Emma Novel By Jane Austen. Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. Quick-witted, beautiful, headstrong and rich, Emma Woodhouse is inordinately fond of match-making select inhabitants of the village of Highbury, yet aloof and oblivious as to the question of whom she herself might marry. This paradox multiplies the intrigues and sparkling ironies of Jane Austens masterpiece, her comedy of a sentimental education through which Emma discovers a capacity for love and marriage.