Nesdy reviewed Emma by Alexander McCall Smith
Review of 'Emma' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
When I started it, I was very hopeful that I would like it, because it seemed like the author understood Austen's Emma. The tone was very sarcastic, and it dealt mainly with the flaws of Mr. Woodhouse and Emma herself. However, as the story progressed, I was more and more disappointed. Emma is a terrible person, there is nothing redeemable about her. In fact, in the end, when she supposedly understood the hurt she caused, she keeps being extremely selfish, and only tries to set up Harriet and Robert Martin so she can have Knightley to herself. Emma and Harriet's whole relationship is weirdly presented here. Emma actively dislikes Harriet, yet decides to help her anyway. But any time they are together, Emma complains about how much she dislikes Harriet, so why would she? Their relationship is also weirdly sexual, to the point where I thought this was a sapphic …
When I started it, I was very hopeful that I would like it, because it seemed like the author understood Austen's Emma. The tone was very sarcastic, and it dealt mainly with the flaws of Mr. Woodhouse and Emma herself. However, as the story progressed, I was more and more disappointed. Emma is a terrible person, there is nothing redeemable about her. In fact, in the end, when she supposedly understood the hurt she caused, she keeps being extremely selfish, and only tries to set up Harriet and Robert Martin so she can have Knightley to herself. Emma and Harriet's whole relationship is weirdly presented here. Emma actively dislikes Harriet, yet decides to help her anyway. But any time they are together, Emma complains about how much she dislikes Harriet, so why would she? Their relationship is also weirdly sexual, to the point where I thought this was a sapphic version, but no, all the descriptions of Harriet's beauty and her lips, painting her naked... are there for no particular reason. The romance with Knightley is not developed at all, to the point where I thought it would just not be included in here. I would have been fine with that, since Austen's Emma is so much more about the social criticism than the romance, and in fact, it seems added at the end as an afterthought. However, in this one, since it was going to be included, it needed at least a little development. Emma and Knightley barely interact in this version, yet they end up together anyway. Some of the translations into modern culture were also weird, like Emma's obsession with finding Harriet "a sugar daddy". There were better ways of doing that. The author has no problem changing certain things from the original (like Harriet and Robert Martin dating from the beginning), so I don't understand why in other places he sticks to the original, but doing a poor job of adapting it. The author doesn't seem to care about the plot of the original at all, only including some of the major beats, but without any of the character development that would make readers care about it. I'm very disappointed with this one.