As Claire Tomalin points out, Austen had two bursts of creativity during her lifetime. The first came in her early twenties, when she wrote the early versions of Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice within about a three year period from 1795-1798. None of these was published until 1811, when Sense and Sensibility came out from Egerton. Over the next several years, Austen not only was able to get Pride and Prejudice published, but also began to write other novels. Mansfield Park was published in 1814, Emma in 1816, and Persuasion was completed in 1816, though it was not published until 1818, the year after Austen’s death. Emma, thus, fits into the middle of this final burst of writing.
As we’ll see later in the term, Mansfield Park was not nearly so successful as S&S and P&P, and when the first edition sold out Egerton refused to publish a second. Mansfield Park was bough by John Murray publishing, and bought it and the rights to S&S for 450 pounds. Henry was negotiating with the publishers on his sister’s behalf, but he was taken ill and Jane had to settle for a different arrangement with Murray. But Henry’s illness played a role in the publication of Emma. While Henry was sick in London, he was cared for by a court physician, who told Jane that the Prince Regent was an admirer of Austen’s novels, and the physician introduced Jane to James Stanier Clarke, the Prince’s librarian, who showed her around the library at Carlton House and suggested that the Prince would be happy if Austen would dedicate her next book two him.
The Prince Regent, Prince of Wales, at the time was the future George IV. (Being “Prince Regent” meant that he ruled Britain even though he was not coronated, due to the incapacity of his mad father, George III. He was Prince Regent between 1811 and 1820.) He was notorious at the time for his extravagant lifestyle, his girth (50-inch waistline on his corset), and for his estrangement from his wife, Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, which occurred within a few years of their marriage in 1795. The Prince had a series of mistresses, and was rumored to be the father of a number of illegitimate children.
Austen was no great fan of the Prince Regent. In 1813, she wrote to Mary Lloyd: “I suppose all the World is sitting in Judgement upon the Princess of Wales’s Letter. Poor woman, I shall support her as long as I can, because she is a Woman, & because I hate her Husband — but I can hardly forgive her for calling herself ‘attached & affectionate” to a Man whom she must detest — & the intimacy said to subsist between her & Lady Oxford is bad — I do not know what to do about it; but if I must give up the Princess, I am resolved at least always to think that she would have been respectable, if the Prince had behaved only tolerably by her at first.” Despite her personal opinion of the Prince Regent, Austen did go through with the dedication, after being told that the Prince’s suggestion was not really a suggestion but a command. Clarke later wrote to thank Austen for the specially bound copy of Emma that had been sent to the Prince, and also suggested a number of plots for Austen’s later work.
As we would expect, Clarke’s suggestions didn’t work for Austen, but it did provide the opportunity for her to write, The Plan of a Novel, based on his suggestion. Her summary of the plot: “From this outset, the Story will proceed, and contain a striking variety of adventures. Heroine and her Father never above a fortnight together in one place, he being driven from his Curacy by the vile arts of some totally unprincipled and heart-less young Man, desperately in love with the Heroine, and pursuing her with unrelenting passion. — No sooner settled in one Country of Europe than they are necessitated to quit it and retire to another — always making new acquaintance, and always obliged to leave them. — This will of course exhibit a wide variety of Characters — but there will be no mixture; the scene will be for ever shifting from one Set of People to another — but All the Good will be unexceptionable in every respect — and there will be no foibles or weaknesses but with the Wicked, who will be completely depraved and infamous, hardly a resemblance of humanity left in them. — Early in her career, in the progress of her first removals, Heroine must meet with the Hero — all perfection of course — and only prevented from paying his addresses to her by some excess of refinement. — Wherever she goes, somebody falls in love with her, and she receives repeated offers of Marriage — which she refers wholly to her Father, exceedingly angry that he should not be first applied to. — Often carried away by the anti-hero, but rescued either by her Father or by the Hero — often reduced to support herself and her Father by her Talents and work for her Bread; continually cheated and defrauded of her hire, worn down to a Skeleton, and now and then starved to death. — At last, hunted out of civilized Society, denied the poor Shelter of the humblest Cottage, they are compelled to retreat into Kamschatka where the poor Father, quite worn down, finding his end approaching, throws himself on the Ground, and after 4 or 5 hours of tender advice and parental Admonition to his miserable Child, expires in a fine burst of Literary Enthusiasm, intermingled with Invectives against holders of Tithes. — Heroine inconsolable for some time — but afterwards crawls back towards her former Country — having at least 20 narrow escapes from falling into the hands of the Anti-hero — and at last in the very nick of time, turning a corner to avoid him, runs into the arms of the Hero himself, who having just shaken off the scruples which fetter’d him before, was at the very moment setting off in pursuit of her. — The Tenderest and completest Eclaircissement takes place, and they are happily united. — Throughout the whole work, Heroine to be in the most elegant Society and living in high style.”
-Austen feared that Emma would not be well-liked, and in her collection of Opinions on her work she lists mostly negative comments on the book. There were positive responses. Francis Jeffrey of the Edinburgh Review said the book kept him up “three nights,” but didn’t run a review of the book in his journal. Scott wrote that Austen is commendable for “copying from nature as she really exists in the common walks of life,” and praising her for “quiet yet comic dialogue, in which the characters of the speakers evolve themselves with dramatic effort.”