Anna Weston - a Sequel to 'Emma' by Jane Austen

Bless this book. My kind of Austen sequel would be most succinctly described by the phrase 'better the devil you know', and Brenda Finn's unassuming continuation of Emma is just that. All the best-loved traits of Jane Austen's novel are present - familiar characters, Regency plot devices, dancing, friendship and love - but with fresh faces and new dramas to make this an pleasing, if brief, complement to the original.

Twenty years after Emma Woodhouse accepted Mr Knightley's tender proposal, a new generation of Knightleys and Eltons are introduced to Highbury. The Knightleys at Donwell Abbey have two daughters, sensible Emma and lively Georgiana; John and Isabella Knightley have returned to live at Hartfield with their six children, show more including Henry, John and Bella; Mr and Mrs Elton continue to reside - or should that be preside - at the Vicarage with Augusta and the more impressionable Selina; and a new family, the Walters, replace the Coles. Miss Bates now lives alone in her own cottage, bought for her by Frank and Jane Churchill, and the Martins prosper at Abbey Mill Farm. There must necessarily also be losses, and sadly, Jane's happiness is once again limited, but saddest of all is perhaps the passing of Anne Weston, Emma's beloved governess and friend, and her kindly husband! Their daughter Anna meets the same fate as Jane Fairfax in Emma, and is sent to live with the Churchills in Yorkshire - until of course, Jane Churchill also dies. Spoiled by her father to make up for losing her mother, Anna Weston is then neglected by her guardian after the death of his wife, and left to amuse herself in London and Bath. Her arrival as a guest at Donwell shakes the dust from the quiet country lives of everyone in Highbury.

The shared names can sometimes be confusing, particularly Anna Weston and the sickly Anne Walters, and the limited selection of partners means that the romances are even more restricted than in Emma (I'm not sure that Georgiana's final match is at all healthy), but the new characters are so well drawn that, in the end, I just wanted everyone to be happy! My only fears were that George Knightley (senior) might not survive to the end of the novel, and that if he did, his marriage to Emma would be pulled to pieces, but luckily Brenda Finn has a lighter touch and a kinder heart than certain other (nameless) authors. Mr Knightley and Emma remain in 'perfect happiness', and he is also a wonderful, doting father to his girls. Emma (senior) is also treated with kindness, described not as Mrs Jennings' protegee, but 'kind, clever and charming', with only 'an inclination to be too nice about the distinctions of rank, and a propensity to condemn as foolish any course of action she would not have pursued herself'. In other words, Austen's Emma.

Anna Weston is obviously modelled on Mary Crawford from Mansfield Park, just as Selina Elton is a more sympathetic Lydia Bennet, Anne Walters brings to mind Anne De Bourgh (and Marianne Dashwood on her sickbed), and her brother Tom seems to be channelling Mr Bertram. However, as these characteristics are also interchangeable within Austen's own novels, I only found such identifiable traits to be reassuring and entertaining. Nobody - bar Lord Urswick, an imported Willoughby-esque bounder - is either too good to be true, or completely hateful. I sympathised with Anna's situation, wanted to protect Selina, and almost cried for Mrs Elton, such is Brenda Finn's understanding of Austen's characters and her own seamless continuation of their lives.

My two favourite moments involve Emma and Mr Knightley (naturally!) Emma has this advice for her children: 'Do anything rather than marry without love. Even where there is love, marriage is not a bed of roses, but to live on such intimate terms with someone you do not love would be insupportable.' There, in a nutshell, is all that I hope for Mr and Mrs Knightley after closing the cover on them at the end of Emma. And then later, Frank Churchill is rebuffed by Mr Knightley when the old charmer asks Emma to dance: 'I am sure you will forgive me, sir, for wishing to dance with my own wife, so beautiful as she is'. I have no idea why Frank Churchill remains so attractive in sequels, but this is how it should be.

Respectful, engrossing and elegantly written, Anna Weston is the best sequel to Emma I have read so far, and I heartily recommend it to other fans of the original. show less