The Flight of Gemma Hardy is set in the mid-1900's, unlike Wide Sargasso Sea, which is set during the 1830s, and Jane Eyre, which is set in the mid-1800s. Gemma is born in the year 1948, which is confirmed when Livesey writes, "She and my father had come back to Edinburgh only once, in 1948, so that I could be born in a Scottish hospital...I was born in April, and that summer, when I was still too young to crawl and the seas were calm, my mother and I often went out in my father's boat" (Livesey 17). Although Gemma is born in 1948, the novel begins after her uncle's death, when Gemma is ten years old. This is similar to when Jane Eyre begins, creating a parallel between Jane Eyre and The Flight of Gemma Hardy. Setting the beginning of the novel in a time where Gemma is still a child allows the background of Gemma’s childhood to be told in-scene rather than in reflection or summary (such as with Jane, where the story begins with Jane finding a nanny job rather than in childhood).
Since The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a newer novel, there is not extensive academic work written on the novel. That said, there are a plethora of reviews in books and newspapers that highlight adaptations of Jane Eyre. Specifically, there is an article from the Wall Street Journal that interrogates the “Jane MacEyre,” discussing different adaptations of the “orphan-to-nanny classic.” In his piece, “Jane MacEyre? Updating an Orphan-to-Nanny Classic,” Sam Sacks writes, “In Brontë 's passionate work, Jane Eyre aches for her own independence but also for a place to call home (one of the book's revelations is that these two needs are not incompatible). On these themes, Ms. Livesey's novel is a somewhat docile revision. Although Gemma is courageous and headstrong, her major interest is in discovering her ancestry and finding a family that accepts her” (Sacks). Although his intention in the article seems to be to draw comparisons between the ample number of adaptations published, as well as the differences in the revisions, his title of “Jane MacEyre? Updating an Orphan-to-Nanny Classic” seems to imply a triteness to the Jane Eyre adaptations.
Bibliography: Livesey, Margot. The Flight of Gemma Hardy. HarperCollins, 2012.
Sacks, Sam. “Jane MacEyre? Updating an Orphan-to-Nanny Classic.” Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, vol. 259, no. 16, Jan. 2012, p. C6. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=70469227&site=eds-live.