60 Fun Facts About Emma (Jane Austen)
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Take the 60-question quizEmma is set in which fictional village?
Critic Robert Irvine argues the village itself becomes a character, something new in Austen.
In which English county does the novel take place?
The village is said to lie 16 miles from London and 8 from Richmond.
What is the name of the Woodhouse family home?
Emma has been mistress of the house since her elder sister married.
Which estate, with extensive grounds and farms, belongs to Emma's neighbour and only critic?
A young farmer on the estate is the suitor Harriet is persuaded to refuse, which its owner takes badly.
What is the name of the estate where the newly married couple from the opening chapter live?
Emma takes credit for making the Weston match, which convinces her she has a gift for it.
Emma was first published in which month and year?
The title page was nonetheless dated 1816.
Which London publisher brought out Emma?
He grumbled that the book lacked 'incident and Romance'.
To whom is Emma dedicated?
His librarian at Carlton House, James Stanier Clarke, had shown Austen round the library and suggested the dedication.
Before Emma, Austen wrote: 'I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much ___.' What word?
She then made her heroine handsome, clever and wrong about nearly everything.
The famous first sentence describes Emma Woodhouse as 'handsome, clever, and ___'.
She has, it continues, lived nearly twenty-one years 'with very little to distress or vex her'.
How old is Emma when the story opens?
Jane Fairfax is exactly her age, and Harriet is only seventeen.
Emma's former governess, whose wedding opens the novel, was known as what before her marriage?
Emma claims credit for the match, and the loss of her companion leaves her bored enough to start meddling.
Which vicar does Emma try to pair with Harriet Smith?
He assumes Emma herself is in love with him and is outraged when he learns the truth.
Which respectable young farmer does Emma persuade Harriet to refuse?
Harriet accepts his second proposal at the end, and they become the first couple to marry.
After Emma rejects him, the vicar goes to which city and returns with a wife?
His new wife is pretentious and nouveau-riche, exactly as Emma's neighbour had predicted.
What was Mrs Elton's name before her marriage?
Her father made his money in trade, making her only first-generation gentry despite her airs.
Frank Churchill was raised by his aunt and uncle at which Yorkshire estate?
He took the Churchill name on coming of age so that he could inherit it.
Frank Churchill was born with which surname?
He is his father's son by a first marriage, adopted by his late mother's wealthy relatives.
At which seaside town did Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax become secretly engaged?
Frank hides the engagement because his aunt would forbid a match with a woman of no fortune.
Jane Fairfax lives in genteel poverty with her grandmother and which talkative aunt?
Emma's cruel joke at the aunt's expense during a picnic outing is the novel's moral turning point.
What gift arrives anonymously for Jane Fairfax, fuelling gossip?
Emma wrongly guesses the sender is Mr Dixon, Colonel Campbell's new son-in-law.
Which army officer, a friend of her late father, gave Jane Fairfax her excellent education?
She shared his home from the age of nine but is left with no fortune of her own.
At which scenic spot does Emma thoughtlessly mock a garrulous spinster?
The real hill is one of the places thought to have inspired the novel's setting.
Harriet faints after a frightening encounter with whom, before Frank Churchill brings her to safety?
Emma mistakes Harriet's gratitude for love, one more misreading in a long series.
Harriet Smith is finally revealed to be the natural daughter of whom?
Emma had convinced herself Harriet's unknown father must be a gentleman.
What is the name of Emma's elder sister, who is married to the hero's younger brother John?
The two families are thus already linked before the novel's final wedding.
How old is Harriet Smith when the story opens?
She is beautiful but unsophisticated, and Emma takes her up as a project.
What is the size of Emma's dowry, which the vicar hopes to secure?
Emma's neighbour warns that the vicar means to marry for money.
Which food does Emma's father, Mr Woodhouse, consider 'a very good thing'?
Maria Edgeworth's sarcastic summary of the plot dwelt on his gruel and how hard it is to make a cook understand it.
How many copies of Emma did Austen publish at her own expense?
