Have you ever wondered what inspired your favorite classic novelist to write their stories? What was happening in their lives to inspire their famous works? What was happening in the world at the time that they wrote those stories you love?

Join Host Bree Carlile while she helps to answer some of the questions you have always had about your favorite classic novelists.

For the next few weeks we will talk about the life of Jane Austen. What inspired her to write Emma? What else was happening in the world at the time?

Come with us as we release one episode each Tuesday detailing the life and history at the time of your favorite authors.

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Welcome to Bite at a Time Books Behind the Story, where we answer the questions you have about your favorite classic authors.

What inspired your favorite author to write their novels?

What was going on in the world at the time?

Follow along with us as we we tell you what was happening in the world while your favorite authors wrote your favorite classics.

My name is Brie Carlyle and I love to read and wanted to share my passion with listeners like you.

All of the links for our show are in the Show Notes.

Today, we'll be talking about what inspired Jane Austen to write Emma.

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 Donald 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, Austin explores the concerns and difficulties of Gentile 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, Austin 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 21 years in the world with very little to distress or Vex her, Emma is spoiled, headstrong, and selfsatisfied.

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 Austin's move to Chawton, was her last novel to be published during her lifetime.

While Persuasion, the last complete novel Austin wrote, was published posthumorously, the novel has been adapted for a number of films, television programs, and stage plays.

Emma Woodhouse's friend and former governor, Ms.

Taylor, has just married Mr.

Weston.

Having introduced them, Emma takes credit for their marriage and decides that she likes matchmaking.

After returning home to Hartfield with her father, Emma forges ahead with her new interest.

Against the advice of her friend Mr.

Knightley, who is also brother inlaw to Emma's eldest sister, Isabella, she attempts to match her new friend Harriet Smith, to Mr.

Elton, the local Vikar.

Emma persuades Harriet to refuse a marriage proposal from Robert Martin, a respectable, educated, and wellspoken young farmer.

Though Harriet likes him, Mr.

Elton, a social climber, mistakenly believes Emma is in love with him and proposes to her.

When Emma reveals she believed him attached to Harriet, he is outraged, considering Harriet socially inferior.

After Emma rejects him, Mr.

Elton goes to Bath and returns with a pretentious Nova rich wife, as Mr.

Knightley expected he would do.

Harriet is heartbroken, and Emma feels ashamed about misleading her.

Frank Churchill, Mr.

Weston's son, arrives for a two week visit and makes many friends.

Frank was adopted by his wealthy and domineering aunt and has had few opportunities to visit before.

Mr.

Knightley tells Emma that while Frank is intelligent and engaging, he has a shallow character.

Jane Fairfax also arrives to visit her aunt, Miss Bates, and grandmother, Mrs.

Bates, for a few months before starting a governance position due to her family's financial situation.

She is the same age as Emma and has received an excellent education by her father's friend, Colonel Campbell.

Emma has remained somewhat aloof with her because she envies Jane's talent and is annoyed by everyone, including Mrs.

Weston and Mr.

Knightley praising her.

The patronizing, Mrs.

Elton, takes Jane under her wing and announces that she will find her the ideal governance post before it is wanted.

Emma feels some sympathy for Jane's predicament.

Emma decides that Jane and Mr.

Dixon, Colonel Campbell's new son in laws, are mutually attracted and is the reason she arrived earlier than expected.

She confides this to Frank, who met Jane and the Campbells at a holiday resort a year earlier.

He apparently agrees with Emma.

Suspicions are further fuelled when a piano forte sent by an anonymous benefactor arrives for Jane.

Emma feels herself falling in love with Frank, but it does not last to his second visit, the Elton Street Harriet poorly, culminating with Mr.

Elton publicly snubbing Harriet at the ball given by the Westons in May.

Mr.

Knightley, who had long refrained from dancing galliantly, asks Harriet to dance.

The day after the ball, Frank brings Harriet to Hartfield as she fainted after a rough encounter with local Gypsies.

