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From Library Journal

January 1, 2025

The eponymous Emma is one of Austen's most polarizing characters. She is so busy deciding what is best for everyone around her that she not only misses what her very clever mind should have noticed but runs the risk of ruining her future. Emma lives with her father in the town of Highbury, practically ruling over all she surveys. Only her brother-in-law Mr. Knightley has the power to reign in her spoiled and self-satisfied behavior, and usually only for short periods of time. Meddling in others' lives leads to a great deal of trouble for both Emma and those she is trying to arrange on her neat little chessboard, and it is only after causing great harm, and suffering through a rare public moment of disapproval, that she realizes her mistakes. Austen is acute as she portrays the privileged life of Emma and the residents of the village and beyond, painting a vivid portrait of the ways in which gossip, power, secrets, and an insular, confined community operate. While the love story central to all Austen novels spools out slowly here, it is nonetheless brightly romantic, especially as the book begins to conclude. VERDICT This often less-read novel, here with annotations by Wells (English, Goucher Coll.), holds many of the strong pleasures of Austen, most centrally her keen characterizations and social observations.

Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From School Library Journal

November 1, 2015

Gr 7 Up-Austen's unlikable and meddling leading lady gets the shuojo treatment in this manga adaptation of Emma. The match-making society lady, riding on the high of having recently paired up her governess and a wealthy neighbor, attempts to unite all of the single denizens of Highbury, in Regency-era England. The key players (Emma, Mr. Knightley, Harriet Smith, Jane Fairfax, and Frank Churchill) are given most of the screen time in this version. After some misunderstandings and entanglements, romances end happily and mysteries are solved. Chan keeps the essence of the original, complete with flirtatious banter, social commentary, and Emma's character growth from self-centered and condescending diva to slightly more humble and good-intentioned heroine. The work's Mr. Knightley is more self-righteous than the classic's, but the manga's dreamy depiction of him will quickly win over readers. Discerning teens will be able to catch the clues hidden within the gray-toned illustrations as to the characters' true feelings. The variation in panel design and use of the format's traditional chibi form add to the narrative's dynamic pacing. Many of the original title's interior monologue is presented in striking visuals, such as Emma's realization of the nature of her affection for Mr. Knightley, which is expressed in a wordless multiple-panel scene of her pricking herself with a rose and dropping its vase to the floor. Character sketches and adapter's and artist's notes give context for their creative choices, offering an in-depth look at the manga format. VERDICT A wonderful interpretation of the classic for reluctant readers and purists alike.-Shelley Diaz, School Library Journal

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Library Journal

February 15, 2015

When newly minted interior designer Emma Woodhouse returns to Hartfield after graduating from university, she finds village affairs in disarray. Her sister has eloped via motorcycle. Her governess is filling her day with obscure online courses. Her father is fretting about microbes and infection. And her friend Harriet has developed an unsuitable fondness for a local innkeeper. An impresario is needed, and young Emma, with her freshly educated eye, is only too happy to oblige. VERDICT The third volume in HarperCollins's series of Jane Austen reboots, this title follows Joanna Trollope's Sense and Sensibility and Val McDermid's Northanger Abbey. Like the rest of the project, this effort meets with mixed success. McCall Smith's charming prose and gentle humor marry marvelously with Austen's iconic affairs of the heart, so well that the book reads like a Regency piece. As a result the cell phones, Mini Coopers, and gastropubs of the 21st century seem jarringly out of place. Still, this retelling gives Austenphiles an enjoyable opportunity to visit with the Woodhouse clan and is sure to be a hit with McCall Smith's legion of fans. As for the Austen project itself, one should reserve judgement, at least until the July publication of Curtis Sittenfeld's Pride and Prejudice. [See Prepub Alert, 10/5/14; see also "A Modern Emma: Alexander McCall Smith Reimagines Jane Austen's Classic" by Barbara Hoffert, LJ 12/14.--Ed.]--Jeanne Bogino, New Lebanon Lib., NY

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Kirkus

February 1, 2015
In the latest installment of the Austen Project, McCall Smith (The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe, 2014, etc.) catapults snobbish matchmaker Emma Woodhouse into the 21st century.His latter-day Emma possesses all the youth and beauty and a good deal of the wit of Jane Austen's heroine. She also shares her predecessor's less appealing qualities. Bossy and controlling as a child, she's only more so now that she's 22 and bent on launching her own interior design consultancy. In creating Emma, Austen supposedly set about depicting a character that nobody but she would like very much. McCall Smith paints a similarly challenging if ultimately fond portrait of a young woman whose hubris causes complete chaos before she's forced to acquire some humility and self-knowledge. Devotees of the original will recognize the likes of Miss Taylor, the no-nonsense governess who all but raises Emma and her sister after they lose their mother, and George Knightley, Emma's friend and the only person brave enough to challenge her. Mr. Woodhouse, Emma's father, has evolved from a "valetudinarian" into a germaphobe crank, though to get around questions of how he manages the upkeep on their country pile, McCall Smith also makes him a retired inventor who years earlier patented a valve for the liquid-nitrogen cylinders used by dermatologists. Modernity is mischievously accommodated elsewhere, too: The flashy young vicar's nouveau riche wife is recast as a TV talent show contestant, while dim, pretty Harriet Smith, the illegitimate product of an affair in Austen's telling, here becomes the progeny of a single mother and a sperm donor. Emma even finds herself questioning her sexuality. In less capable hands, it could all seem clunky and crass. Instead, McCall Smith has written a delightfully droll, thoughtful novel that reflects on money's enduring role in relationships as well as on the nature of this meddlesome heroine's long-lived appeal.

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Library Journal

November 1, 2014

In this retelling of Jane Austen's Emma from the beloved author of the "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," Emma Woodhouse returns home to the village of Highbury after university to launch an interior design business. Of course, she's also full of advice for those around her, including unassuming teacher's assistant Harriet Smith, alluring Frank Churchill, and Jane Fairfax. So many Austen rewrites; whatever happens here, McCall Smith fans will be anticipating.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Library Journal

March 15, 1997
This is another case where a classic is being reprinted simply as a tie-in to a TV/feature film presentation. Libraries, nonetheless, can benefit by picking up a quality hardcover for a nice price.

From AudioFile Magazine

Taking an academic tone, Stevenson's solemn reading, punctuated by interludes of classical music, gives the listener a feeling of being educated, rather than entertained. The abridgment is somewhat awkward at times and, though faithful to the story, loses track of the lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek tone that Austen had in mind. Stevenson's Emma sometimes comes off as mean or unpleasant in dialogues that were meant to poke fun at her capricious ideas. Though well paced and nicely produced, it's a little heavy-handed for a story meant more as comedy than drama. K.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine