A Visit to Highbury - Joan Austen-Leigh

★★★★★★★★★★ (4/10)

First thoughts: "Wow! A alternate telling of Emma.  This should be good."
Thoughts now: "Didn't really have all that much to do with Emma.  Even Mrs. Goddard doesn't sound the same, and she's just repeating events I've already heard before."

This is Jane Austen's great-great-great niece retelling Emma from the point of view of Mrs. Goddard, the mistress of the school that Harriet attends, through a series of letters between Mrs. Goddard and her recently remarried sister in London, Mrs. Pinkney.  I found the story Mrs. Pinkney was telling to be a great deal more interesting than the gossipy version of Emma that Mrs. Goddard gives.

Through Mrs. Goddard, Austen-Leigh gives us the behind-the-scenes reactions of characters that are important, but not as vital as Emma herself.  Mostly, we hear about Harriet and her emotional turmoil, Mrs. and Miss Bates (who talk of almost nothing but Miss Fairfax), and the local gossip about what's going on.  This Mrs. Goddard is just as motherly, but not as elegant, as she is in Emma. I find myself wondering why she's trading idle gossip, other than that her sister asked her to.  Austen-Leigh tells a great deal about the daily goings-on of a school, such as cleaning, problems with the students, teacher issues, and disputes between the cook and the baker, but I didn't really learn any more about Emma. I guess I was hoping to find out something new, and was disappointed because it wasn't there, and maybe wasn't even meant to be there.

Mrs. Pinkney, on the other hand, is very engaging.  She's a widow who recently married her late husband's friend out of convenience.  She was left with little money, and decided that the safety of a new marriage would be her best option.  Little does she know that she's in for a lot of work with her new husband, Mr. Pinkney.  It's fascinating seeing how they work out their misunderstandings and form a bond I never expected when the novel started.  Mrs. Pinkney's "adoption" of young Charlotte is also exceedingly interesting.  She is supposedly an orphan and at the mercy of a great-aunt who cares nothing for her.  Charlotte was sent to a school in London, with the expectation that when she turned 18, she would find a position as a governess.  Mrs. Pinkney makes Charlotte her protege, and Charlotte leads a life full of fun, happiness, and love.  Her other adventures in the novel, I'll let you discover for yourself.

I don't think I'll read this book again.  Which is convenient because I borrowed it from a library.  It just didn't have the same level of involvement as Jane Austen's Emma. I can't really expect this, but if anyone is going to try to write a sequel, retelling, or reinvention of an Austen novel, they need to try a bit harder than Joan.