Emma mistakes Harriet's gratitude to Frank as her being in love with him.

Meanwhile, Mrs.

Weston wonders if Mr.

Knightley is attracted to Jane, but Emma dismisses the idea when Mr.

Knightley says he notices a connection between Jane and Frank, Emma disagrees, as Frank appears to be courting her.

Instead, Frank arrives late to a gathering at dawn well in June, while Jane departs early the next day at Box Hill, a local scenic spot.

Frank and Emma are bantering when Emma, in just thoughtlessly, insults Miss Bates.

When Mr.

Knightley scolds Emma for insulting Miss Bates, she is ashamed.

The next day, she visits Ms.

Bates to atone for her bad behavior, impressing Mr.

Knightley.

During the visit, Emma learns that Jane accepted a governess position from one of Mrs.

Elton's friends.

Jane becomes ill and refuses to see Emma or receive her gifts.

Meanwhile, Frank has been visiting his aunt, who died soon after his arrival.

Now he and Jane revealed to the Westens that they've been secretly engaged since autumn, but Frank knew his aunt would disapprove of the match.

Maintaining the secrecy strained the conscientious Jane and caused the couple to quarrel with Jane, ending the engagement.

Frank's easygoing uncle readily gives his blessing to the match.

The engagement is made public, leaving Emma chagrin to discover that she had been so wrong.

Emma believes Frank's engagement will devastate Harriet, but instead Harriet says she loves Mr.

Knightley, and though she knows the match is too unequal, Emma's encouragement and Mr.

Knightley's kindness have given her hope.

Emma is startled and realizes that she is also in love with Mr.

Knightley.

Mr.

Knightley returns to console Emma from Frank and Jane's engagement, thinking her heartbroken when she admits her foolishness, he proposes and she accepts.

Harriet accepts Robert Martin's second proposal, and they are the first couple to marry.

Jane and Emma reconcile, and Frank and Jane visit.

The west ends once the morning period for Frank's aunt ends, they will marry before the end of November.

Emma and Mr.

Knightley are married with the prospect of perfect happiness.

Emma Woodhouse, the protagonist of the story, is a beautiful, highspirited, intelligent and slightly spoiled young woman from the landed Gentry.

She is 20 when the story opens.

Her mother died when she was young.

She has been mistress of the house Hartfield since her older sister got married.

Although intelligent, she lacks the discipline to practice or study anything in depth.

She is portrayed as compassionate to the poor, but at the same time has a strong sense of class status.

Her affection for and patience towards her valid tutorial and father are also noteworthy.

While she is in many ways mature, Emma makes some serious mistakes, mainly due to her lack of experience and her conviction that she is always right.

Although she has vowed she will never marry, she delights in making matches for others.

She has a brief flirtation with Frank Churchill.

However, she realizes at the end of the novel that she loves Mr.

Knightley.

Mr.

Knightley is a neighbor and close friend of Emma, aged 37 years.

16 years older than Emma.

He is her only critic.

Mr.

Knightley is the owner of the estate of Don Well Abbey, which includes extensive grounds and farms.

He is the elder brother of Mr.

John Knightley, the husband of Emma's elder sister, Isabella.

He is very considerate aware of the feelings of the other characters, and his behavior and judgment are extremely good.

Mr.

Knightley is furious with Emma for persuading her to turn down Mr.

Martin, a farmer on the Don Well estate.

He warns Emma against pushing Harriet towards Mr.

Elton, knowing that Mr.

Elton seeks a bride with money.

He is suspicious of Frank Churchill and his motives.

He suspects that Frank has a secret understanding with Jane Fairfax.

Frank Churchill, Mr.

Weston's son by his first marriage, is an amiable young man who at age 23 is liked by almost everyone, though Mr.

Knightley sees him as immature and selfish for failing to visit his father after his father's wedding.

After his mother's death, he was raised by his wealthy aunt and uncle, the Churchills.

