Betrothed to Mr. Darcy by Violet Bedford (Review)

The engagement of Elizabeth Bennett to Mr. Darcy must have had some rocky spots, especially considering Mrs. Bennett’s partiality (and willingness to express it) toward Lydia and her husband. Ms. Bedford has written a book covering the time between Elizabeth’s acceptance of Darcy and the actual wedding (if it takes place at all) in which the truths of Darcy’s first proposal and those expressed by Lady Catherine de Burgh, and the possible effect of the marriage on Georgiana, come home to both Elizabeth and Darcy. Georgiana cannot bear to hear Wickham’s name; how will she react to having him as a brother-in-law, especially when Mrs. Bennett is so fond of him and completely oblivious to the pain she may be inflicting on others?

Mrs. Bennett is wonderfully drawn, and if possible even more difficult than she was in the original book. Elizabeth, Darcy, and Georgiana remain true to their characters also. Mr. Bennett I am not so sure of. In the original book he is if anything relieved to be indebted to a “violent young lover who will carry everything his own way;” in this he is more jealous of his own pride.

The story perhaps has a tendency to quote too much from the original Pride and Prejudice, and the ending is a little abrupt. But on the whole it was an enjoyable read.

(I should mention that I was introduced to this book by a blog hop in which I regularly participate: the Weekend Writing Warriors. I first saw it eight sentences at a time, and was intrigued enough to get the book on Kindle when it came out.)

Review of Jane Austen, Game Theorist by Michael Suk-Young Chwe

Unlike most of the books and DVD’s I’ve reviewed for the Pride and Prejudice Challenge, Jane Austen, Game Theorist is not an easy, entertainment-oriented read. It is a scholarly book, published by Princeton, complete with a long reference section and an index. Nevertheless, it is a complement to Pride and Prejudice (and Jane Austen’s other books) from a somewhat different point of view than the usual literary approach.

I am not a game theorist, and after reading this book I suspect I am a very poor strategist as well, being highly numerate and paying attention to details of my surroundings rather than how other people think and what they want. The book starts with a quick analysis of game theory principles in folk tales such as Br’er Rabbit, which illustrates both some of the pitfalls (thinking the tar baby is sentient) and manipulating the opponent by understanding how he thinks (please don’t throw me in the briar patch.) In fact it appears that most good character-driven fiction has a strong game-theory component, but the author argues that this is particularly true of Jane Austen, and gives numerous examples.

One of the things he particularly emphasizes, especially in Pride and Prejudice, is the handicap of the inability to get inside another person’s skin, to see things from their point of view. Certainly neither Darcy nor Elizabeth start out understanding each other. Some of the reasons have more general application: a superior is often clueless about how an inferior (in social standing, chain of command, or merely in his own mind) thinks, simply because he is unable or unwilling to degrade himself to think like the other person. Darcy, a male and in his mind superior to females, cannot understand a female. Lady Catherine is even worse, thinking that her orders will automatically be obeyed.

The principles and be and should be expanded to such fields as international relations, though all too often it seems they are not. And this unfortunately seems also to apply to corporate managers and politicians. This morning’s news, for instance, and an interview decrying the game of “chicken” our political leaders are playing.

Mr. Darcy’s Guide to Courtship: The Secrets of Seduction from Jane Austin’s Most Eligible Bachelor (Book Review)

When I first saw this title (by Emily Brand) in a BBC catalog my immediate response was, which Mr. Darcy wrote it? After all, the proud, status-conscious male chauvinist Elizabeth starts by despising would hardly have written the same advice as the man whom she eventually married.

I was curious enough to get the Kindle edition for my iPad, and decided at once that it had to have been written very early in Pride and Prejudice. Darcy is, frankly, every bit as conceited, proud, and aware of his social position as Elizabeth first imagines him.  On the other hand, he has met the Bingleys, actually allows Caroline to write a chapter of advice to women (a chapter which would have had Elizabeth giggling) and is beginning to interfere in Charles’s affairs. Certainly he sees no place for any mixing of classes, and he puts himself very near the top of those not actually royal!

