Emma Woodhouse Emma Woodhouse Emma Woodhouse is the 21-year-old protagonist of Jane Austen's novel "Emma". She is described in the novel's opening sentence as "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition." Jane Austen, while writing the novel, called Emma, "a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like." Emma is an independent, wealthy woman who lives with her father in their home Hartfield in the English countryside near the village of Highbury. The novel concerns her attempts to be a matchmaker among her acquaintances and her own romantic misadventures. Emma professes that she does not ever wish
Jane Austen Centre public display there. The only verifiable image of her is a small watercolour painted by her sister Cassandra. This, however, has been acknowledged by experts as a ‘poor attempt’ and was described by her niece as ‘hideously unlike’ her aunt Jane. At the same time though, there exists many contemporary descriptions of her by friends and it was in this fact that the origin of the sculpture lies. In 2002, David Baldock, Director of the Jane Austen Centre, commissioned forensic artist Melissa Dring to create a new portrait of Austen, after reading about her work creating a likeness of Vivaldi