A Curious Statistical Anomaly

What Would Mr. Darcy Do? by Abigail Reynolds. Sourcebooks Landmark. ISBN: 978-1-4022-4093-5. 227 pages. Previously published as From Lambton to Longbourn. ($12.99 / Amazon: $9.95 / Kindle: $8.59).

Abigail Reynolds, in What Would Mr. Darcy Do?, tells a Pride and Prejudice variation. The book starts just as Mr. Darcy heads to Lambton to see Elizabeth Bennet. He finds Elizabeth alone and in deep distress having just read Jane’s letter that informed her that Lydia had run away with Mr. Wickham. In this story, Mr. Darcy doesn’t leave immediately. He stays and tries to comfort Elizabeth. They end up talking and coming to understand each other a bit better and unfortunately, the Gardners return in time to catch Elizabeth in Darcy’s arms. At the time, this was grounds to force a marriage between the two. Instead, the Gardners are willing to allow Mr. Darcy to try to convince Elizabeth to accept him.

From that point some of the events of the original story remain. Darcy does find Wickham and works with the Gardners to arrange Lydia’s marriage to Wickham. Most of the difference between the original story is in the progress of the romance between Elizabeth and Darcy. The romance between Jane and Mr. Bingley also proceeds as a different pace because Darcy speaks to Bingley much sooner.

Reynolds maintains the integrity of the original characters — aside from some steamy kisses, hugs, and hand holding. However, she does manage to add the steamy bits within context of the characters expected behavior for the times. The dialogue and cadence of the language is very similar to Jane Austen. All it all it is a very humorous, witty, and generally entertaining riff on the original story.

The biggest departure from Austen is telling some of the scenes from Darcy’s point of view. Austen never tried to get into the heads of her male characters. However, Reynolds does this so seamlessly that it doesn’t interrupt the narrative or cause the reader to snap out of the story.

The book was previously published by Intertidal Press with the title, From Lambton to Longbourn. If you already own that book, which I don’t, I can’t tell you if there are any notable changes between the two. However, I can say that this volume is well produced and has a lovely cover that would make it a fine addition to anyone’s library.

Vera has asked that friends repost her post:

From Vera:

Foreclosure and Cross-Country Moving – Book Sale
This is a difficult post for me to write, since I am once again asking for help. But… I’ll try to make it short and only bittersweet. As many of you know, I am losing my home to foreclosure. …

To read her entire post go to her facebook post.

Norilana Books has published some wonderful books so check them out.

Eating rice — soft, soft, rice — and the tooth I had the root canal on just a week ago split in two. Yup, right up the middle along the drill hole. So half a tooth fell out into my mouth. Luckily, I didn’t swallow it. From tip to gum, a half a tooth.

It’s Saturday night. My dental appointment is for Wednesday. Guess Monday will be a day to make calls and hope for a spot on the dentist’s calendar.

On the bright side the tooth is dead so there’s no pain — at least none yet. Wonder if there will be. I hope not. But, at least this is fixable and we have insurance. I keep telling myself I’m actually lucky. Yeah, lucky with half a tooth in my palm.

For the last few days, I’ve been thinking a lot about teeth. Last Tuesday, I forget what we ate, but I thought I might have something caught in my teeth so I flossed. It still seemed a bit sore. Wednesday it was even worse — brushed my teeth and flossed about five times. By Thursday morning, I was resorting to over the counter pain meds and ice packs. A call to the dentist where he reviewed my previous set of x-rays and the symptoms and I was referred to then endodontist for a Friday morning appointment.

It was necrotic roots and the start of an infection. Verdict: I needed a root canal.

I currently have a great dentist. But even though he’s great, it’s the awful dentist from my childhood that gets my stomach roiling and my hands sweaty and my pulse racing. I keep trying to tell myself that everything will be fine, but while my head agrees, the physical side of me is afraid of that childhood dentist who liked to drill with no Novocaine (because “children don’t feel pain like adults”). And yes, I grew up in the dark ages of dentistry. My reaction to the childhood dentist was to brush often and well and hope to heck nothing happened because I wasn’t going back if I could help it. Luckily, because I was scared and that fear caused me to take care of my teeth — I haven’t needed to see a dentist very often.

This was my first root canal. I’d heard stories of how awful it was but to be honest — there was little to no pain once it was numbed. Of course by the time he got the tooth totally numbed I couldn’t feel the right side of my face from the middle of my lips to my ear and all the way up to and including my lower eye-lid. He was fast and efficient and it was over fairly quick. I understand that most of that was because the nerves were already dead and there were no fractures.

None the less, it went well. Mid-way through I calmed down and just remembered to breathe and think of calming images. Of course, because of the infection will take awhile for the pain to completely go away but so far it looks like the antibiotic will take care of it. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I don’t get any complications from that infection.

Mostly, I’m so glad that modern dentists seem to believe in explaining what they’re going to do before they do it. And will explain what they’re doing while they’re working on you and what you’ll feel and hear. It’s so much nicer than having to guess what’s going on and what those sounds and smells mean.

By the way, I love the smell of cloves. Each time I have to go to the dentist now — I’m really impressed by how much things have changed for the better. I hope eventually, my childhood fears will just melt away.

Can you believe that after noting here that Earth Hour was coming up and getting all excited about it — well, I never got a chance to do anything about it. We had a planning meeting that day, and it was in DC. After the meeting, because we were there and it was supposed to snow, this years Capclave Chair and Hyperion and I met to discuss strategies for the Capclave website and Blog and online publicity.

