Customer Reviews

The Darcys & the Bingleys: A Tale of Two Gentlemen's Marriages to Two Most Devoted Sisters

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

When Jane Austen wrote this line for Darcy, she doubtless meant him to define "disguise" as 'deception' or 'pretense'. But it can also mean 'drunk' and Altman's sequel remarks several episodes where she has Darcy so drunk he has to stagger away to throw up! This is so out of character for a gentleman who is strictly mindful of the proprieties. If he finds Mrs. Bennet and her sister, Mrs. Philips' vulgar behavior a "...tax on his forbearance" how can Altman believe Darcy would behave so? His throwing an intrusive Wickham out the window on the day of his wedding, while a funny situation, is not something Darcy would risk. Finally, the "brotherly rivalry" between himself and Bingley degenerates into petty one-up-manship in the vein of Kitty and Lydia's relationship. The funniest part was Bingley's solicitation of Darcy's supposed greater knowledge of 'marital relations' so he may please his Jane on their wedding night and Darcy's 'advice'. Still, this doesn't fit Darcy's persona, either.

The sub-plot about Caroline Bingley's attempts at matrimony was a tedious contrivance and I struggled to finish those chapters. The more interesting Mr. Bennet and the Darcy's first-born toddler Geoffrey (Yeff!) held my attention more.

For P&P fans who can't get enough, I would recommend this as a tolerable diversion and mildly amusing read. "The Pemberly Chronicles" by Rebecca Ann Collins was a better sequel.

This book isn't the best Pride and Prejudice Sequel I ever read, but I did find it a very entertaining book. It is not close to the style of Jane's writing, her characters (I don't think she would have Mr. Darcy be so easily drunk), or her style (she would not be writing about the Kama Sutra). Nevertheless, it is a fresh sequel to Pride and Prejudice and depicts the lives of the Bingley's and the Darcy's right before and long after marriage.

If you are critical (and there is nothing wrong with being critical) in your selection of Jane Austen Sequels and other writings, I wouldn't buy this book right away, maybe borrow it from the library first, see how you like it.

Of course a Pride and Prejudice sequel wouldn't be a Pride and Prejudice sequel without Caroline Bingley. I would say 1/4 of the story is about Caroline Bingley and her choice of fiance. If you are not a big fan of Caroline Bingley, you might not care for this book then.

By reading the other reviews and the plot on Amazon you might think this book is all about Kama Sutra and might be rated R. There really isn't that much about the Kama Sutra later in the book and it is not graphic or explicit. I would even say it is more PG-13.

I found this sequel to be laugh-out-loud funny and a wonderful take on the friendship between Darcy and Bingley. It starts with Bingley coming to Darcy for advice about his upcoming wedding night. Darcy, being the reticent man that he is, refuses to talk about "it" but agrees that he will help his friend...cue Kama Sutra book! It continues to explore how Darcy's and Bingley's friendship came to be in the first place and how it grew to what it is now, full of hilarious male competitiveness. We get to watch how these couples adjust to married life and then parenthood with the arrival of their children.

When Bingley comes to Darcy yet again for more advice when Caroline has a suitor that the "find-the-good-in-everyone" Bingley has a problem with, he asks for his friend's advice yet again. This time Darcy and Bingley set off to do a little investigating about the suitor with a new found wealth and things may not be as we think they are. (With a little help from Elizabeth and Mr Bennet.) We also get a little peek into the mind of Caroline Bingley that, believe it or not, is not as bad as we'd like her to be. There are new characters introduced in the second half of the story, but they only add to the dynamics of this wonderfully suspenseful, funny tale.

Ms. Altman's writing is witty, hilarious and right on the mark with where I'd imagine Darcy and Bingley's friendship to be. Darcy is always known for his reserve around a large group of people and especially strangers, but we get to that side of him that he only shows to his wife, Elizabeth and his closest friend, Bingley, and it's that side that we all fall in love with. A definite must for any P&P fan!

This book is fine for people who have read only Pride and Prejudice along with other Jane Austen books. However, if you have delved into the vast reservoir of JAFF (Jane Austen fanfiction) available online, then you are likely to find The Darcys and the Bingleys derivative, repetitive and lacking in new ideas/approaches. The book offers jokey meanderings rather than sustained story-telling. Far, far better and more involving stories than this have been told of what-comes-next after Darcy finally admits his love to Elizabeth and asks her to be his wife.

If you are familiar with P&P from the novel or the most recent movie versions, then you can open this book at any point and start reading. I will readily concede that some of the lines are fresh and the humor brought an occasional smirk to even my mouth. However, the book gave me little reason to really want to read it from start to finish because I found it essentially a series of one-liners and vignettes. Again, I know some portion of my discontent derives from familiarity with the highly creative writing and approaches of JAFF, where some of these situations and lines have appeared before. Much of this book seems like a retread to me, but I have probably read more JAFF than many.

A few details may irritate or mystify JAFF aficionados, to wit, why does Darcy call Anne de Bourgh, Miss DeBourgh, instead of Cousin Anne? Why is Darcy depicted as someone who has a lot of trouble holding his liquor? Yes, I know there is that allusion in Pride and Prejudice in the comment from Bingley about how unpleasant Darcy can be on Sunday evenings at home. But I think that it's too little to spin out Darcy as a full-blown lush--and really the original allusion had more to do with the comparative sizes of the two men and was a way for Bingley to tease Darcy about a hint of ungentleman-like behavior. Jane Bingley seems much more harsh in this projection of future events beyond the original while her husband seems to have lost his articulateness. This is a personal preference, but I did not find these choices much fun.

