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  5. Jane Austen

Events on December 23 in history

Jane Austen
1815Dec, 23

The novel Emma by Jane Austen is first published.

Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and romantic misunderstandings. 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, with its title page listing a publication date of 1816. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian–Regency England. Emma is a comedy of manners, and depicts issues of marriage, sex, age, and social status.

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 as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition... had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." Emma is spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.

Emma, written after Austen's move to Chawton, was her last novel to be published during her lifetime, while Persuasion, the last complete novel Austen wrote, was published posthumously.

The novel has been adapted for a number of films, television programmes and stage plays.

References

  • Emma (novel)
  • Jane Austen

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Events on 1815

  • 8Jan

    Battle of New Orleans

    War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
  • 1Mar

    Hundred Days

    Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba, start of the Hundred Days.
  • 20Mar

    Hundred Days

    After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.
  • 18Jun

    Battle of Waterloo

    Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.
  • 15Jul

    HMS Bellerophon (1786)

    Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon.

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