A Curious Statistical Anomaly

The Legacy of Pemberley by Rebecca Ann Collins. Book 10 of The Pemberley Chronicles. Sourcebooks Landmark. Trade Paperback. ISBN: 978-1-4022-2452-2. 352 pages. List $14.99 (Amazon: $10.19 / Kindle: $9.68)

Collins reports that this 10th book will be the last in The Pemberley Chronicles. She’s taken the characters through 50 years of marriage. Darcy and Elizabeth are parents and grandparents. The extended family has grown as their children and the Bingley children and Collins children married. With three generations there is now an amazingly large cast of characters to follow. In The Legacy of Pemberley, Collins finishes up a few dangling plot threads and smooths out the wrinkles to allow her characters to continue to grow and change in the minds of her readers.

Emily Courtney has been ailing and decides to present her will to her family while she’s still living so they can ask questions and be sure that it is her wish to leave things the way she plans. The loss of Emily will ripple through the thoughts of everyone in the Pemberley Chronicles. Jude, Emily’s youngest son, finally gets a part in the books as he falls in love and is accepted. The mystery of William Courtney’s seeming indifference to his mother is cleared up — though some may still not be willing to forgive him. Charles Bingley’s health is still compromised and Jane, while keeping a calm facade is fearful of losing him. The public education bill is not what so many of the family have pushed for, or what Mr. Gladstone promised when he was elected, and we share in the disappointment of many of the Pemberley extended family.

With so many plot threads, you’d think the book would be rushed but as usual, it’s told through letters, diary entries, conversations, and by the narrator. All of the Pemberley Chronicle books have an elegance to them — the language and the pacing hark back to a time when there was time to enjoy reading, writing, visiting with friends. In many ways, these are books to curl up with and put the present day world out of your mind as you enjoy a visit to landed gentry in time gone by. Collins manages to give the story the tone and feel of Austen — where the story is simple lives lived well and all the emotional content comes from the reader.

While The Legacy of Pemberley may be the last in the series, it does allow the reader to believe that all is well with the families we’ve followed over ten novels and through marriage, courtship, loss, and joy. Also, if many of you treat these books as I do and reread them over and over for comfort when the world becomes too chaotic to deal with or illness makes you want to escape — read through them again without the necessity of a long wait between books.

If you’ve read previous books in the series, you’ll enjoy The Legacy of Pemberley. If you haven’t read any of the the previous books, you should probably start with the first one to greet each of the new characters as the appear and give them a chance to become acquainted.

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.

In the Arms of Mr. Darcy by Sharon Lathan. Sourcebooks landmark, Trade Paperback, October 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4022-3699-0. Pages: 384. List Price: $14.99. (Amazon: $10.19 / Kindle: $9.68).

In the Arms of Mr. Darcy by Sharon Lathan is a follow-on to Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth and Darcy have been married for a year. Elizabeth is settling into her role as mistress of Pemberly, and they now have a child, Alexander.

The Bennet family and other friends and relatives are gathering at Pemberly for the holiday season. Naturally, with the new child and a houseful of family and friends there is a lot of grist for the plot mill. Lathan manages to squeeze a story of married bliss, new romance, thwarted love, a mystery, a betrayal, and a couple of presentations at court into one book.

What is achieved is an interesting look into the life of the landed gentry at the time of Pride and Prejudice. Then there is the continuing romance between Darcy and Elizabeth. As a married couple, they do their best to see that all those they love become as happy as they are. Darcy is more than the standoffish aristocrat of the original story and is shown to have depth of feeling and good sense.

However, the fact that the book has so many subplots, makes it seem unfocused. The mystery subplot has potential, as did several of the other subplots, to be fleshed out and become a stand-alone novel. Instead these interesting sub-stories are set up, minimally touched on, and dropped or solved to get back to the main story of the married live of the Darcys.

