17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well, 3 and 1/2, actually., May 29, 2009
This a great example of a "what if" piece of fan-fic. The exploration of what P&P might have been had Darcy not arrived in time to stop his sister's elopment and the resulting degradation is well carried out. A chastened Darcy, seeing that the mores of society and the upper class "ton" for what Austen knew them to be when she wrote her work is beautifully done. I read the entire thing straight through during 12 hours of plane trips and couldn't put it down.
But Darcy as the considerate lover, apathetic to the demands of society from the very start, is a bit of a jarring note, although he does allude to how he might have acted before the ruin of his sister. And that's not the only incongruity.
I realize that this is a "what if", but some of the changes seem to be stretching the familiar a bit far. Darcy's father is no longer the beloved master and father he is in Austen's work. Darcy's cousin, Col. Fitzwilliam starts as a much darker character, too. Wickham is certainly more evil than normal. And many of the other characters seem to act in ways that we would wish them to act, as opposed to the way that Austen originally framed them. But that is all in the realm of "what if", and imagining how things might have gone. So, while odd at times, it can be accomedated.
But the hardcore sex scenes, both before Lizzy and Darcy's marriage and after were not welcome. Seriously, I have no desire for explicit descriptions of what they did together; and I do mean explicit. It veered from simple "what if" fan-fic into pornographic fantasy in these spots. I am no prude by any means, but that sort of thing ruins the Auten-esque feeling of any version or sequel to P&P. And the before-marriage scenes of this sort, and the willful ignorance/tolerace of it by others, completely destroyed the image of proper behavior vs. social behavior that was the point of the original.
Still, overall, it was an excellent foray into alternative looks at the characters, changed and idealized as they often were. It's a good read, even if the main connection to P&P are the names and some of the attitudes of characters and places.
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32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
thank god it's over!, June 10, 2009
I don't understand why this book got such great reviews. I am sorry to say that having recently completed reading it I find myself thinking `thank god that's over!' The book does have an interesting plot and certainly some suspenseful moments, but overall I think some of the characters are truly unlike those that Jane Austen created. Darcy would be the prime example. From almost the very beginning, he is completely dependent on Elizabeth's affection. I think the original Darcy would have put up a better fight in his own mind to prevent himself from falling for her so quickly. Then there are the laws of propriety. Or are there, because neither Darcy nor Elizabeth seem to be aware of them. A good portion of the book is one detailed description after another of some romantic escapade they find themselves on. It was a bit too descriptive for my taste and quite frankly it gets old. After the main plot did conclude I found myself with another 100 pages of the story just dragging on and yes, much of it seemed to be lifted out of cheesy romance novel. I won't say that the book is totally unworthy of reading, but I don't believe it deserves 5 stars, and there are certainly better Pride and Prejudice recreations out there. I wouldn't bother with this one.
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18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Self-publishing gone horribly wrong, June 20, 2009
The fact that this book has characters named Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are the only things it has in common with the original Pride and Prejudice. Darcy has been reduced to a tearful wreck of a man, and there is not another character in the book who has a passing fancy with the way whey were written in the original.
This book desperately needs an editor.
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