Emma: A Modern Retelling

"The summer after university, Emma Woodhouse returns home to the village of Highbury, where she will live with her health-conscious father until she is ready to launch her interior-design business and strike out on her own. In the meantime, she will do what she does best: offer guidance to those less wise in the ways of the world than herself. Happily, this summer brings many new faces to Highbury and into the sphere of Emma's not always perfectly felicitous council: Harriet Smith, a naive teacher's assistant at the ESL school run by the hippie-ish Mrs. Goddard; Frank Churchill, the attractive stepson of Emma's former governess; and, of course, the perfect Jane Fairfax. This Emma is wise, witty, and totally enchanting, and will appeal equally to Sandy's multitude of fans and the enormous community of wildly enthusiastic Austen aficionados"--

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384 pages

Average rating: 3.88

8 RATINGS

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1 REVIEW

Community Reviews

melbeesue
Oct 16, 2023
2/10 stars
I wanted to like this book...after all, it was a modern version of one of Jane Austen's classics, and so it sounded delightful. I jumped in ready to smile and enjoy the whimsical ride.

But what I discovered was a blah story with sexual twists that were meant to keep us engaged but rather soured my stomach. Not to mention that this so-called retelling would have caused Jane Austen to bury her head in shame!

This isn't Austen-approved fiction. This isn't even fan fiction. This is a dull pandering to a modernist society, one in which Frank Churchill pretends to be gay and Emma Woodhouse contemplates whether she might have a "thing" for Harriet Smith. And if that wasn't enough distortion to turn a classical-genre-loving-reader off, let me broach an additional scene change where Harriet agrees to pose nude for Emma's painting. [GASP!] Yes, I blush to think of what Jane Austen would have said about that little dramatic tidbit.

In this twisted narrative, I sincerely wish that the characters' names HAD been changed to protect their innocent fictitious personalities that were marred and sullied within these pages.

Badly done, Alexander McCall Smith! Badly done indeed!
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