Modern Retellings of Jane Austen’s Emma & Pride & Prejudice

I would like to share what I read in August with you this month. I read Longbourn by Jo Baker, a retelling of Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, and Emma: A modern retelling of Emma by Alexander McCall Smith. These novels featured the world of Jane Austen in period fiction and modern period.

Longbourn By Jo Baker 

Rating: Three out of Five 

Pros: Interesting narrative about the lives of the servants that live in the Bennett household. The main character, Sarah, has depth and insight into her longing for a better life than being a maidservant to the Bennett sisters. The storyline artfully creates a character who is dealing with their own personal struggles and motivations to become independent.  She notices the lives of Bennett sisters changing and growing while she is stagnant in her own personal life.

Cons: The main character has an ambiguous ending, and she is not shown achieving her independence in the end. She loses hope of love and a life of her own near the end of the story. We never find out what happens to Sarah. Also, the fact the novel does not focus on the main events in Pride & Prejudice means the story takes a lot of liberties and does not talk about Elizabeth Bennet’s character or the sister’s romances that much at all. Its set in the same period of time, but the lives of the Bennett family are only shown briefly through the eyes of Sarah, the maidservant.

Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith 

Rating: 3.5 out of Five

Pros: This retelling is super funny, and I like the care that the novelist took in choosing the small detail to describe the characters uniqueness. An example, of this is that Emma drives a racing green Mini Cooper John Cooper and enjoys the speedy and sporty feel of the car, which worries Mr. Woodhouse, who thinks she should drive a safer vehicle. The narrative is super good and very similar to the original Emma. The characters are true to the book and story line is very similar to the original novel.

Cons: The narrative does take liberty with the characters’ motivation and gives them modern senseabilities. Such as Emma’s more extensive understanding of the world through education and work experience than the original Emma Woodhouse, who is a naive and sheltered gentlewoman. Another, thing I did not like was the fact that character endings were changed a little bit to fit into twenty first century lifestyles.