Emma

Jane Austen · 1775–1817 · England

Why it matters

Austen's technical summit: a heroine 'no one but myself will much like' whose every misperception the reader is seduced into sharing. Free indirect style reaches maturity here; the modern novel of consciousness starts closer to Emma than to anything else.

At a glance

Pioneering free indirect discourse means the narration itself is often unreliable.