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Emma (novel)
''Emma'' is a novel written by English author Jane Austen. It is set in the fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey, and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families. The novel was first published in December 1815, although the title page is dated 1816. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian era, Georgian–Regency era, Regency England. ''Emma'' is a comedy of manners. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the first sentence, she introduces the title character by stating "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." Emma is spoiled, headstrong, and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jane Austen
Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are implicit critiques of the sentimental novel, novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her use of social commentary, realism, wit, and irony have earned her acclaim amongst critics and scholars. Austen wrote major novels before the age of 22, but she was not published until she was 35. The anonymously published ''Sense and Sensibility'' (1811), ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1813), ''Mansfield Park'' (1814), and ''Emma (novel), Emma'' (1816) were modest successes, but they brought her little fame in her lifetime. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weymouth, Dorset
Weymouth ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the Dorset (district), Dorset district, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. Situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey, Dorset, River Wey, south of the county town of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, Weymouth had a population of 53,416 in 2021. It is the third-largest settlement in Dorset after Bournemouth and Poole. The history of the town stretches back to the 12th century and includes roles in the spread of the Black Death, the British colonisation of the Americas, settlement of the Americas and the development of Georgian architecture. It was a major departure point for the Normandy Landings during World War II. Prior to local government reorganisation in April 2019, Weymouth formed a borough with the neighbouring Isle of Portland. Since then the area has been governed by Dorset Council (UK), Dorset Council. Weymouth, Portland and the Purbeck (district), Purbeck district are in the South Dorset parli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sense And Sensibility
''Sense and Sensibility'' ( working title; ''Elinor and Marianne'') is the first novel by the English author Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously: ''By A Lady'' appears on the title page where the author's name might have been. The novel is probably set between 1792 and 1797 and follows the three Dashwood sisters and their widowed mother as they are forced to leave the family estate in Sussex and move to a modest cottage on the property of distant relative in Devon. There the two eldest girls experience love and heartbreak that tries the contrasting characters of both. Plot summary On his deathbed, Henry Dashwood gets John, his son by his first wife, to promise to take care of his stepmother and half-sisters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, from his inheritance. But Fanny, John's wife, persuades her husband not to support them financially, leaving them to survive on a greatly reduced income. Fanny's brother Edward Ferrars comes on a visit, but wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Murray (1778–1843)
John Murray (27 November 1778 – 27 June 1843) was a Scottish publisher and member of the John Murray publishing house. He published works by authors such as Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Jane Austen and Maria Rundell. Life The publishing house was founded by Murray's father, who died when Murray was only fifteen years old. During his adolescence, he ran the business with a partner Samuel Highley, but in 1803 the partnership was dissolved. Murray soon began to show the courage in literary speculation which earned for him later the name given him by Lord Byron of "the Anak of publishers", a reference to Anak in the Book of Numbers. In 1807 Murray took a share with Archibald Constable in publishing Sir Walter Scott's '' Marmion''. In the same year, he became part-owner of the '' Edinburgh Review'', although with the help of George Canning he launched in opposition the '' Quarterly Review'' in 1809, with William Gifford as its editor, and Scott, Canning, Robert Southe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mr Woodhouse
Mr Henry Woodhouse is a central character in Jane Austen's 1815 novel '' Emma'' and the father of the protagonist, Emma Woodhouse. He is a wealthy member of the English landed gentry The landed gentry, or the gentry (sometimes collectively known as the squirearchy), is a largely historical Irish and British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. It is t ... who owns a large country estate. A valetudinarian widower, keen on gruel and a quiet life, he regrets the earlier marriage of Emma's elder sister, and is opposed to marriages in general. Character With his cosy domesticity, his childlike simplicity, and kindly hospitality, Mr Woodhouse has been seen as a charming figure by generations of readers – as one of the most enchanting of chumps. A minority of critics, however, have taken a rather harsher view. Ronald Blythe, for example, insists that "Mr Woodhouse, so wrongly and oddly regarded as an old ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miss Bates