He starts with the assumption that “An eligible gentleman not in possession of a wife is assailed from every quarter with a fervour bordering on  derangement.” He clearly regards himself as so far above the average that he may wed any woman who comes up to his exacting standards – an attitude that he retains in Pride and Prejudice until Elizabeth refuses him. (His stricture that “there should be no ‘falling in love’ except with suitable persons” seems to have been discarded somewhat earlier.)

In fairness I must say that his advice is not toward seduction as leading to a light affair; his advice is clearly toward finding a wife who will produce the next generation of a noble family. But I cannot help but imagine how he himself would have reacted to much of the advice in this book a year later in his life.

Death Comes to Pemberley: Review

I have to admit that some forms of the sequels to Pride and Prejudice just don’t attract me. Zombies and the supernatural do not appeal to me as part of the Austen genre, and some of the mysteries are little better. One mystery that has come out recently, however, struck me as interesting because it is by a well-known mystery writer whose other works I have enjoyed. I refer to Death Comes to Pemberley, by P. D. James.

Most of the characters come directly from Pride and Prejudice, and the initial setting – Lady Anne’s Ball and all the preparations required – is very much in period. There have been some changes, of course in the six years of the Darcys’ marriage. The Darcys have two young sons, Wickham has been a hero in the Irish wars and then quit the Army, and Col. Fitzwilliam’s older brother has died, leaving the Colonel Viscount Hartlep and his father’s heir.

Then on the eve of the ball which Lydia has plotted to attend, Wickham and Denny have left the carriage conveying her, and gunshots are heard in the woods of Pemberley. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam, in response to her frantic entreaties, have found Wickham over Denny’s body, crying out that he is responsible for his friend’s death.

Needless to say, things are not quite as they seem. Darcy is cleared by the circumstances and timing of the murder, as is the lawyer, Henry Alveston, though Col. Fitzwilliam is not. But the clues are well hidden, and the anxiety of the trial is sustained both by the possibility of Wickham’s hanging and by the real uncertainty of what happened, as well as the effect on Elizabeth and Darcy.

All in all, I found this one of the better mystery sequels to Pride and Prejudice.

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman Review

This is a reread rather than a first-time read, but my favorite (so far) of the re-tellings of Pride and Prejudice from a different point of view is Pamela Aidan’s Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman. Pride and Prejudice itself is not entirely from Elizabeth’s point of view, though Jane Austen is famous for never writing a scene with no women present. There are parts that suggest Darcy’s point of view, especially during the period when Elizabeth is nursing her sister at Netherfield. But we are only given hints, and Darcy’s change of heart is never explained.

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman is entirely from Darcy’s point of view. Here we see a Regency gentleman who, as he finally says to Elizabeth, was “given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit.” Here we see him in his natural mileau, torn increasingly between his feeling that Elizabeth offers what he most wants in a wife, and what he sees as his duty to society and his family. We are introduced to new characters, the most important of whom are Darcy’s valet, Fletcher, and an old school friend, Lord Dyfed Brougham.

The parts with Elizabeth are amusing, as the same happenings and dialog are presented from entirely different points of view. But the most enjoyable parts of the trilogy, from my point of view, are of Darcy away from Elizabeth.

The first book of the trilogy, An Assembly Such as This, for the most part follows Jane Austen’s book. My favorite part, however, is the end, when Darcy is trying to use the enticements of London to distract Bingley from Jane and gets a bit more than he bargained for! Beau Bummel and a scandalous new dance called the waltz are too much for Darcy!

In the second book, Duty and Desire, Darcy tries to forget Elizabeth by going wife-hunting at a Regency house party. This section is delightfully atmospheric, but the possible wives on display make Carolyn Bingley look like a bargain. This section of the trilogy has no direct relationship with the original Austen book, though it occurs during the time Jane is in town. Elizabeth appears only as a memory, but a memory that keeps Darcy safe in this “den of vipers.”

The third book of the trilogy, These Three Remain, starts with Darcy and Col. Fitzwilliam’s annual visit to Lady Catherine. Here Darcy agonizes over his relationship with Elizabeth and manages to misinterpret everything she says, leading up to his first, disastrous proposal.

