Emma

Reading this book really made me think about what is difficult about retellings: to me, they have to be faithful to the original material while also bringing something new. Unfortunately, this modern retelling of Emma didn't seem to do either for me. This version was essentially an imagining of what Emma would be like if set in modern times, so the only updates were to make that possible. But in modern times, nearly every aspect of this Emma are unlikeable. Moreover, I didn't enjoy the way that McCall Smith distributed the story. The first third of the book tells what is basically backstory in the original story, and the most compelling parts of the original are compressed into just a few pages at the end. George Knightley is barely present, and yet we are supposed to believe that he and Emma are not just fond of each other but in fact in love. Harriet is considered by Emma to be an airhead, although Harriet didn't come across that way to me on the page. This was just overall a miss.