Miss Bates is a supporting character in Jane Austen's 1815 novel '' Emma''. Genteel but poor, and a compulsive talker, she is memorably insulted on one occasion by the book's heroine, to the latter's almost immediate remorse. Background Living in genteel poverty with her ageing widow of a mother and only one servant, Miss Bates was nonetheless on visiting terms with the best in Highbury society. At the same time, she was dependent on her neighbours for much support – pork from Mr Woodhouse Mr Henry Woodhouse is a central character in Jane Austen's 1815 novel '' Emma'' and the father of the protagonist, Emma Woodhouse. He is a wealthy member of the English landed gentry The landed gentry, or the gentry (sometimes collectivel ..., apples from Mr Knightley. Those who see Austen as painting uncritically a rural paradise should remember the latter's words to Emma: “She is poor; she has sunk from the comforts she was born to; and if she live to old age, must probably si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mr Weston
Mr Weston is a supporting character in Jane Austen Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...'s novel '' Emma'', written in 1815. He marries the governess of the heroine, Emma Woodhouse, and it is the arrival of his son, Frank Churchill, in Highbury that sets the events of the plot in motion. Background Born into a local Highbury family, rising from trade into gentility – what Ronald Blythe called "the park-like nirvana...the comic idealization of the country gentleman state" – Mr Weston used a small inheritance to seek an upwardly mobile short-cut, joining the militia as a Captain, and wooing and winning the daughter of a rich landed family, the Churchills. Unfortunately the pair were then disowned by the Churchills, and his wife's extravagance whittled away his fort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parvenu
A ''parvenu'' is a person who is a relative newcomer to a high-ranking socioeconomic class. The word is borrowed from the French language; it is the past participle of the verb ''parvenir'' (to reach, to arrive, to manage to do something). Origin The word ''parvenu'' typically describes a person who recently ascended the social ladder, especially a '' nouveau riche'' or "new money" individual. The famous Margaret Brown, who survived the sinking of the ''Titanic'' in 1912, was portrayed as a "new money" individual, most notably in the "climbing social classes" musical '' The Unsinkable Molly Brown'', because of her impoverished Irish immigrant roots and lack of social pedigree. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines a ''parvenu'' as: "A person from a humble background who has rapidly gained wealth or an influential social position; a nouveau riche; an upstart, a social climber. Also in extended use. Generally used with the implication that the person concerned is unsuited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mr Knightley
George Knightley is a principal character depicted by Jane Austen in her novel '' Emma'', published in 1815. He is a landowner and gentleman farmer, though "having little spare money". A lifetime friend of Emma's though nearly seventeen years older than she, he is one of the only characters willing to correct her when he believes her to be doing wrong. Character A kind and compassionate person, Mr. Knightley exhibits good judgement, high moral character, and maturity, in contrast with Emma's still-maturing character: as a hero, he also has presence and authority, and a natural "lifelike" quality. The most hard-working of Austen's heroes, he is also the least grand and ostentatious, not even keeping a pair of carriage horses. As the owner of the largest estate in the area (Donwell Abbey), this makes his down to earth manners all the more remarkable. Despite a certain sharpness of tongue, his genuine qualities are revealed, for example, by his disappointment when he sees Emma insu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landed Gentry
The landed gentry, or the gentry (sometimes collectively known as the squirearchy), is a largely historical Irish and British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. It is the British element of the wider European class of gentry. While part of the British aristocracy, and usually armigers, the gentry ranked below the British peerage (or "titled nobility") in social status. Nevertheless, their economic base in land was often similar, and some of the landed gentry were wealthier than some peers. Many gentry were close relatives of peers, and it was not uncommon for gentry to marry into peerage. With or without noble title, owning rural land estates often brought with it the legal rights of the feudal lordship of the manor, and the less formal name or title of ''squire'', in Scotland laird. Generally lands passed by primogeniture, while the inheritances of daughters and younger sons were in cash or stocks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emma Woodhouse
Emma Woodhouse is the 21-year-old titular protagonist of Jane Austen's 1815 novel '' Emma''. She is described in the novel's opening sentence as "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition... and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." Jane Austen, while writing the novel, called Emma, "a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like." Emma is an independent, wealthy woman who lives with her father in their home Hartfield in the English countryside near the Surrey village of Highbury. The novel concerns her attempts to be a matchmaker among her acquaintances, and her own romantic misadventures. Emma professes that she does not ever wish to marry (unless she falls very much in love); she has no financial need to because she has a large inheritance, and does not wish to leave her father alone. After a series of new engagements, visits at Highbury, and much miscommunication, Emma finds herself in love ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
