PBS Masterpiece Classic airing Jan 24 - Feb 7, 2010.

First published in 1816 and generally considered Jane Austen's finest work, Emma is a humorous portrayal of a heroine whose injudicious interferences in the life of a young parlour-boarder in a neighboring village often lead to substantial mortification. Austen brings to life a myriad of engaging characters as she presents a mixture of social classes as she did in Pride and Prejudice. Her two greatest comic characters are part of Emma's machinations-the eccentric Mr. Woodhouse and the quintessential bore, Miss Bates.

Delightfully funny, Emma displays the shrewd wit and delicate irony which made Jane Austen a master of the English novel. Although Austen thought that only she would like her witty, fanciful, self-deluded heroine, Emma has gained the affection of generations of readers.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born at Steventon, England, and later moved to Bath. She began to write early for her own and her family's amusement. Her novels, set in her own English countryside, depict the daily lives of provincial middle-class families with wry observation, a delicate irony, and a good-humored wit. She is now considered by many scholars to be the first great woman novelist.

Nadia May has been nominated as an AudioFile Golden Voice five years running and is a winner of thirteen AudioFile Earphones Awards. She is the co-founder of TheatreFirst, a theater company in the San Francisco Bay Area where she currently lives.

“Of all Jane Austen's heroines, Emma Woodhouse is the most flawed, the most infuriating, and, in the end, the most endearing….[This is] Jane Austen at the height of her powers.”—Amazon.com

“May does a wonderful job rendering the variety of accents necessary to portray the span of upper and lower classes, as well as the medley of personalities, from the sweetness of Emma to the egregious Mrs. Elton.” —Kliatt

“As in all of Jane Austen's works, the simple theme of courtship belies the complexity of her vision of human nature and of our need for power. Technical brilliance? Yes. Moral brilliance? Most definitely.”— Chris Kellett, 500 Great Books by Women