The novel featuring the character Emma Woodhouse is 'Emma'. Jane Austen's comedy of manners follows Emma, a wealthy and intelligent young woman who enjoys arranging romantic matches for people around her.
Emma lives with her father at Hartfield, near the fictional Surrey village of Highbury. She is nearly twenty-one when the story begins and has enough money and social standing to remain independent. Her confidence, however, frequently becomes overconfidence: she misreads other people's feelings and interferes in relationships she does not fully understand.
The novel's central tension comes from the gap between Emma's cleverness and her limited self-knowledge. Her neighbour George Knightley repeatedly challenges her assumptions, while Harriet Smith becomes entangled in Emma's matchmaking schemes. Emma gradually recognises her own mistakes and discovers that her feelings for Knightley are deeper than she realised.
A common publishing mix-up concerns the date. 'Emma' was published in December 1815, but its title page is dated 1816. It was Austen's last novel published during her lifetime and has inspired adaptations including the film 'Clueless'.