That’s not to say the book isn’t worth reading, after all, it’s well written and continues to allow readers to see the Darcys after their marriage. They manage to have a full life that, as with all newlyweds, is rife with the compromises needed to live together in harmony, as well as the usual minor dramas involved in daily living on a large estate with the responsibility for many other depending on their ability to stay solvent as society changes about them.

In the Arms of Mr. Darcy will not leave you wishing you hadn’t read it, but instead will leave you wondering what is going to happen to the people in the subplots that weave in and out of the main story. Will there be another book filling us in on those characters and incidents, particularly those that involve friends and family or business relations of the Darcys’? We can but hope.

Meanwhile, In the Arms of Mr. Darcy is now in bookstores and available so you don’t need to wait to find it and see for yourself if you agree or disagree with my assessment.

Mr. Darcy’s Obsession by Abigail Reynolds. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN: 978-1-4022-4092-8. Pages: 346. Published: October 2010. List Price: $14.99 (Amazon: $10.19 / Kindle: $9.68). Cover images ©Bridgeman Art Library; NinaMalyna / Fotolia.com.

Mr. Darcy’s Obsession by Abigail Reynolds is definitely a What if story.  The divergence point for this what if story occurs when Elizabeth Bennet is visiting Charlotte near Rosings.  Elizabeth receives word that her father is very ill before Mr. Darcy gets a chance to give his horrendously inept proposal.  She rushes home and not long after Mr. Bennet dies, Mr. Collins takes possession of Longbourn. Elizabeth is now out of reach and Mr. Bingley never gets a second chance with Jane Bennet.

Months have passed and Mr. Darcy has not forgotten Elizabeth. Bingley opted to bury his disappointment in work and left London to become actively involved in his businesses.  While visiting Darcy, Bingley tells him that he met Elizabeth Bennet near Kew Gardens.  He goes further and tells Darcy that she’s living with her aunt and uncle in Cheapside caring for their children and that Jane married a milliner shortly before her father died and the rest of the family are living with Mrs. Bennet’s sister in her apartment.

After Bingley leaves, Darcy can’t forget that Elizabeth is in London and he determines to see her – at least from a distance.  Well, a distance isn’t good enough and soon with the help of a street urchin in the neighborhood that he hires to spy for him, he manages to meet her on her daily walk and resume their acquaintance. On these walks he learns that while time may have past, his heart is as much taken with her as it ever was.

Of course, nothing is going to go smoothly because while the characters are the same, Elizabeth Bennet’s situation is more reduced now than it was when they first met.  Darcy begins to realize that just because someone is born into privilege and wealth doesn’t necessarily make them worth knowing.  He begins to truly see the behavior of his family as they inform him who Georgianna will marry with no consideration for her feelings or well-being.  Finally, he begins to evaluate his own beliefs and assumptions about class and realizes that the person, not the rank, is what is important.  It’s not an easy change for him and essentially this conversion runs throughout the book as a secondary plot thread — though truth to be told, without this thread Darcy would have to walk away from all that he loves and holds dear.

Meanwhile the story, because of the changes caused by the divergence from the original Pride and Prejudice, follows along with the same major plot points occurring with minor variations. The changed circumstances of Elizabeth and her family members and Jane’s marriage mean that there are other social obligations and entanglements. These are dealt with in a manner that makes the story flow smoothly and, more importantly, believably from the divergence point to the ending without seeming forced.

Darcy isn’t the only one questioning his beliefs and his assumptions.  Bingley also has changed as he’s lost Jane and it’s only in losing any hope of marriage to her that he realizes that he’s often followed the advice of others rather than trusting his own heart. Bingley also sees his level of society with a more critical eye and doesn’t like what’s revealed. As for Elizabeth, she has found a strength to maintain her dignity, humor, and concern for other even though she’s had to do things that she’d never been brought up to do.

