miss Woodhouse who, having lost her close companion Anne Taylor to marriage, sets out on an ill-fated career of match-making in the town of Highbury. Taking as her subject the pretty but dreary Harriet Smith, she manages to cause misunderstandings with every new tactic she employs. Though precious and spoilt, Emma is charming to all around her and so it takes her some time to learn her lesson and profit from spending less time worrying about how other people should live their lives.
The handsome volumes in The Collectors Library present great works of world literature in a handy hardback format. Printed on high-quality paper and bound in real cloth, each complete and unabridged volume has a specially commissioned afterword, brief biography of the author and a further-reading list. This easily accessible series offers readers the perfect opportunity to discover, or rediscover, some of the world's most endearing literary works.
The volumes in The Collector's Library are sumptuously produced, enduring editions to own, to collect and to treasure.
About the Series | v | |
About This Volume | vii | |
About the Text | xi | |
Part 1 | Emma: The Complete Text in Cultural Context | |
Introduction: Biographical and Historical Contexts | 3 | |
The Complete Text | 21 | |
Contextual Documents and Illustrations | 382 | |
A Riddle | 385 | |
Robin Adair | 386 | |
from Unfortunate Situation of Females, Fashionably Educated, and Left without a Fortune. (1787) | 387 | |
from Letter to His Son (1750) | 389 | |
from Essays on the Picturesque (1810) | 390 | |
from Our Domestic Policy. No I. (1829) | 391 | |
Opinions of Emma (Ca. 1816) | 392 | |
Crossed Letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra (June 20, 1808) | 398 | |
The Frolics of the Sphynx (1820) | 399 | |
Square Pianoforte (1805) | 400 | |
A Barouche Landau (1805) | 401 | |
A View of Box Hill, Surrey (1733) | 401 | |
The Lincolnshire Ox (1790) | 402 | |
Part 2 | Emma: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism | |
A Critical History of Emma | 405 | |
Gender Criticism and Emma | 425 | |
What Is Gender Criticism? | 425 | |
Gender Criticism: A Selected Bibliography | 437 | |
A Gender Studies Perspective: Claudia L. Johnson, "Not at all what a man should be!": Remaking English Manhood in Emma | 441 | |
Marxist Criticism and Emma | 456 | |
What Is Marxist Criticism? | 456 | |
Marxist Criticism: A Selected Bibliography | 470 | |
A Marxist Perspective: Beth Fowkes Tobin, Aiding Impoverished Gentlewomen: Power and Class in Emma | 473 | |
Cultural Criticism and Emma | 488 | |
What Is Cultural Criticism? | 488 | |
Cultural Criticism: A Selected Bibliography | 503 | |
A Cultural Perspective: Paul Delany, "A Sort of Notch in the Donwell Estate": Intersections of Status and Class in Emma | 508 | |
The New Historicism and Emma | 524 | |
What Is the New Historicism? | 524 | |
The New Historicism: A Selected Bibliography | 538 | |
A New Historicist Perspective: Casey Finch and Peter Bowen, "The Tittle-Tattle of Highbury": Gossip and the Free Indirect Style in Emma | 543 | |
Feminist Criticism and Emma | 559 | |
What Is Feminist Criticism? | 559 | |
Feminist Criticism: A Selected Bibliography | 569 | |
A Feminist Perspective: Devoney Looser, "The Duty of Woman by Woman": Reforming Feminism in Emma | 577 | |
Combining Perspectives on Emma | 594 | |
Combining Perspectives: Marilyn Butler, Introduction to Emma | 597 | |
Glossary of Critical and Theoretical Terms | 615 | |
About the Contributors | 635 |