The Watsons

Mr. Watson is a widowed clergyman with two sons and four daughters. The youngest daughter, Emma, has been brought up by a wealthy aunt and is consequently better educated and more refined than her sisters. But when her aunt contracts a foolish second marriage, Emma is obliged to return to her father's house. There she is chagrined by the crude and reckless husband-hunting of two of her twenty-something sisters.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English author born in Hampshire, England. She's best-known for her novels in which she critiques 18th century society and displays her characteristically sharp wit. Austen's most famous works include Sense and Sensibility, 1811, Pride and Prejudice, 1813, and Emma, 1816. Although her works have now been translated and printed in editions across the globe, Austen was relatively unknown during her lifetime, publishing her novels anonymously.