Product Description

The great-great-grandniece of Jane Austen offers a delightful and refreshing visit with some of the classic characters from Austen's famous novel Emma, giving a parallel view of Highbury through the eyes of the local schoolmistress.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #825970 in Books
• Published on: 1995-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 182 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The Austen connection is tenuous but real: Austen-Leigh is the great-granddaughter of Jane Austen's nephew. Here she offers a retelling of Emma that's at once playful and respectful. By adopting the point of view of Mary Goddard, headmistress of the school where the ingenuous Harriet Smith is a parlor boarder, the modern-day author is able-with a minimum of intrusion-to observe much of the romantic goings-on of Highbury's young singles. Like Jane Austen's own early novel, Lady Susan, this tale proceeds through an exchange of letters, between Mary Goddard and her much younger sister, Charlotte Pinkney, currently on her second marriage-to an overly reserved and unaccountably stingy husband. Mrs. Goddard regales her unhappy sister with a chronicle of the romantic mishaps well known to Emma fans. Then Mrs. Pinkney recounts the small events of her own life, her thawing relations with her new husband and an amusing trip to Bath, during which she meets Mr. Elton and his odious bride-to-be. As the narrative wends its way to its buoyant conclusion, alert readers can amuse themselves by picking up the author's numerous sly references to the world of 19th-century writers and literature. Though the tone does not ring true in scattered moments, for the most part this novel adds a pleasing postscript to Austen's brilliant original.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Sequels to Jane Austen's novels have become quite popular of late, notably two works based on Pride and Prejudice: Emma Tennant's Pemberley (LJ 11/1/93) and Julia Barrett's Presumption (LJ 9/15/93). In her novel Emma, Jane Austen created a lively, independent-minded young heroine who lived in the village of Highbury. Now a descendant of Austen's nephew has written a companion novel that tells a parallel story through the correspondence of Mary Goddard, the headmistress of a local school, and her London-based sister, Charlotte Pinkney. Old and new characters spring to life through the use of the lively repartee fundamental to regency romances. Charlotte is especially engaging with her sharp eye and even sharper tongue. Both sisters help two younger women find true love, and, in the course of this matchmaking, Charlotte finds that her own marriage of convenience has some spark after all. Recommended for fiction collections.
--Patricia Altner, Information Seekers, Bowie, Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Jane Austen's great-great-great niece has written a charming spin-off of her forebear's classic Emma. Extremely careful to leave characters and events unaltered, Austen-Leigh uses a fairly minor character, Mrs. Goddard of Highbury, as the focus of her new story. Mrs. Goddard's correspondence with Mrs. Pinkney, her newly remarried, London-based sister, forms the substance of the entire novel. Through their letters, these ladies comment on events in Highbury and shared acquaintances who travel from London to Highbury. The author does a fine job of developing characters and charting romances through the chatty epistles of the two long-separated sisters. Denise Perry Donavin

Customer Reviews

Very Good
I read the whole book within a hour an a half. I liked it a lot. It's one of the better books out there dealing with Emma. I would recommend it to any Emma fan. I was not disappointed with my purchase at all.

Emma through the eyes of Mrs. Goddard
This book is the story of Jane Austen's "Emma" through the eyes of Mrs. Goddard Mistress of the school. It is not a sequel or prequel. It is a retelling of the original story. In Jane Austen's Emma, Mrs. Goddard is a very minor character that has no lines at all. This lovely novel shows more about her, her life, and how the surrounding events of Highbury effect her and she effect them.

The book is written by an exchange of letters from Mrs. Goddard and her sister whom she has not seen in 17 years! Mrs. Goddard and her sister, Mrs. Pinkney are as different as night and day yet share such a strong sisterly bond (as do a lot of other characters in Jane Austen's novels). Mrs. Pinkney has just remarried a man she was not in love with and is very bored, so she thrives on the gossip her sister tells her about Highbury. You would be surprised how much a mistress of a school can know!

I enjoyed this book emensely and recommend it to anyone with a love of Highbury and the characters of Emma. I also would recommend the sequel to this book "Later Days at Highbury." No it doesn't contain a lot of the same characters as Emma but that is because the story broadens and new characters are added. Still equally delightful!

The most delightful Austen augmentation that I have ever read!
This is not a sequel to Emma, but an account of events during the same period according to Mrs. Goddard, the headmistress of the school where Harriet Smith has been brought up. The story consists of letters between Mrs. Goddard and her unhappily remarried sister. The story is mainly focused on the sister's life, with the events of Emma being recounted by Mrs. Goddard in her letters.

This is, I think, wise. By choosing a background character, one who is of a lower class than Emma, and using the letter format, Austen-Leigh has avoided most problems with the reader's preconceptions.

The story itself it quite entertaining. It is not the type of story that Jane Austen herself told, being about middle-aged, non-gentry, but it has a spirit and worldview that I imagine that she would share.

The best part is - there's a sequel!