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jodilaidlaw's reviews
493 reviews
George Knightley, Esquire: Charity Envieth Not by Barbara Cornthwaite
3.0
Last year, I read something like four Jane Austen retellings, so it’s pretty impressive that I made it all the way to book four this year before picking up one of those. With the release of Emma. (2020) in February, an Emma retelling was clearly the only option for the Jane kick off.
Here, the story of Emma is (needlessly?) split into two books and is told from the perspective of Mr. George Knightley. He is probably one of the most worthy Austen men to receive this treatment as Emma Woodhouse is not the *most* reliable of narrators for at least part of the story.
Austen retellings tend to retain their regency sqeaky-cleanery OR find themselves in the most opposite way, and this is certainly the former. Austen retellings often tend to be a bit cheesy, and this one is no different. In a way that I’m totally into but I would be remiss to not mention it. Cheesy like, Knightley talks to Emma out the window of his library window for half the book, which is kind of charming ONCE and then just gets kind of silly and dramatic.
By and large, the most interesting part of Cornthwaite’s take is the expanded world we are introduced to by the nature of our protagonist being a landed gentleman managing an estate. It’s meticulously researched, and if there’s something I can get behind, it’s a deep dive on how agricultural seasons affected tenant farmers and the role of a magistrate who settles various legal disputes in a rural community. Knightley is further humanized through the more thoroughly explored relationship with his brother, and his becoming the reluctant owner of a temperamental cat, Madam Duval.
If you are a reader of Austen retellings, this set is one of the better ones I’ve read.
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HIGH: a fun follow up to reading Emma or watching Emma. (2020)
LOW: slightly cheesy, more polished fan fiction
IN 3 PHRASES: an easy austen-eque writing style; quick-paced period-drama dialogue, more George Knightley is never a bad thing
REREAD: naaah
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Here, the story of Emma is (needlessly?) split into two books and is told from the perspective of Mr. George Knightley. He is probably one of the most worthy Austen men to receive this treatment as Emma Woodhouse is not the *most* reliable of narrators for at least part of the story.
Austen retellings tend to retain their regency sqeaky-cleanery OR find themselves in the most opposite way, and this is certainly the former. Austen retellings often tend to be a bit cheesy, and this one is no different. In a way that I’m totally into but I would be remiss to not mention it. Cheesy like, Knightley talks to Emma out the window of his library window for half the book, which is kind of charming ONCE and then just gets kind of silly and dramatic.
By and large, the most interesting part of Cornthwaite’s take is the expanded world we are introduced to by the nature of our protagonist being a landed gentleman managing an estate. It’s meticulously researched, and if there’s something I can get behind, it’s a deep dive on how agricultural seasons affected tenant farmers and the role of a magistrate who settles various legal disputes in a rural community. Knightley is further humanized through the more thoroughly explored relationship with his brother, and his becoming the reluctant owner of a temperamental cat, Madam Duval.
If you are a reader of Austen retellings, this set is one of the better ones I’ve read.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
HIGH: a fun follow up to reading Emma or watching Emma. (2020)
LOW: slightly cheesy, more polished fan fiction
IN 3 PHRASES: an easy austen-eque writing style; quick-paced period-drama dialogue, more George Knightley is never a bad thing
REREAD: naaah
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