As I say, tolerable but not special enough to attach my affections. If this book were a fictional charactor, it would offer the interest to be found in Mary King or Maria Lucas rather than Elizabeth Bennet.

Also, for further insight into where I'm coming from, I very much like Linda Berdoll and Abigail Reynolds. Both of these writers are often quite explicit and may put some readers off, despite the fact that both are excellent storytellers. The Darcys and the Bingleys tells its story without explicitness, which readers may consider a factor in its favor. If so, then I say, have at it.

The book is in two halves and I was willing to give the first half, which chronicles the birth of Darcy and Bingley's first children a solid, if uninspiring 3 stars. There were, admittedly, things that made me wince. The language, while generally in the mode of Jane Austen, contained some very strange anachronisms (eg, "We are not having this conversation," "Okay," etc.), as well as some deliberate changes in characters that should have been left alone. Jane Austen had a solid and unsentimental view of human nature. In this book, Mrs. Bennett, Anne de Bourgh, Caroline Bingley, Mr. Hurst and even Mr. Collins have been given redeeming features that they did not possess in Pride and Prejudice. Nevertheless, the story was amusing and inoffensive.

Not so the second half. Here we have Elizabeth riding alone on horseback from Scotland to London to deliver an important bit of information. This is absurd. An upper class young woman in Regency times would never, ever do such a thing. We have Darcy, having confronted a bigamist with the information that his game is up, being shot in the back, whereupon Bingley and Elizabeth both jump form their respective concealed hiding places and knock out the bad guy. We have Pemberley invaded by an impoverished nobleman with a grudge, whereupon another nobleman (dressed in a kilt) literally swings down from a chandelier to save the day.

Baloney. The second half of this book is filled with such absurdities. Pride and Prejudice is a much beloved book and it is understandable that the reader would enjoy spending more time with it's characters. An author attempting to write a sequel is almost automatically given good will and allowed some poetic license. This book, however, is ridiculous.

Awful! I do not envision Mr Darcy the way Ms Altman has portayed him. Her hero has way to much "experience" and a very wild past - that sounds more like Wickham and not like Austen's proper, serious Mr Darcy. In the original, it was said that Darcy needed Elizabeth to loosen him up a bit. The hero in this book does not need to learn how to loosen up - he has vast experience with that. To imagine the controlled, principled Mr Darcy as a drunkard is way off! Some people seem to enjoy this portrayal of Darcy because it makes him sound "normal" . I prefer stories that stay true to Austen's characterization of Darcy and Elizabeth. Jane Austen was a clergyman's daughter and she wrote that Mr Darcy is not like "wild young men nowadays". This book is a contradiction of Austen's views on Darcy and she was the person who created him! Many people seem to enjoy an unprincipled, ungentleman-like Darcy - I do not!

This is not the best "sequel" I've come across, but I found myself drawn in to the story fairly early on.

The characters come across with humor and charm, reminding me of the originals in many ways. In other ways, I suspect Jane Austen would have been shocked at the presentation. The drinking and frank attempts at conversations about sex are a...radical...departure from Austen's style. As is the idea that the two main gentlemen would actually throw Wickham out a window.

But I actually found those scenes added a more human side to the characters. I have no idea if such things would have happened in Austen's day, but I know that no proper person then would have written about them (well, not always).

A good and engaging book with an unexpected adventurous story in it. Well worth the read.

LOVED this book beginning to end!!! I laughed I cried & I laughed some more!! Absolutely perfect book! Especially loved how Darcy & Bingleys relationship was - they are close friends, & pick on each other etc.. it was so fun!
Ya gotta read it!

This book is a continuation of one of my favorite novels, Pride and Prejudice. No pressure there, right? But this book delivers and I enjoyed it immensely. The sequel stays true to the characterizations in the Austen novel and it is nice to see where the Darcys and the Bingleys ended up after marrying.

This book has romance, action and mystery. It is written in a style that would make Austen proud. It is very well done.

What I did after reading this book was look online for the varying opinions of readers who've read 'Pride and Prejudice' before reading this book verses the ones who have not. I was one of the have nots. It seems both are very close the same. For the most part, I felt Altman did an outstanding job of subtly filling in the gaps. The characters where very well rounded. There were only a couple of places I felt left out of the back-story.

In THE DARCYS & THE BINGLEYS, the story opens shortly before double wedding of Fitzwilliam Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet and Charles Bingley to Jane Bennet. Bingley is seeking out Darcy's expertise of a "delicate nature." It seems at the same time Jane and Elizabeth are getting schooled on what will be expected of them the night of their wedding day. Bingley has way better luck than the ladies, because Darcy hands him a copy of The Kama Sutra.

In this early part, the author is setting up the relationship between the couples and I am getting to know the personalities of not only them, but family members as well. Having not read Pride and Prejudice, I think the author is doing a great job of this. I don't feel I am missing out on anything at this point. What does stand out is the lack of drama. I wasn't aware of how much I need this in a story until now.

In part two of the book, after the weddings, the birth of both couples' first born, and after Jane was well into her second pregnancy did the story pick up with Lord James Kincaid wanting to wed Caroline Bingley. It seems the man isn't what he appears to be.

Charles and Darcy didn't trust the guy. It wasn't something they could put their finger on, but more of a feeling. They also noticed the two didn't seem to be in love. In the end and with enough dramatics, the problem will be resolved.