Just returned from their honeymoon, Emma and George Knightley begin married life together in Highbury in Surrey, England, exuberant over the joyous turn of their lives and the lives of their friends, the Westons, the Churchills, the Martins. "May we all live happily ever after," prays Emma. In Emma and George: The Knightleys of Highbury that prayer is put to the test. Can the "perfect happiness of the union" prevail? Can love survive and thrive amidst life's harsh vicissitudes and the failings and deficiencies of the human spirit?
Among the many spinoffs, parodies, and adaptations of Jane Austen's novels, Robert T. McMaster's sequel to Emma stands apart. His portrayals of the familiar characters are remarkably faithful to the originals. Emma Knightley nee Woodhouse—charming, witty, unfailingly affable, yet also strong-willed and much too sure of herself. Mr. Knightley, the Squire of Donwell Abbey—beneficent, egalitarian, sometimes even to a fault. Frank Churchill—handsome and genial on the outside, qualities that belie a dark, brooding interior, moral weakness, and a shocking tendency to dissemble, even with those dearest to him.
Lovers of Jane Austen will admire McMaster's prose as it mirrors Austen both in language and in style. His descriptions of setting—lush Surrey landscapes, tidy villages, and stately homes—add richness and depth to his story, as do the details of politics, religion, even farming, in the Regency Era of early 19th century England.
To those unacquainted with Austen's novels: Welcome to her world—but be forewarned! This story will beguile you, twist you about, amuse you one minute, appall you the next.
Where Jane Austen's Emma leaves off, Emma and George: The Knightleys of Highbury, begins.