I’ve always wondered at the change in Darcy between Rosings and Pemberly. In this book it is natural, though not easy. Initially Darcy is angry, though still obsessed by Elizabeth. It takes a near-entrapment into blackmail and a drunken evening to begin his reformation, but he eventually determines to strive towards “a conduct of his life that would have gained Elizabeth Bennet’s approval,” even though he recognizes that the chances of ever actually making her his wife are slim, if not non-existent.

Probably my favorite scene of this third volume is the descent of Lady Catherine de Burgh on Darcy’s town house, with the news that eventually sends him back to Hertfordshire.

I am sure there are many books from Darcy’s point of view I have not read, and which I cannot compare with this trilogy. But of those I have read, this is my favorite.

Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange (Book Review)

Mr. Darcy’s Diary is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy’s point of view. It does not have as much of a “diary” feel to it as Georgiana Darcy’s Diary, as a real diary would not do a very good job of recording dialog, but as a first person novel with dates indicated (and with the narrator unaware of anything past those dates) it works very well.

It is close to Pride and Prejudice as far as those scenes which mirror those Jane Austen wrote. The scenes with both Darcy and Elizabeth mostly retain the Austen dialog, and the additional scenes in the overlapping time period are mostly those strongly hinted at in the original—Lady Catherine’s descent on Darcy after seeing Elizabeth, for instance. It starts slightly earlier than Pride and Prejudice, with Wickham’s attempt to seduce Georgiana, and continues on for about six months after Austen’s novel ends. I found the extra scenes at the end one of the less satisfying parts of the novel, but I have to say that as a whole it is a very enjoyable read.

Next month I think I will have to reread the original Pride and Prejudice, if only to get my head straight on exactly what Jane Austen herself wrote. After that, I think I will reread what has so far been my favorite retelling from Darcy’s point of view, Pamela Aidan’s Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman.

Georgiana Darcy’s Diary by Anna Elliott (Review)

If you are looking for the A to Z post (H), click on the button to the left or scroll down.

This book is a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, and one in which the characters and events of that book are followed faithfully. The only point at which I found my eyebrows rising was Wickham’s return. In general I enjoyed the depiction of Georgiana, and the sketches (allegedly hers) with which the book is adorned. She is a character whom we are shown just enough of in Pride and Prejudice that we want to know how life turned out for her, and this book gives her quite a logical partner.

The diary format works much better in this book than in Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange, which I read earlier but did not review. Here we get the feeling we are really reading the writing of a young woman, one who sketches some of the incidents she describes in the pages of her diary. Lady Catherine de Burgh is as determined to marry Georgiana to a husband of her choosing as she was earlier to see her brother married to her own daughter, Anne.

Anne herself reappears, as does Bingley’s sister Caroline and Darcy’s  cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam.  In addition there are new characters, which I will leave to the reader to discover.

I haven’t read a lot of sequels to Pride and Prejudice, but I liked this one.

The Real Jane Austen (Book Review)

I’m not much of a biography reader. But driving home one afternoon last month, with my local NPR station on, I heard Paula Byrne talking about her latest book, a biography of Jane Austin focused on how the stuff of her life made its way into her fiction. That sounds interesting, I thought, and managed to retain enough of the title and author that I was able to look it up when I got home, and soon had a copy on my iPad.

I had not read a biography of Jane Austen before, just her books. I cannot, then, compare this with other biographies. But it struck me that Jane Austin was very much like Elizabeth Bennett. Not so much in the incidents of her life, as in the way she approached life.

She paid attention to people and the minutiae of places, and they were very likely to reappear in her fiction. As part of the NPR interview Ms. Byrne mentioned the crimson cushions Fanny Price noticed on entering the family chapel at Southerton. Jane Austen herself had seen such cushions in the chapel at Stoneleigh Abby in Warwickshire. There is a photograph in the book, but one has to imagine the cushions a couple of centuries younger than those in the photo!

Her interest in the clergy and the Navy probably came from her family. Her father was a clergyman (though much more like Edmund in Mansfield Park or Edward in Sense and Sensibility than Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice!) So was the brother who became the source of much of the information about her. But she had two brothers in the Navy as well, one of whom bought her and her sister Cassandra two topaz crosses which may have inspired the amber cross Fanny Price was given by her sailor brother. There are a variety of naval characters in her books, both heroic and comedic.

