Review: A Darcy Christmas: A Holiday Tribute to Jane Austen
A Darcy Christmas: A Holiday Tribute to Jane Austen. Stories by Amanda Grange, Sharon Lathan, and Carolyn Eberhart. Soucebooks Landmark. ISBN: 978-1-4022-4339-4, pages 304. Trade Paperback. October 2010. (Price $14.99 / Amazon: $10.19 / Kindle: $9.68)
A Darcy Christmas is a collection of three novellas featuring characters from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The stories are: Mr. Darcy’s Christmas Carol by Carolyn Eberhart; Christmas Present by Amanda Grange; and A Darcy Christmas by Sharon Lathan. All in all, a nice book to cuddle up with on a cold holiday evening.
First we have “Mr. Darcy’s Christmas Carol by Carolyn Eberhart. As you might guess from the title, this story is loosely based on Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”. In this version, Darcy has been greedy with his feelings. The ghosts in order of appearance are his father to warn him of the coming ghosts and then past, present and future are his mother, Lady Anne; his sister, Georgiana; and his aunt, Lady Catherine. Following the original story lines but with the change of feelings rather than money, Eberhart manages to pull the story together making it and interesting and apt variation.
The second story is “Christmas Present” by Amanda Grange. Jane and Bingley have a newborn son. Darcy and Elizabeth expect their child to be born in the new year. Elizabeth is not about to let pregnancy keep her and Darcy from spending the holidays with the family at Jane’s new home. But it seems Mrs. Bennet invited Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins to stay at Jane and Bingley’s manor also. You can imagine the holidays with all the Bennets, Bingleys, Darcys, Hursts, Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins all in the same house. Grange manages to balance all the characters and keep us entertained.
Ending the book, is “A Darcy Christmas” by Sharon Lathan. Note so much a story as vingnettes – each centered around the Christmas holidays. Each piece shows the reader an incident from the life of Darcy and Elizabeth. We get to see them grow as a couple, have children, face the loss of loved ones, watch their children grow and have their own families — the gathering for the holidays increases as the generations continue to meet at Pemberley. This was a nice capstone piece to the book.
In the stores now, you can pick it up to read during the holidays when you want to remember what they’re all about as the chaos and stress rise. Christmas is for family, friends, and loved ones to gather and share the love and concern for each other. A Darcy Christmas is all about love and family.