Emma, published in 1815, has been described as a "mystery story without a murder". The eponymous heroine is the charming (but perhaps too clever for her own good) Emma Woodhouse, who manages to deceive herself in a number of ways (including as to who is really the object of her own affections), even though she (and the reader) are often in possession of evidence pointing toward the truth. Like Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey, Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, and Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, she overcomes self-delusion during the course of her novel. The book describes a year in the life of the village of Highbury and its vicinity, portraying many of the various inhabitants.

Emma, was dedicated to the dissolute Prince Regent (George August Frederick), at his request; he was the uncle of Victoria, and was Prince Regent from 1811-1820 and later king George IV (1820-1830). Jane Austen was apparently not especially pleased by this honour.

But, probably, Emma is her most loved novel nowadays. In the small world of Highbury, Emma, Mr. Woodhouse daughter and the 30.000 ? inheritor, has a lot of authority; but there are so many mistakes in her, that her power is only an illusion. At the beginning of the novel, she is showed as a snob and a wilful person, at the end, the reader realises that she is a woman who can love and feel.

The novel is rich in dramatic irony; the use of the Emma thoughts to present the action is marvellous; and there is more realism in the facts (in the Austen's novels she wrote before, the heroines were modest sirs' daughters who received the recognition of powerful ones). And, however, the novel shows an excessive recognition of the social order and the peaceful life of Highbury to be entirely successful.