At the family estate of Enscombe.

His uncle was his mother's brother.

By his aunt's decree, he assumed the name Churchill.

On his majority, Frank is given to dancing and living a carefree existence and is secretly engaged.

Ms.

Fairfax at Weymouth, although he fears his aunt will forbid the match because Jane is not wealthy, he manipulates and plays games with the other characters to ensure his engagement to Jane remains concealed.

Jane Fairfax is an orphan whose only family consists of her aunt, Miss Bates, and her grandmother, Mrs.

Bates.

She is a beautiful, bright and elegant woman with the best of manners.

She is the same age as Emma.

She is extraordinarily well educated and talented at singing and playing the piano.

She is the sole person whom Emma envies.

Colonel Campbell, an army friend of Jane's father, felt responsible for Jane and has provided her an excellent education while she has shared his home and his family since she was nine years old.

She has little fortune, however, and is destined to become a governess, an unpleasant prospect.

The secret engagement goes against her principles and distresses her greatly.

Harriet Smith, a young friend of Emma, just 17 when the story opens, is a beautiful but unsophisticated girl.

She has been a parlor boarder at a nearby school where she met the sisters of Mr.

Martin.

Emma takes Harriet under her wing early on, and she becomes the subject of Emma's misguided matchmaking attempts.

She is revealed in the last chapter to be the natural daughter of a decent tradesman.

Although he is not a gentleman, Harriet and Mr.

Martin are Wed.

The now wiser Emma approves of the match.

Robert Martin is a Welltodo 24 year old tenant farmer who, though not a gentleman, is a friendly, amiable and diligent young man, well esteemed by Mr.

George Knightley.

He becomes acquainted and subsequently smitten with Harriet during her two month stay at Abbey Mill Farm, which was arranged at the invitation of his sister Elizabeth Martin, Harriet's school friend.

His first marriage proposal, in a letter, is rejected by Harriet under Emma's direction and influence, an incident which puts Mr.

Knightley and Emma in a disagreement with one another.

Emma had convinced herself that Harriet's class and breeding were above associating with the Martens, much less marrying one.

His second marriage proposal is later accepted by a contented Harriet and approved by a wiser Emma.

Their joining marks the first of the three happy couples to marry.

In the end, Philip Elton is a goodlooking, initially well mannered and ambitious young Vikar, 27 years old and unmarried.

When the story opens, Emma wants him to marry Harriet.

However, he aspires to secure Emma's hand in marriage to gain her dowry of 30 £0.

Mr.

Elton displays his mercenary nature by quickly marrying another woman of lesser means after Emma rejects him.

Augusta Elton, formerly Ms.

Hawkins, is Mr.

Elton's wife.

She has ten £0 but lacks good manners, committing common vulgarities such as using people's names too intimately, as in Jane, not Ms.

Fairfax, not Mr.

Knightley.

She is a boasting, pretentious woman who expects her due as a new bride in the village.

Emma is polite to her but does not like her.

She patronizes Jane, which earned Jane the sympathy of others.

Her lack of social graces shows the good breeding of the other characters, particularly Ms.

Fairfax and Mrs.

Weston, and shows the difference between gentility and money.

Mrs.

Weston was Emma's governess for 16 years as Ms.

Anne Taylor and remains her closest friend and confidante after she marries Mr.

Weston.

She is a sensible woman who loves Emma.

Mrs.

Weston acts as a surrogate mother to her former charge and occasionally as a voice of moderation and reason.

The Westin and the Woodhouse family see each other almost daily.

Near the end of the story, the Westin's baby, Anna, is born.

Mr.

Weston is a widower and businessman living in Highbury who marries Ms.

Taylor in his early 40s after buying a house called Randalls by his first marriage.

He is the father to Frank Weston Churchill, who was adopted and raised by his late wife's brother and his wife.

He sees his son in London each year.

He married his first wife, Miss Churchill, when he was a captain in the militia posted near her home.

Mr.

