Book #2: Emma by Alexander McCall Smith

This is another one of the Austen Project modernized versions of Jane Austen's books. And although I really liked the other ones, as far as I remember, this one was just terrible. I enjoyed it for maybe half of the way through, but it left me wondering if Smith had ever even READ Austen's original. Everything included in the book was shortened and way less interesting. The premise of the Austen Project is that the authors are rewriting Austen's books for the modern day, and I think that's part of the problem for this book--it doesn't work for this setting. I just think part of the problem with this book is that Emma's flaws, which are annoying but pretty understandable in a 19th century character, are completely not acceptable in 2015. Emma in this version comes across as completely spoiled, totally unaware of the rest of the world and all of the people who aren't as well off as she is, and basically a complete brat. And although she is still all of those things in the original, she has more positive qualities that redeem her throughout the book, and her transformation is much more rewarding at the end. And according to the society at the time, she was kind of expected to be and act better off than everyone around her, so it's more forgivable. You can sense her real regret and repentance after she realizes where she's been wrong. This Emma--no on all of those things. Smith does not AT ALL give you a good, well-rounded portrait of her as a character. And don't even talk to me about George Knightley, who is one of the best of Austen's heroes, and who shows up approximately three times in the book and there is literally NO HINT that they would be interested in each other. It seems more likely that Emma would turn out to be a lesbian interested in Harriet Smith than she would be with Knightley at the end (since Smith kept hinting at it throughout, which was obnoxious also). Smith also felt so unsure about whether he'd made the point that he wanted to with Emma that he actually SAYS the moral near the end: "It had been an important summer for Emma, as it had been the summer during which moral insight came to her – something that may happen to all of us, if it happens at all, at very different stages of our lives." Ummm, thank you. It was helpful for you to spell that out because IT WASN'T OBVIOUS FROM THE STORY. The only redeeming thing that I liked about this rewrite was how Smith gave a lot of backstory to all of the characters to explain them, which was kind of fun to read (particularly Emma's father, Mr. Woodhouse). Unfortunately, this backstory ended up supplanting the actual plot of the story, so oh well.

Basically, DON'T read this. Stick with the original.