Review: Mr. Darcy’s Little Sister by C. Allyn Pierson
Mr. Darcy’s Little Sister by C. Allyn Pierson. Sourcebooks Landmark. ISBN: 978-1-4022-4038-6. 448 pages. Trade Paperback. List $14.99 (Amazon: $10.19 / Kindle: $9.99) Previously published in 2008 as And This Our Life.
Darcy and Elizabeth are married and settling into their life together. Georgianna is elated to finally have a sister to talk to and confide in. However, Georgianna’s coming out this season and she’s nervous, terrified, and feeling very insecure. Like any seventeen-year-old, she acts out by snapping at people – in other words not being as polite as possible — which has everyone concerned as she’s normally so compliant.
C. Allyn Pierson’s Georgianna is complex and multifaceted. Told from Georgianna’s point of view, Mr. Darcy’s Little Sister gives us a chance to actually get to know Georgianna who had so small a part in Pride and Prejudice. She’s shy, unsure of her judgment after her misstep with Wickham, sick of being treated as a child, yet afraid to stand up for herself. On the other hand, Georgianna is intelligent and often underestimated by those around her which leaves a lot of room for an author to build a story.
It is expected that young girls will be engaged by the end of their first season and if not then certainly by the end of the second. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a teenage girl. Many of the young men in society are always short of money and Georgianna has 30,000 pounds to bring to a marriage. She knows that she’ll need to be very aware that many of the young men who will court her will be only interested in her dowry. To identify those who care more for her than her money will be a skill she’ll have to learn to develop and quickly.
What only Georgianna knows is that she’s already decided who she wants to marry, she just needs him to see her as an adult and realize that now is the time to act. In the process of helping Georgianna, Elizabeth also is trained to be presented at court. She and Darcy hope that Elizabeth sharing the training will help Georgianna, and being presented at court might help Elizabeth’s standing with the ton since Lady Catherine has not been reticent in her opinion of Elizabeth.
There are also several side plots that are set in motion and people go off to adventures that are not detailed in this book; hopefully they’ll be covered in later works by Pierson. For example, Mr. Darcy is sent to France by the King to retrieve some embarrassing items and Col. Fitzwilliam is helping uncover a group that is selling arms to France. Each of these tales would make interesting reading.
Eventually, all the various threads come together in a satisfying conclusion that leaves us believing that this is the Georgianna that Miss Austen meant us to get to know. Mr. Darcy’s Little Sister is an excellent addition to the growing list of Pride and Prejudice follow-ons.