Br321p16.Pdf

BOOK REVIEW Modernizing Emma Knightley is transformed into a London Churchill’s photographer who whisks Isabella away backstory is Emma: A Modern Retelling from Hartfield to London on his Ducati, revolution- By Alexander McCall Smith. while Emma drives a Mini Cooper, and ized, as the Pantheon. 2014. 369 pages. Mr. Weston a Land Rover. Whereas Churchills Hardcover. $25.95. Trollope plays metafictionally with the emigrate to Review by Nora Foster Stovel. change in manners, having characters Australia, or comment, “You’re like those nineteenth- “Oz,” as Frank How can one improve on Jane Austen? century novels,” and “this isn’t 1810, for labels it, to set Well, one cannot. One can, however, God’s sake,” Smith does not apologize up a winery. modernize her—which is what Joanna for the inevitable disconnect between Frank asks Trollope did in her Sense and Sensibility, Regency morals and modern manners, Emma if he which I had the pleasure of reviewing creating a sense of anachronism. can flirt with her as a cover for the fact recently for JASNA News, and which that he is gay. To discover whether Frank The major way Smith changes Austen’s Alexander McCall Smith has done in really is gay, Janeites will have to read narrative is to fill in characters’ back- his new Emma, subtitled A Modern Smith’s novel. Retelling, published in 2014. Both novels stories. He begins, for example, with are part of an ingenious HarperCollins the birth of Mr. Woodhouse during the Smith gets it right most of the time, project for retelling the stories of Austen’s Cuban missile crisis. No wonder he is although anyone who has ever played the six novels in modern settings, which was anxious and resorts to fourteen vitamin piano will shudder at his depiction of Jane launched in 2013 with Trollope’s Sense and herbal supplements daily under Fairfax wearing bangles while playing. and Sensibility, and followed in 2014 by the advice of Mr. Perry, who touts the He has Philip Elton, characterized as Val McDermid’s Northanger Abbey, and efficacy of Echinacea. a “young fogey” pursuing a Ph.D. in Byzantine history, run his BMW into Smith’s Emma. Janeites must wait with Indeed, Mr. Woodhouse, who finds a ditch following his contretemps with bated breath to discover the authors of himself a widower with two daughters Emma, and receive a DUI conviction the remaining three modernizations. to raise, selects Miss Anne Taylor of St. that strips him of his license, triggering Andrews College and Edinburgh, as a I intend to demonstrate how Smith the headline, “Boozy Rev Revs Up and governess, based on the last word in her modernizes, or at least changes, Austen’s Ends in Ditch.” Then Smith has him advert—“vegetarian.” His preference Emma. Electronic gadgets are to be marry Hazel, a blonde, buxom Edith is confirmed, as, when offered tea expected, of course: Emma and Harriet Piaf impersonator of “C-list celebrity following the interview, she expresses a telephone and text each other. Mr. John status.” Surely Mr. Elton is too much of a preference for “camomile.” pompous climber to descend so low. Mr. Woodhouse, known as “Pops” Readers, however, will be appalled at a to Emma and as “Woody” to Floss B E M I N E major omission—a disgraceful lack of Goddard, an “ageing hippy,” suggesting dancing: not only is there no dancing at The Editor and Production Manager a previous relationship, is an inventor—a the Coles’ party, there are no Coles and of JASNA News would like to thank design engineer who invents a valve no party. Most shameful of all, there is no Mr. (we shall now be calling him that makes his fortune, allowing him to Crown Inn Ball—not even the equivalent George) Knightley for the beautiful restore Hartfield. Valentine’s Day flowers we received of a nightclub, disco, or frat party. To modernize the narrative, Smith from him. And the way he concludes the novel. But injects issues such as global warming, that would be telling. Or should that be We also wish to thank Mr. and attempts to psychologize Austen’s retelling? Knightley’s anonymous emissary characters. For example, James Weston, in the North Texas whose low blood pressure and resting Region who Nora Foster Stovel is Professor Emerita heart rate are the envy of Mr. Woodhouse, at the University of Alberta. She has can take consults a psychotherapist regarding his published on Jane Austen, D.H. Lawrence, joy in the sense of guilt at allowing the Churchills Margaret Drabble, Carol Shields, and fact that to adopt Frank. Margaret Laurence, including Divining she made Emma and Jane Fairfax both attend Margaret Laurence (2008). She is currently the match composing Carol Shields’s Vision and Voice university—Emma the University of herself. and Women with Wings: The Romantic Bath, and Jane, to Emma’s chagrin, Ballerina and editing Margaret Laurence’s the University of Cambridge. Frank Essays and The Creation of iGiselle. 16 JASNA News .

Load more