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A review by mirandadarrow
Emma by Alexander McCall Smith
2.0
Emma
I’ve read several of the Jane Austen Project classic remakes, and Alexander McCall Smith’s remake of Emma took me a very long time to get through. I’d checked it out from the library, it expired, and then I got on the wait list and finished it up. That isn’t a good sign.
First, Jane Austen is my favorite author, but Emma is my least favorite of her novels. I find Emma to be annoying, and never understood John Knightley’s attraction to her. So, it’s less likely that I’ll like a remake of Emma than Curtis Sittenfeld’s Eligible, which I enjoyed considerably. So, predictably, I liked this less than Eligible.
That said, I do enjoy Alexander McCall Smith’s Ladies Number One Detective Agency series, so I was willing to give this a go. My main gripe with Precious and company is the sometimes too detailed too slow of a pace. That aspect is here in spades, as it seemed to take forever and a day to get through the introduction about the tedious Mr. Woodhouse and his hiring of the governess Miss Taylor. Seriously, more time is spend on conversations between Mr. Woodhouse and Miss Taylor than between Emma and Mr. Knightley, and they are unreservedly dull.
Next issue with this book, is the thoroughly annoying being that is Emma Woodhouse. Yes, she was a pill in the original, but you’d think a modern remake with a college graduate Emma that she’d be a little more relatable. But no, it was worse. Her extreme jealousy over Jane Fairfax’ superior piano skills and her ludicrous notions as a matchmaker were even more pronounced and grating in the context of an educated modern woman, as we can no longer justify her as a product of her time.
The class issues which made sense in the original made much less sense in this retelling. Harriet of the questionable parentage who is a naïve living with the headmistress Ms. Goddart at the English as a Second Language School is somehow in too high of a class for Henry, whose parents run a bed and breakfast? Why exactly is that, when Harriet’s only known value is her looks, as she’s dumb and dull. Frank Churchill is pretty unlikable and doesn’t seem a realistic match for Emma, even though we all know he’s very secretly (even secret from himself, apparently) pining for Jane Fairfax. But why?
Lastly, we don’t get to see hardly any of George Knightley. I think there are more scenes with his brother John, the photographer who woos Emma’s sister Isabella and then drags her off to London to have entirely too many children. George is their neighbor, and he is the male lead of this story, and we hardly even see him. All that we really know is that he disapproves of Emma’s behavior towards Jane Fairfax and with Harriet Smith. And on that basis, he declares his love for Emma and decides to marry her?
The only part that I really liked was a spoiler.I liked that Mr. Woodhouse hooked up with Ms. Goddart and lightened up a bit Finally, someone had something new and interesting happen. But otherwise it was all the of things that I didn’t particularly like about Emma, but in a new and less likeable time and setting.
I’ve read several of the Jane Austen Project classic remakes, and Alexander McCall Smith’s remake of Emma took me a very long time to get through. I’d checked it out from the library, it expired, and then I got on the wait list and finished it up. That isn’t a good sign.
First, Jane Austen is my favorite author, but Emma is my least favorite of her novels. I find Emma to be annoying, and never understood John Knightley’s attraction to her. So, it’s less likely that I’ll like a remake of Emma than Curtis Sittenfeld’s Eligible, which I enjoyed considerably. So, predictably, I liked this less than Eligible.
That said, I do enjoy Alexander McCall Smith’s Ladies Number One Detective Agency series, so I was willing to give this a go. My main gripe with Precious and company is the sometimes too detailed too slow of a pace. That aspect is here in spades, as it seemed to take forever and a day to get through the introduction about the tedious Mr. Woodhouse and his hiring of the governess Miss Taylor. Seriously, more time is spend on conversations between Mr. Woodhouse and Miss Taylor than between Emma and Mr. Knightley, and they are unreservedly dull.
Next issue with this book, is the thoroughly annoying being that is Emma Woodhouse. Yes, she was a pill in the original, but you’d think a modern remake with a college graduate Emma that she’d be a little more relatable. But no, it was worse. Her extreme jealousy over Jane Fairfax’ superior piano skills and her ludicrous notions as a matchmaker were even more pronounced and grating in the context of an educated modern woman, as we can no longer justify her as a product of her time.
The class issues which made sense in the original made much less sense in this retelling. Harriet of the questionable parentage who is a naïve living with the headmistress Ms. Goddart at the English as a Second Language School is somehow in too high of a class for Henry, whose parents run a bed and breakfast? Why exactly is that, when Harriet’s only known value is her looks, as she’s dumb and dull. Frank Churchill is pretty unlikable and doesn’t seem a realistic match for Emma, even though we all know he’s very secretly (even secret from himself, apparently) pining for Jane Fairfax. But why?
Lastly, we don’t get to see hardly any of George Knightley. I think there are more scenes with his brother John, the photographer who woos Emma’s sister Isabella and then drags her off to London to have entirely too many children. George is their neighbor, and he is the male lead of this story, and we hardly even see him. All that we really know is that he disapproves of Emma’s behavior towards Jane Fairfax and with Harriet Smith. And on that basis, he declares his love for Emma and decides to marry her?
The only part that I really liked was a spoiler.