The library has bookmarks advertising a new PBS series based on Jane Austen's Emma so I had to check out the PBS website to see what the show is going to look like. Screenwriter Sandy Welch says she wanted to focus on the modern aspects of the characters in Emma, but she's also very aware of previous interpretations, including the film Clueless.  Emma, as you may remember, is a character who's not quite as lovable as some previous Austen heroines.  In fact Mr. Knightley laments how little Emma has taken up on the suggested reading plan he gave to her.  Gillian Dow has a good discussion of the kinds of books women were reading during the Regency Era.  Which begs the question, have you read a few of these books which were considered important for well-educated women at the time: Ann Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest (1791), Regina Maria Roche's The Children of the Abbey (1796), Stephanie-Felicite de Genlis's Adelaide and Theodore (1782), Maria Edgeworth's Letters for Literary Ladies (1795), and Frances Burney's Evelina (1778).