Reynolds maintains the inner integrity of the Austen characters.  You may find the characters in changed circumstances but you’ll recognize them.  They act pretty much as you expect with the givens of the new situation in which they find themselves. There are no modern sensibilities imposed on them, they are as you’d expect them to be.  Reynolds has given us an excellent retelling of the tale with this single divergence point playing out to its inevitable conclusion.

Don’t hesitate to purchase Mr. Darcy’s Obsession, Reynolds has managed to remain true to atmosphere and language of the original work while taking a path that Austen didn’t.  While not in the Gothic tradition, Mr. Darcy’s Obsession has much of the dark broodiness and biting criticism of a Gothic but lightened with humor and hope — making it a satisfying and compelling novel that you’ll wish to read over and over again.

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.

Darcy’s Voyage: A Tale of Uncharted Love on the Open Seas by Kara Louise. Sourcebooks Landmark. ISBN: 978-1-4022-4102-4. 512 pages. Trade Paperback. List: $14.99 (Amazon:  $10.19 / Kindle: $9.68). Previously published as Pemberly’s Promise in 2007).

Kara Louise has written a beautifully retold Pride and Prejudice beginning with Darcy and Elizabeth meeting when she was returning home to Longbourn by Post and Darcy, whose coach had a mechanical problem, was forced to take the Post to the first stop and there change to another carriage that was being sent from Pemberly.  Darcy of course immediately made a less than desirable impression when he nearly knocked her down as he raced to the carriage door.  He apologized and actually tried to make conversation — surprisingly they found literature a topic on which to converse and challenge each other and the two hour ride passed pleasantly.  They never learned each other’s name but remembered fondly the other person long after the event.

Fast forward two years and Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner and their children have traveled to America for Mr. Gardiner’s business.  They write and invite Elizabeth to join them in New York City to help with the children and enjoy the sights.  Elizabeth is excited to have the opportunity to travel and looks forward to the trip.  Mr. Darcy on the other hand doesn’t look forward to his trip to America where he’ll join Georgianna in New York City and bring her home from where she’s been visiting with Mrs. Annesley’s and her family.  Naturally, they are sailing on the same ship, Pemberly’s Promise (and I’m sure clever readers will realize just who owns the ship based solely on its name).

While Darcy tries desperately to remain aloof, the single women on the ship are speaking to him without introduction – all except Elizabeth Bennet.  He notices that she walks the deck early every morning and soon joins her.  Eventually, they begin to converse and find that they both look forward to their daily conversations.  It’s from Elizabeth that Darcy learns about the illness among the steerage passengers.  Her walks are the only breaks she takes from caring for her fellow passengers.

Elizabeth becomes seriously ill and Darcy knows he has the only empty bed on board.  The only solution is to be married by Captain Wendell and then annul the marriage when he returns to England.  It’s the only way to ensure her reputation remains intact.  He gives his pledge that it will be a purely platonic relationship. Elizabeth reluctantly agrees, as does the captain.  However, sometime during the voyage they fall in love, only they don’t realize it.  Separated on docking in New York and not knowing where Elizabeth lives, Darcy has no way to find her until he returns to England.

With this alternative beginning, Louise manages to maintain the emotional appeal and tone of the original Pride and Prejudice.   There are a few events from the original story line that take place earlier but once Bingley leases Netherfield, the original story is on track, except for a few key elements, and the story unfolds much as it did originally.

In other variations,  the variation causes such divergence from the original storyline that the author ends up having existing characters doing very uncharacteristic things in order to force events to unfold as expected.  Louise, on the other hand, manages to seamlessly weave this new relationship into the original story line by not forcing things to play out exactly as they did in Pride and Prejudice but as they would if this variation had occurred.

You’ll find some of our favorite scenes and dialogue included, but some of the dialogue may be uttered in similar, but different, circumstances and by other characters. I found it amusing to hear the same lines from someone else’s mouth but it didn’t take away from the story or my enjoyment.