While I cannot judge how the book compares with other biographies of Jane Austen, I felt I knew her far better for reading this book.

Review of Pride and Prejudice (DVD)

The first time I watched this, the version with Kiera Knightly, I thought it came off rather poorly compared to the BBC version with Colin Firth. The second time, I liked it better, but while it generally stays close to the original book, there still seemed something a little off. Then I watched the movie with the commentary by the director (Joe Wright), and had an “aha!” moment.

I had always read the book – and I think Jane Austin wrote it – with Elizabeth totally hostile to Darcy at the time of his initial proposal. It seemed to me that the change in her attitude did not even start until the second time she read his letter – and then it took a long time to really sink in.

In this version, the director assumed that Elizabeth was actually attracted to Darcy at the time he first proposed to her, and refused him from pride and a bit of temper. I was watching from my understanding of the book, and when that clashed with the way the actors were playing their parts, l had a hard time following. I need to set it aside for a while and perhaps watch it again.

I was a little bothered by Lady Catherine showing up at the Bennett home late at night and the family all meeting her in their sleeping attire. Would this really have happened at this time of history? Would not a servant have opened the door, rather than Mr. Bennett?

All in all, this was an excellent movie, even if it did depart somewhat from the book.

Review of Darcy’s Decision, by Maria Grace

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a prequel should at least lead to the possibility of the original book. At least I thought it was universally acknowledged. Darcy’s Decision, by Maria Grace, had me wondering.

Granted, this book is part of a series and I thought the next book might clear things up. But in Pride and Prejudice Darcy’s change of heart, though not really explained, is brought about in some way by Elizabeth. Here a clergyman causes considerable reformation before Darcy even meets Elizabeth. Wickham is certainly a villain and his conduct in this book, though appalling, is in line with the character sketched out by Jane Austin. But the plot development seemed to make his further flirtations next to impossible.

I went ahead and got the second book in the Given Good Principles series, The Future Mrs. Darcy, simply because I was curious as to how on earth the writer was going to get herself out of the corner she had written herself into in a way that made the Jane Austin plot possible. After I read the second book, I started to realize this was never intended to be a prequel. Rather, Ms. Grace has taken the characters and the initial setup of Pride and Prejudice and written her own story. Not a prequel, not a change in point of view, not a sequel, but a “what if?” What if Darcy had been forced to see his selfishness before he ever met Elizabeth? What if Lydia’s flirtatiousness had been recognized earlier? At this point the series has been written out to the point that Darcy and Elizbeth have just met — and not at a ball.

Still, I have few hopes that this series will be anything like as good as Pamela Aidan’s Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman series.

One of the things this book has forced me to recognize is that there are a number of kinds of books based on Pride and Prejudice. I’ve categorized them (for the moment) as:
1. Non-fiction. This can include scholarly critiques, biographies of Jane Austin, and books about her times, which can be helpful in defining words such as squabs (carriage cushions) or the difference between a curricle and a chaise.
2. Prequel. Books whose main action is before the action of Pride and Prejudice. I haven’t read one, but a book about the marriage of Darcy’s parents, or of Elizabeth’s early life, would certainly qualify.
3. Pride and Prejudice from a different point of view. There are a number from Darcy’s POV, and of course the movie versions are almost of necessity from an omniscient point of view. I haven’t come across versions from other points of view such as Bingley’s, Mary’s, Wickham’s, or those of other characters such as Lady Catherine de Burgh, but they’re certainly possible. Maybe this challenge will help me find some!
4. Same time period, same characters, different story. The Given Good Principles series falls into this category, and so does Lost in Austin.
5. Sequel. This and 3 are the largest categories. Sequels can be straightforward, mysteries (I have several of those), paranormal (sometimes combined with mystery) or for all I know science fiction or any other genre you can think of. Sequels from different points of view exist, too; I’ve just started reading Georgiana Darcy’s Diary, which starts with Darcy and Elizabeth already married and a house party that makes me shudder. (Mrs. Bennett and Lady Catherine are both guests.)

I’m not even going to count romances where the characters start out misunderstanding each other; that’s become a plot element too common to catalog.

Henceforth I’ll try to determine what category a book belongs in before writing a review!