Weston is a sanguine, optimistic man who enjoys socializing, making friends quickly in business and among his neighbors.

Mrs.

Bates is a friendly Garyless Spencer, whose mother, Mrs.

Bates, is a friend of Mr.

Woodhouse.

Her niece is Jane Fairfax, daughter of her late sister.

She was raised in better circumstances in her younger days as the Vikar's daughter.

Now she and her mother rent rooms in the home of another in Highbury.

One day Emma humiliates her on a day out in the country when she alludes to her tiresome prolixity.

Mr.

Henry Woodhouse, Emma's father, is always concerned for his health, and, to the extent that it does not interfere with his own the health and comfort of his friends.

He is a Valeo daeneryian, similar to a hypochondriac, but more likely to be genuinely ill.

He assumes that a great many things are hazardous to his health.

His daughter Emma gets along with him well, and he loves both his daughters.

He laments that poor Isabella and especially poor Miss Taylor have married and live away from him.

He has a fond father and fond grandfather who did not remarry when his wife died.

Instead, he brought in Ms.

Taylor to educate his daughters and become part of the family.

Because he is generous and well mannered, his neighbors accommodate him when they can.

Isabella Knightley Nay Woodhouse is the elder sister of Emma by seven years and daughter of Henry.

She is married to John Knightley.

She lives in London with her husband and their five children.

She is similar in disposition to her father and her relationship to Mr.

Wingfield.

Her family's position mirrors that of her father's to Mr.

Perry.

John Knightley is Isabella's husband and George's younger brother, 31 years old.

He is an attorney by profession.

Like the others raised in the area, he is a friend of Jane Fairfax.

He greatly enjoys the company of his family, including his brother and his Woodhouse in laws, but it's not a very sociable sort of man.

He is forthright with Emma, his sister inlaw and close to his brother.

Emma was written after the publication of Pride and Prejudice and was submitted to the London publisher John Murray II in the autumn of 1000 1815.

He offered Austin £450 for this, plus the copyrights of Mansfield Park, and since insensibility, which she refused.

Instead she published 20 copies of the novel at her own expense, retaining the Copyright and paying a 10% Commission to Murray.

The publication in December 1815 dated 10.

00 18 16, consisted of a threevolume set in duodecimo at the selling price of one one pounds per set.

Prior to publication, Austin's novels had come to the attention of the Prince Regent, whose librarian at Carleton House, a Mr.

Clark, showed her around the library at the Prince Regent's request, and who suggested a dedication to the Prince Regent in a future publication.

This resulted in a dedication of Emma to the Prince Regent at the time of publication and a dedication copy of the novel sent to Carlton House in December 1815.

In America, copies of this first publication were sold in 1818 for $4 per copy, as well as an American edition published by Matthew Carey of Philadelphia in 1816.

The number of copies of this edition are not known.

A later American edition was published in 1833 and again in 1838 by Carrie Leigh and Blanchard.

A French version was published in 1816 by artist Bertrand publisher for Madame Isabella de Montalu.

A second French version for the Austrian market was published in 1817.

Viennese publisher Shramble Richard Bentley reissued Emma in 1833, along with Austin's five other novels in his series of standard novels.

This issue did not contain the dedication page to the Prince Regent.

These editions were frequently reprinted up until 1882 with the final publication of the Steventon edition.

Emma has remained in continuous publication in English throughout the remainder of the 19th century and into the 20th and 21st centuries.

In addition to the French translation already mentioned, Emma was translated into Swedish and German in the 19th century and into 15 other languages in the 20th century, including Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, German and Italian.

Thank you for joining Bite At A Time Books Behind the Story today, while we answered some of the questions you have about one of your favorite classic authors, all of the links for our show are in the Show Notes.

Our show is part of the Bite At A Time Books Productions Network.

If you would also like to hear a story by the author we are currently featuring, check out the Bite At A Time Books podcast.

Wherever you listen to podcasts.

Right now, we are reading Emma again.