Emma: free sampler

by Alexander McCall Smith

A free sampler of beloved and bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith’s modern and delightful EMMA.

Prepare to meet a young woman who thinks she knows everything.

Fresh from university, Emma Woodhouse triumphantly arrives home in Norfolk ready to embark on adult life with a splash. Not only has her sister, Isabella, been whisked away on a motorcycle up to London, but her astute governess, Miss Taylor is at a loose end, abandoned in the giant family pile, Hartfield, alongside Emma’s anxiety-ridden father. Someone is needed to rule the roost and young Emma is more than happy to oblige.

As she gets her fledging design business off the ground, there is plenty to delight her in the buzzing little village of Highbury. At the helm of her own dinner parties and instructing her new little protégée, Harriet Smith, Emma reigns forth. But there is only one person who can play with Emma’s indestructible confidence, her old friend and inscrutable neighbour George Knightly – this time has Emma finally met her match?

You don’t have to be in London to go to parties, find amusement or make trouble. Not if you’re Emma, the very big fish in the rather small pond. But for a young woman who knows everything, Emma has a lot to learn about herself.

Ever alive to the uproarious nuances of human behaviour, and both the pleasures and pitfalls of village life, beloved author Alexander McCall Smith’s Emma is the busybody we all know and love, and a true modern delight.

Genres: Romance

53 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 21, 2014

About the author

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie Series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and he was a law professor at the University of Botswana. He lives in Scotland. Visit him online at www.alexandermccallsmith.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Reviews

[Kibble · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew that I probably shouldn't read this book, but I did. I had already stared to weary of McCall Smith's novel's, and retelling such a well written and intelligent novel would have been pretty hard for any writer to pull off. A few times I actually laughed out loud, and Emma's character was interesting enough, otherwise i would have given it one-star. It had many of the hallmarks I had come to dislike in McCall Smith: lacklustre plot (and it was based on Emma! how did it end up with plot holes? I guess at least it had a plot), most of the book was made up of the authors observations about life, sometimes droll, mostly not particularly interesting, with almost no attempt to pretend they are relevant to the story, and very thin characterisation. Emma was a bit charismatic, Harriet, Miss Taylor and Jane seemed like real people, Emma's father was amusing enough, the rest were barely there. Mr Weston and George Knightley's back stories put me to sleep. What happened to Frank Churchill? Frankly its a bit disrespectful to have even published this book. But I guess I kept reading ....

[Silvia Molinari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I confess a personal fondness for McCall Smith's narrative style: humorous, intelligent, always ready to wink at the reader. In Emma, it is clear the author's passion for Jane Austen, her world and her personal style, characterized by frequent dialogues and round characters. Nevertheless, having faithfully re-presented Emma Woodhouse's story in a modern way, transforming a young woman - devoted to the frequentation of a small circle of friends and the care of an elderly father - into a young interior designer who lives on the verge of daily idleness - it has partially reduced the magic of the original story, which revolves around a woman of the English gentry of the pre-romantic period. The style is great, the storyline is interesting, yet I feel that there is "something" missing to turn it into a 5-star masterpiece... maybe it's due to the fact that it has traded a mysterious past for a much less fascinating present.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

KSKS

[Moushumi Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely enjoyed reading this free sampler! I have to finish reading the whole story so it cannot be counted as a part of my Reading Challenge this year.

[Nicki Judson · Rating 2 out of 5]

My second Austen Project read. Emma is still Emma, Frank is still dashing, Miss Bates still talks a lot. The characteristics were still there, but I thought there might be a twist. Not saying that you could mix up the characters and so-and-so finds somebody else, but perhaps I thought Emma was actually going to be bi-sexual in this modern world that Mr McCall Smith wrote about. It was all very modern upper class British society; Land Rovers, Mini Coopers for the daughters that don't do anything(!) and popping up to London from your country estate. I wonder how poverty would have fitted into Emma's world for this version, that would have been a more interesting read. Perhaps I'm being a critical, because I was disappointed how the book ended, basically wrapping everything up in the last three pages. As George would say, "rather badly".