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60 free Emma (Jane Austen) trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Jane Austen warned that no one but herself would much like Emma Woodhouse, and readers have been arguing with her ever since. This quiz covers the whole of the novel: Highbury, Hartfield and Donwell Abbey, the Weston wedding that starts the meddling, Harriet Smith and Robert Martin, the Eltons, Frank Churchill's secret, Jane Fairfax's piano, the disaster at Box Hill and the marriage that closes the book. It also digs into the book's history, from the December 1815 first edition and the dedication to the Prince Regent to John Murray's offer, Walter Scott's anonymous review and the price of a three-volume set, before turning to the screen: Clueless and Bronson Alcott High, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rachel Portman's Oscar, Kate Beckinsale, Romola Garai, Anya Taylor-Joy and the earliest surviving BBC serial. Easy questions suit anyone who has read the novel once; the expert tier asks for ages, dowries and screenwriters. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the novel and its adaptations, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question. If you enjoy this, try our quiz on Jane Austen and her other novels.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Emma is set in which fictional village?
Highbury
Critic Robert Irvine argues the village itself becomes a character, something new in Austen.
Q 02In which English county does the novel take place?
Surrey
The village is said to lie 16 miles from London and 8 from Richmond.
Q 03What is the name of the Woodhouse family home?
Hartfield
Emma has been mistress of the house since her elder sister married.
Q 04Which estate, with extensive grounds and farms, belongs to Emma's neighbour and only critic?
Donwell Abbey
A young farmer on the estate is the suitor Harriet is persuaded to refuse, which its owner takes badly.
Q 05What is the name of the estate where the newly married couple from the opening chapter live?
Randalls
Emma takes credit for making the Weston match, which convinces her she has a gift for it.
Q 06Emma was first published in which month and year?
December 1815
The title page was nonetheless dated 1816.
Q 07Which London publisher brought out Emma?
John Murray
He grumbled that the book lacked 'incident and Romance'.
Q 08To whom is Emma dedicated?
The Prince Regent
His librarian at Carlton House, James Stanier Clarke, had shown Austen round the library and suggested the dedication.
Q 09Before Emma, Austen wrote: 'I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much ___.' What word?
Like
She then made her heroine handsome, clever and wrong about nearly everything.
Q 10The famous first sentence describes Emma Woodhouse as 'handsome, clever, and ___'.
Rich
She has, it continues, lived nearly twenty-one years 'with very little to distress or vex her'.
Q 11How old is Emma when the story opens?
Nearly 21
Jane Fairfax is exactly her age, and Harriet is only seventeen.
Q 12Emma's former governess, whose wedding opens the novel, was known as what before her marriage?
Miss Taylor
Emma claims credit for the match, and the loss of her companion leaves her bored enough to start meddling.
Q 13Which vicar does Emma try to pair with Harriet Smith?
Mr Elton
He assumes Emma herself is in love with him and is outraged when he learns the truth.
Q 14Which respectable young farmer does Emma persuade Harriet to refuse?
Q 21What gift arrives anonymously for Jane Fairfax, fuelling gossip?
A piano
Emma wrongly guesses the sender is Mr Dixon, Colonel Campbell's new son-in-law.
Q 22Which army officer, a friend of her late father, gave Jane Fairfax her excellent education?
Colonel Campbell
She shared his home from the age of nine but is left with no fortune of her own.
Q 23At which scenic spot does Emma thoughtlessly mock a garrulous spinster?
Box Hill
The real hill is one of the places thought to have inspired the novel's setting.
Robert Martin
Harriet accepts his second proposal at the end, and they become the first couple to marry.
Q 15After Emma rejects him, the vicar goes to which city and returns with a wife?
Bath
His new wife is pretentious and nouveau-riche, exactly as Emma's neighbour had predicted.
Q 16What was Mrs Elton's name before her marriage?
Miss Hawkins
Her father made his money in trade, making her only first-generation gentry despite her airs.
Q 17Frank Churchill was raised by his aunt and uncle at which Yorkshire estate?
Enscombe
He took the Churchill name on coming of age so that he could inherit it.
Q 18Frank Churchill was born with which surname?
Weston
He is his father's son by a first marriage, adopted by his late mother's wealthy relatives.
Q 19At which seaside town did Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax become secretly engaged?
Weymouth
Frank hides the engagement because his aunt would forbid a match with a woman of no fortune.
Q 20Jane Fairfax lives in genteel poverty with her grandmother and which talkative aunt?
Miss Bates
Emma's cruel joke at the aunt's expense during a picnic outing is the novel's moral turning point.
Q 24Harriet faints after a frightening encounter with whom, before Frank Churchill brings her to safety?
Gypsies
Emma mistakes Harriet's gratitude for love, one more misreading in a long series.
Q 25Harriet Smith is finally revealed to be the natural daughter of whom?
A tradesman
Emma had convinced herself Harriet's unknown father must be a gentleman.
Q 26What is the name of Emma's elder sister, who is married to the hero's younger brother John?
Isabella
The two families are thus already linked before the novel's final wedding.
Q 27How old is Harriet Smith when the story opens?
17
She is beautiful but unsophisticated, and Emma takes her up as a project.
Q 28What is the size of Emma's dowry, which the vicar hopes to secure?
£30,000
Emma's neighbour warns that the vicar means to marry for money.
Q 29Which food does Emma's father, Mr Woodhouse, consider 'a very good thing'?
Thin gruel
Maria Edgeworth's sarcastic summary of the plot dwelt on his gruel and how hard it is to make a cook understand it.
Q 30How many copies of Emma did Austen publish at her own expense?
2,000
She kept the copyright and paid her publisher a 10 per cent commission.