This early Austenesque sequel to Emma has really racked up some bad reviews since its 1996 publication. The story starts four years after Miss Emma Woodhouse and Mr. George Knightley were united in matrimony. They are in residence at Donwell Abbey after the death of her father, dear Mr. Woodhouse two years prior. Emma’s elder sister Isabella has also met her maker after catching a fever in London leaving five young children and husband John Knightley in deep grief. Jane Fairfax is working as a governess to August Elton’s friend Mrs. Smallridge after her feckless fiancé Frank Churchill jilted her at the altar for a northern heiress with £50,000. It is July and the charms of the Surrey countryside have drawn the two former lovers back to Highbury. Frank Churchill is staying with his father, and Jane Fairfax, obliged to travel with her employer, is staying at the Parsonage with Mr. and Mrs. Elton. Both have brought a mysterious guest with them: Frank’s brother-in-law Captain Brocklehurst, and Jane’s friend, the exiled French Baroness d’Almane. Two beautiful strangers have come to Highbury in one day! Remarkable as this is to Emma, she only sees the marriage possibilities for the single people around her and reneges on her promise to her husband never to match make again. Determined that Jane should marry her widowed brother-in-law John Knightley, she devises a dinner party at Donwell to bring them together. Emma walks to the parsonage to extend an invitation to the Baroness, Jane, the Elton’s and Mrs. Smallridge to her soiree. On the path she encounters Frank Churchill picking wildflowers in the hot sun. He entreats her to deliver them to Jane. Emma begs off and is concerned by his emotional behavior. At the parsonage, Mrs. Elton introduces Emma to the beautiful and beguiling Baroness. She is mesmerized by her charms and annoyed by her lingering touches and loving gazes at Jane Fairfax. Feeling a pang of jealousy, Emma wonders if they are more than friends? Conflicted, Emma feels compelled to warn Jane and learn all she can about this intriguing creature.Told in Austen’s inventive third person narrative style, Emma in Love reunites us with many of the Highbury characters we adore, but that is where any similarity to Austen’s tale ends. Heavy on exposition and light on dialogue, the story begins well enough with a curious setup and conflicts, but soon lacks a balance of show and tell—and logic. Things are definitely not as they should be in Highbury. Tennant’s Emma and Mr. Knightley’s marriage is very odd. They are indeed “brother and sister” – platonic and unromantic. He treats her like an errant school girl while engrossed in estate business and sleeps in his own room with his dogs. Immature, Emma clings to the advice of neighbors Harriet Martin and Mrs. Weston before every move. Even dimwitted Harriet can see the writing on the wall. “Mr. Knightley was no more – and no less – than a father to her in reality.” 53 Mesmerized by the exotic and bewitching Baroness, Emma recognizes her intimate gestures to Jane Fairfax? My first reaction was a question. How would a Regency era woman raised in a sheltered country village, who has the emotional maturity of a twelve-year-old, know about, let alone detect, same sex relationships? Many other eye-popping events occur that I will not reveal here. It was all so far-fetched and sensational that it just smacked of exploitation of Austen’s characters for pure monetary gain. Was Emma in Love truly the worst Jane Austen sequel ever written? Quite possibly, at least by a professional, award winning novelist. It failed not only because it did not present the same sex love relationship in any believable way, but it relied on sensational social issues as an axis that Austen would never have written about directly. It lacked “honour, decorum, prudence -- nay, interest” as Lady Catherine would say. Yes interest. I was just annoyed and bored.Laurel Ann, Austenprose
This is one of the worst books I have read so far and I intend not to read anything worse than this because it is impossible. Austen fans will detest every page of it. If you are not an avid reader of Austen novels, you may tolerate it, or at least not feel such a shock. The plot, characters are confusing.The author has taken the enchanting, intriguing characters in Jane Austen's "Emma" and turns them into horribly twisted, shallow, misguided, zombies. The plot is too boring and the event, can never, in millions years, take place in the Austen’s World. She has turned lovable Emma into … I don’t exactly what or is it proper to tell the general audience what Emma is in 'love with'. This is far from a great sequel, simply melodramatized garbage. I wonder why we can't give minus stars.
Do You like book Emma In Love (1997)?
*spoiler alert*Tennant has a delightful Austen voice. This is the first thing one notices and it is also the reason this book is good reading.The first part of the book is, in fact, excellent; both in terms of the writing and in the plot developments. However, in the last chapters, Tennant seems to start rushing towards her conclusion.In the last three chapters, everything happens with the Baroness, Jane Fairfax's secret is revealed and we figure that Emma isn't really interested in Captain Broc
—Judith
The book intrigued me as I really love "Emma" by Jane Austen but as soon as I had read the first sentences of this book I knew that it couldn't come even close to Austen's masterpiece. This book is lacking in so many ways. It is confusing and the characters don't resemble the original ones. I really loved Emma's character development in "Emma" but in this book it seems she has forgotten what she had already learned and has to start afresh. The relationship between Emma and Knightley has surprisingly changed and Emma is constantly annoyed which really gets boring after a while.In the beginning the story does seem to be connected but later on you don't know why or how certain things happen. I was really hoping this book might be a great addition to Austen's world. But it really isn't. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.I'm sorry but anyone claiming this book is a great sequel to "Emma" probbaly hasn't read Jane Austen's book.
—Alexandra
