Emma (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Virginia Woolf called Jane Austen "the most perfect artist among women," and Emma Woodhouse is arguably her most perfect creation. Emma is a wealthy, exquisite, and thoroughly self-deluded young woman who has "lived in the world with very little to distress or vex her." Seemingly impervious to romance of any kind, Emma traverses a gentle satire of provincial balls and drawing rooms, along the way encountering a memorable gallery of Austen's finest personages, including the sweet Harriet Smith, the chatty and tedious Miss Bates, and her absurd father Mr. Woodhouse. Every interplay, every romantic scheme is steeped in Austen's delicious irony. Emma is Austen's most cleverly woven and most pleasing novel of manners.