Of all Jane Austen's heroines, Emma Woodhouse is the most flawed, the most infuriating, and, in the end, the most endearing. Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennet has more wit and sparkle; Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey more imagination; and Sense and Sensibility's Elinor Dashwood certainly more sense--but Emma is lovable precisely because she is so imperfect.

* "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.