The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

It's not unusual for authors to take a classic story and redo it.  There must be hundreds of updated versions of Romeo and Juliet, for instance.  Some of them work, and well, other just don't.  Margot Livesey updated Jane Eyre in Gemma Hardy.  It makes me wonder if redoing a story that someone else created is cheating or acceptable in the world of authors.  I picture her writing Gemma with the story outline of Jane Eyre in front of her.  Yes, there are differences.  Gemma takes place in the 1950's through the 1970's.  The characters' names are changed and some of the storylines are different too.  But I knew from the start that she would fall in love with Mr. Sinclair, that their romance would have a break due to lies, and that that they would end up together.  No surprises there.  (And really, what woman continues to call her fiance "Mr." right up to their proposed wedding date??)  If Jane Eyre didn't exist, I might have liked the book, but even then, I think I would have found it to be stuffy - like it really was written by Charlotte Bronte and not in today's world. - June