Once that was done it was about an hour Metro back to the car and then we had to do the weekly shopping in Waldorf. By the time we headed home it was nearly 8:30 and by the time we got home it was nearly 9:30 p.m. We kept light to a minimum but in the past we’ve turned them all off and either read by candle light or oil lamp. So, we’ve been very careful the past few days to turn lights off when we leave a room and not use one if not necessary. Okay, we do that anyway but I’m being compulsive about it now.

Meanwhile, SFRevu and Gumshoe Review go live with the new issues on April 1st so I’ve been working steadily on getting things ready.

What’s making everything more difficult is the lack of energy. I’ve got problems with energy levels anyway and after fighting the flu for the past 3 1/2 to 4 weeks — I feel like walking across the room is the equivalent to running a quarter-mile. It’s weird when you stand up and suddenly all our energy drains out and all you want to do is curl up on the floor and sleep. I find myself looking down to see if I can see the energy leaking out of my heel. I’ve taken to wearing shoes and socks instead of going around in just my socks in case that will help hold in the energy. Haven’t seen anything leaking out of my heel — but really it feels like it should be visible.

But, the good news is that while I was sick, Spring sprung. One day last week — I think it was Wednesday — I looked out the window and the pear trees had flowers, the forsythia was blooming, the daffodils along the woodland path were in bloom, and the chives and some other herbs were showing signs of growth. Spring happened. I just sat with my coffee and contemplated how nice it was to just wake up and see such signs of spring all around me. It’s a great change from all the grey dreariness that came before with rain, overcast skies, and blah days.

Please take part in this year’s Earth Hour.

Check out the Earth Hour website.

(Gayle still recovering from the flu but planning to take part.)

Only Mr. Darcy Will Do by Kara Louise. Sourcebooks Landmark. ISBN: 978-1-4022-4103-1. Pages 368. Trade Paperback. ($14.99 / Amazon: $10.19, Kindle $9.68). Originally published as Something Like Regret.

Only Mr. Darcy Will Do is a “what if” book building on the characters and somewhat on the plot of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. In this instance, the author, Kara Louise, chose to diverge shortly after Darcy’s horrendously inappropriate proposal to Elizabeth and her curt and hurtful refusal. Darcy writes Elizabeth a letter detailing his involvement with Mr. Wickham and explaining his reasons for separating Mr. Bingley and Jane. Elizabeth returns to Longbourn from Rosings just as she did in the original work. That’s when things change. Mr. Bennet falls ill. Elizabeth doesn’t go on the trip with her Aunt and Uncle Gardner. And more importantly, when Mr. Bennet dies, Lydia is called back from Brighton before she can elope with Mr. Wickham.

The death of Mr. Bennet means that the Collin’s inherit Longbourn. Elizabeth persuades her mother to move in with her sister, Mrs. Phillips, and her husband. Jane moves in with the Gardiners in London to help with their children. Elizabeth takes a position as a governess with Mr. and Mrs. Willstone to care for their daughter Emily — a very precocious six-year-old. The stage is now set and the story spins out from this point.

The Willstones live in London which allows Elizabeth to visit the Gardiners and Jane on her Sunday’s off. They also travel in the similar social circles as the Darcys and Bingley. Mrs. Willstone’s sister Miss Rosalyn Matthews comes to visit the family and for some of the London social season. It was a chance invitation that brought Miss Darcy and Mr. Bingley to the Willstones on a day when Emily had been asked to sing for their guests while Elizabeth played the piano for her. Bingley’s surprise was genuine and sincere. However, since Elizabeth and Rosalyn were becoming friends it also led to Rosalyn confessing her admiration and respect for Mr. Darcy and her hope that she could secure his love.

As you can imagine this throws Elizabeth into a quandary as now she has realizes just how much she misjudged Darcy and somewhat regrets her refusal of his offer of marriage. She’s now a governess and if Rosalyn and the Willstones begin to entertain the Darcys, it will be painful for her as her first encounter with Darcy shows.

How will things turn out? Will Elizabeth’s change in circumstances prohibit Mr. Darcy once again asking for her hand in marriage? Will she have to stand by and watch as Rosalyn vies for his attention and regard? Does he even still care for Elizabeth?

Those of us who are fans of the book have definite ideas about how the questions should be answered. But will the author oblige? You’ll need to read the book to find out how or if she manages to have our two favorite characters interact.

Kara Louise is very respectful of Austen’s characters and the feel of the story as well as the interactions of the characters are believable while following naturally from the new story line. There are also no sex scenes, just plenty of romance and witty dialogue. The writing is such that you could believe that if Austen had been a bit more romantic and less pragmatic, she could have written this story.

Once again I was enchanted by characters I admire and enjoy reading about and by Louise’s style, wit, humor, and story telling.

If you enjoy Pride and Prejudice variations as much as the follow-ons, you really need to read Only Mr. Darcy Will Do by Kara Louise, unless of course you’ve already read it when it was published as Something Like Regret.

If you have read this book, I’m anxious to hear what you thought of it — please leave a comment.

A friend sent me this link which is an episode of Rachel Madoow’s show that touches on the Budget protests in Madison, Wisconsin.

She breaks the issue down and shows that the budget issue is Wisconsin is not about a budget crisis but about the continued effective existence of the Democratic Party in this country. Her examples are extremely interesting, true and make a lot of sense when you look at the Republican Parties efforts across the country to control and submerge the rights of the people in this country who are hard workers, poor, or otherwise not worthy of their help.

Now that you’ve watched the video — what do you think? Did you go — as I did — hmmm now a lot of what they’re doing make sense. I too am as liberal as the come but I also see the dark in a lot of what is going on. I’m a skeptic about the efforts on both sides of that congressional aisle but this is the best explanation of what I’ve seen going on in Congress and across the country over the past 12 years.