She kept the copyright and paid her publisher a 10 per cent commission.
Austen refused how much for the copyright of Emma, Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility?
Publishing at her own risk turned out to be the shrewder choice.
Which famous novelist reviewed Emma anonymously in the Quarterly Review in 1816?
The publisher requested the review, which appeared in an issue dated October 1815.
The first edition of Emma was sold as a three-volume set at what price?
That is £1 1s, for a duodecimo set.
Emma was Austen's last novel published in her lifetime. Which novel appeared posthumously?
Emma was written after Austen's move to Chawton in Hampshire.
Whom does Emma marry at the end of the novel?
The couple agree to live at Emma's home so that she need not leave her father.
What civic office does Emma's neighbour hold in the village?
He also leads the parish select vestry, effectively the village's governing body.
Which real town is suggested as a possible model for the novel's village?
Cobham is also cited; the real village of the same name in London is not the one Austen meant.
Which 1995 film relocates Emma to a Beverly Hills high school?
Its heroine Cher Horowitz is played by Alicia Silverstone.
Who wrote and directed the 1995 Beverly Hills update of the novel?
She had read Austen's novel in college and loved the heroine's relentless positivity.
Where does Cher Horowitz study in the 1995 film?
Heckerling researched the film by observing real students at Beverly Hills High.
In which year was the 1995 Alicia Silverstone film selected for the US National Film Registry?
The Library of Congress chose it as 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'.
Who played Emma in the 1996 Miramax film?
Ewan McGregor, Toni Collette, Alan Cumming and Jeremy Northam co-starred.
Who wrote and directed the 1996 Miramax film?
He fell in love with the novel as a Princeton undergraduate and pitched it after his Oscar nomination for Bullets over Broadway.
Rachel Portman's music for the 1996 film made her the first woman to win which Academy Award?
She collected it on 24 March 1997.
Roughly how much did the 1996 Miramax film gross worldwide?
Miramax released it in the United States in August 1996 after a Seattle festival premiere.
Who played Emma in the 1996 ITV television film?
Samantha Morton played Harriet and Mark Strong the hero.
Which prolific Austen adapter wrote the 1996 ITV television version?
The BBC had already signed another writer, so he took the project to ITV instead.
Who starred as Emma in the BBC's 2009 four-part serial?
Jonny Lee Miller played the hero and Michael Gambon her father.
Who wrote the 2009 BBC serial, having previously adapted Jane Eyre and North & South?
Its later episodes lost viewers, possibly because they clashed with The X Factor.
Who played the heroine in the 2020 film Emma.?
Johnny Flynn, Josh O'Connor, Mia Goth, Miranda Hart and Bill Nighy filled out the cast.
The 2020 film was the directorial debut of which photographer?
She was signed in October 2018 at the same time as her lead was cast.
Which Booker Prize-winning novelist wrote the screenplay for the 2020 film?
The film's title is stylised with a full stop, as 'Emma.'
The 2020 film earned two Oscar nominations: Best Costume Design and which other?
Its star was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.
The 2010 film Aisha transplants the story of Emma to which country?
It is one of several international reworkings of the novel.
Which company produced Emma Approved (2013), a follow-up to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries?
Joanna Sotomura played the modern Emma, a lifestyle consultant.
Which author wrote Emma: A Modern Retelling (2014) for HarperCollins' Austen Project?
The six-volume project matched contemporary novelists to each Austen novel.
Who played Emma in the 1972 BBC serial, the earliest BBC adaptation known to survive?
John Carson played the hero.
Which academic called Emma 'a revolutionary novel' that changed 'what is possible in fiction'?
His point was that Austen bent the narration through the distorting lens of her heroine's mind.
How old is Frank Churchill?
Almost everyone likes him, though Emma's neighbour finds him immature and selfish for skipping his father's wedding.
How many children do Emma's sister Isabella and John Knightley have in London?
They are Henry, 'little' John, Bella, 'little' Emma and George; Isabella is seven years older than Emma.
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