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"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"--… (más)
I always enjoy Alexander McCall Smith's books and this was no exception. I would have liked it more had he made his Emma a little less rude and given Knightly a larger part in the story. ( )
A folly is an ornamental structure to no purpose. Also an action that reveals a lack of good sense. Good intentions often lie behind such buildings and acts. Surely Mr McCall Smith must be especially fond of Jane Austen’s Emma else why even bother attempting this retelling. Our loves sometimes betray us. Here the contrast between McCall Smith’s Emma and Austen’s Emma lays bare his limitations as a writer even as it dramatically increases one’s appreciation for Austen’s subtle mastery of style and content. The only risk, if it counts as a risk, is that someone might come to this work without a prior appreciation for its source and might thereby be dissuaded from turning to Austen herself. Do make that turn; you will not be disappointed.
McCall Smith’s Emma is transposed to modern day and to Norfolk. There are, however, many touchpoints shared by this retelling and its source. Sometimes there is an anxiousness to cram these points of sameness into a single chapter, which leads to a bit of telling rather than showing. Sometimes what ought to be a touchpoint just marks the difference between the two. Alas. Almost as disappointing are the number of typos, missing words and worse in this edition, despite being in a series released by a major publisher, Knopf. Alas.
Not recommended. But don’t let that put you off of McCall Smith’s other writings which are just fine. ( )
I am as a rule very skeptical about Austen retellings, and I wouldn't have read this one had I not been given it as a gift, but I did end up enjoying it more than I expected to. Unlike most of the entries in this overcrowded genre, it realizes that Austen is just as much about poking gentle fun at society's and individuals' foibles as about romance. Some of the updates are clever, though others fall flat, and there are some witty observations here and there. The romance itself is actually the weakest point; there's not enough interaction between Emma and Knightley, and she, as the main viewpoint character, doesn't even seem to think about him much when he's not around. I feel their relationship in the original is also one of Austen's least convincing romances, to be honest, but it didn't feel quite this lackluster. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
For my daughters, Lucy and Emily
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Emma Woodhouse's father was brought into this world, blinking and confused, on one of those final nail-biting days of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Citas
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Was there something about her—some vaguely fragile quality—that made men fear that if they got too close to her, if they actually touched her, she would break? There were some people who gave one that impression: they were not made for the rough and tumble of ordinary life.
Disinclination to discuss a subject that needs to be discussed is never a solution: the topic merely assumes increasing prominence the longer it remains untouched.
She had felt it during their sparring, but now she felt the rawness that followed from the argument. Disagreements, even with people she knew, made her feel like that—shocked, perhaps, at the animus that can lie behind mere words.
Why should she care what he thought? Why should she bother if she had somehow fallen short of whatever standards he had mentally created for her?
"That's nothing to do with education, Pops. It's the culture. That's what happens. Isabella herself is losing her h's. When she comes here for the weekend, I find them all over the place once she leaves. Loads of them. Dropped with utter abandon."
People suited themselves; more and more that was the lesson she was learning.
These conflicting answers came from somewhere within her, from some hidden centre of self-knowledge.
"I don't know what to think," said Harriet. ¶ Emma took command of herself once more. "Actually," she said, "I don't think models think very much."
He agreed that Emma was trouble, but he rather liked the idea of young women larking about, as he put it, in a state of undress.
But of course he could not say that; there were many things that Bert Firhill thought but could not say, and this was one of them.
The awfulness of the situation seemed to have constricted her throat. It was hard enough to breathe, let alone to speak.
She felt her confidence grow; he sounded like a business letter.
There was no point in arguing with her father, who would always produce some good reason not to do anything. The only way to proceed was to proceed.
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The eyes of the woman are not on the young man, nor upon the hand that she holds, but fixed on the one who views the painting, and they convey, as do so many of the figures in art that would say anything to us, this message: You do it too.
"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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