This variation was a pleasure to read.  Louise honors the characters and the story of Pride and Prejudice and yet makes it new, exciting, and just as endearing. I highly recommend Darcy’s Voyage if you enjoy variations of the theme of Pride and Prejudice. I’d also mention that this book is appropriate for all ages.

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.]

Bibliographic info: A Woman of Influence by Rebecca Ann Collins, Pride & Prejudice sequel series, Book 9, Sourcebooks Landmark, Pub. Date: June 1, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4022-2451-5, 336 pages, List: $14.99. (Amazon: $10.19 / Kindle $9.99)

I came late to this series, so I first met Rebecca “Becky” Tate in Recollection of Rosings where she seemed a bit like one of those women who, at loose ends, trys to take charge of the lives of those around her. Becky, throughout that book, tried to impress upon her sister Catherine that her daughter was making the wrong match. Over the course of the novel, Becky began, as she became closer to her sister and reacquainted herself with Huntsford and the surrounding area, to realize that her London friends were not really friends at all. She began to question her values and just what she wanted to do with her life. Most of this story was in the background because Recollection of Rosings is Catherine’s story.

In A Woman of Influence, Becky Tate is the main character. She’s sold her London house and moved to Huntsford to the house that she fell in love with…Edgewater. She’s within walking distance of the small church that her father, Mr. Collins, preached at when she was a child, and to the home of her sister, Catherine, and also the school that she helped Catherine establish for children in the area. She’s changed her life and she’s content but feels restless and is often overwhelmed with grief when she thinks of the death of her daughter, Josie, and the estrangement that caused with the Darcys.

It is little wonder that Becky becomes embroiled in the life of a young woman and her child. The child was caught looking into the windows of Edgewater and he refused to say what he was doing there. The mother rushed up in time to explain that the child didn’t talk since his father was arrested. Becky thought the young woman was well-spoken and, concerned for the woman and her child found living rough,  she employs the girl in her home. The girl’s story causes Becky to take an interest and she begins to unravel the threads of the story and to look into the facts. This task becomes difficult as Becky must find a solution that will bring the family together while managing to not let anyone involved know that she is looking into the legalities of the original arrest and testimony.

Becky’s quest to help this young girl is the thread that keeps you reading as she follows the clues and gathers information. There is a secondary love story as Becky once again meets a gentleman who had helped her through the worst of her grief after her daughter’s death. As they renew their acquaintance, they find that they pick up their friendship as if only a day had past rather than years. Will it deepen to true love? For that you’ll need to read the book.

Once again, Collins uses straight narrative from Becky’s point of view, mixed with letters, diary entries, and other material to lead us through the story and to fill us in on necessary information without having to resort to long information dumps. Though one could say the letters and the diary entries are just that — info dumps — they don’t feel like it to the reader because they fit so nicely into the setting of the story.

Rebecca Ann Collins’ writing is well paced but slower than many readers might be used to.  However, it has much the same tone and pacing of the original Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice, which was the precursor to the series. Collins continues the characters of Pride and Prejudice, taking them forward in time and allowing them to change and grow with the changing times. The Appendix lists the main characters in the book and their relationships to each other. The main characters of Pride and Prejudice now have grandchildren and the world is changing around them.

Becky Tate was a women of her times with dreams and ambition that would be difficult to achieve for a woman. She married to achieve some of those goals. However, that marriage was a partnership rather than a love match and while she had much influence and did a lot of good with her charity work, she was dependent on her husband. In A Woman of Influence, you’ll see how much the world has changed and women have moved forward and gained some ability to steer their own course through life, but they are still not as free as women are today to be able to choose the life they wish to lead. It’s important to remember that Collins didn’t make up the rules that women in this period must live by, she’s only reflecting the historical period in which these books take place.

So, visit the world of the 1860s, take the time to slowing sink into the narrative and, for a while, enjoy a time when people took the time to talk to each other without a cell-phone or ipod in sight. Life was lived, at least on the economic level of our main characters, at a more leisurely pace. Curl up with this book and a cup of tea and enjoy.