'Handsome, clever and rich',Miss Emma Woodhouse has no responsibilities other than the care of her elderly indulgent and valetudinarian father. Having lost her close companion Anne Taylor to marriage, she 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. Precious and spoilt, Emma is charming to all those around her but insensitive to their feelings, 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 and more time redeeming herself in the eyes of Mr Knightley, her sternest critic.

Two umbrellas for us

With a slice of Mrs Weston's wedding-cake

Emma was not sorry to have such an opportunity of survey

Ready to jump up and see the progress

Showing your picrure to his mother and sisters

Rode off in great spirits

Tosses them up to the ceiling

Flying Henry's kite for him

She had never been able to get anything tolerable

As they walked into Mrs Weston's drawing-room

Is this fair, Mrs Weston?

A pertyoung lawyer

Oh! Here it is

Miss Bares was very chatty and good-humoured

Who should come in, but Elizabeth Martin and her brother[

In that very room she had been measured

He stopped for several minutes to look in

Having his hair cut

Had secured her hand

Most deedily occupied about her spectacles

Oh! Mr Knightley, one moment more

He has asked her, my dear

Mrs Elton was first seen at church

Some vulgar, dashing widow

You have heard those charming lines of the poet

I am very sorry to hear, Miss Fairfax, of your being out this morning in the rain

How my brother, Mr Suckling, sometimes flies about

Well! This is brilliant indeed,t

Among the bulky forms and stooping shoulders

Harriet was soon assailed

Mr Perry passed byon horseback

Oh/now you are looking very sly

Able to take an interest in their employment

Seen the Crown chaise pass by

Miss Bates came to the carriage door

He stopped in his earnestness to look the question

Walking away from William Larkins

Such a dreadful broiling morning,t

Emma hung about him affectionately

It passed to Mrs Cole, Mrs Perry, and Mrs Elton