Review: To Conquer Mr. Darcy by Abigail Reynolds
Conquering Mr. Darcy by Abigail Reynolds, Sourcebooks Casablanca, August 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4022-3730-0, 416 pages, Mass Market Paperback. [Note: Previously published as Impulse & Initiative: What if Mr. Darcy had set out to win Elizabeth’s heart? (Pride & Prejudice Variation)]
To Conquer Mr. Darcy, by Abigail Reynolds, is truly a “What If” novel. The critical question is what if Mr. Darcy didn’t give up on Elizabeth after his first disastrous proposal and Elizabeth’s unequivocal refusal? What if instead of meeting her again purely by chance at Pemberley, he returned with Bingley to Netherfield and made a concerted effort to win Elizabeth’s love and respect.
The book begins with Colonel Fitzwilliam stopping at Darcy’s townhouse in London. Georgiana has been worried about Darcy. Ever since the visit to Rosings, Darcy has spent his time alone, in the dark, drinking himself into a stupor and refusing to see anyone. This is totally out of character for him to be so depressed but he stubbornly resists all efforts to find out what is bothering him. Fitzwilliam luckily is a soldier and he barrels in where Georgiana and Bingley fear to tread and drags the story out of him. His advice is to go after Elizabeth if she means that much to him and win her. For to do otherwise is evidence that he really doesn’t care. Darcy is angry but he pulls himself together and sets out determined to win Elizabeth.
At this point, we’ve diverged from the original story of Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, and Reynolds has to weave her story between the incidents of the original story with a few changes. Darcy supports Bingley in his desire to marry Jane Bennet. Thus Darcy is with Bingley when he visits Jane and can pursue Elizabeth’s good opinion.
You can imagine that things are awkward at first as she’s refused his offer of marriage and while his explanation of his dealings with Mr. Wickham have somewhat changed her opinion of him, she doesn’t care to be more than acquaintances. Darcy on the other hand, really makes an effort to be civil and courteous to Elizabeth’s family members. He makes sure that he meets Elizabeth when she goes for walks and rambles and essentially treats her as you would a wild animal — kindly, slowly taming her — getting her used to the idea of him being around.
Reynolds uses much of the original dialogue and manages to incorporate Elizabeth’s trip with the Gardiners and Lydia’s pseudo-elopement with Wickham. Of course, the changing relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy, changes the way these events play out.
And for purists, I have to mention that his book is a romance — there’s several very steamy scenes along with some that are more conventional for the time period such as holding hands, kisses. But, the real non-cannon event is Elizabeth and Darcy having sex prior to their marriage. Reynolds builds up to this slowly over the books so that when it occurs it seems a logical extension of their relationship within context of this book. By the way, this doesn’t give anything away as it’s on the blurb on the back of the book and in the Amazon description. So, purists are warned.
In summation, I felt that it was a well done. Reynolds took her “what ifs” and wove them into the plot points of the original books so seamlessly that you might have to refer back to the original to scope out the magnitude and number of changes those what ifs cause. At heart To Conquer Mr. Darcy is a romance — now it’s just a bit more racy romance than we’re used to between these two well-loved characters.
[Note: Edited 10 Aug 2010 to change book title to match the actual published title as it change since I read the review copy.]