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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
By far, one of Collins' best!, November 1, 2008
This review is from: Mr. Darcy's Daughter: The acclaimed Pride and Prejudice sequel series (Pemberley Chronicles) (Paperback)
Readers will be compelled to fervently applaud Ms. Collins' talents once more for Mr. Darcy's Daughter. Out of all of the Pemberley Chronicle's characters, Cassy Darcy (Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam's lovely daughter) is sure to become a favorite.
A strong and complex heroine, not unlike her mother Lizzy when we first met her in Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Cassandra must overcome and conquer many trials in life. Yet, her harrowing experiences are but a strengthening aid to her persona, and as a result, she is consistently a mature and stable character throughout the novel. One is able to relate to her thoughts, sympathize with her concerns and struggles...and feel relief when obstacles are overcome, or at least, adequately dealt with.
The reader will certainly discover that Mr. Darcy's Daughter is a delicate and intricate blend pertaining to love, honor, trial and duty. The story's convincing plot engulfs all of these complex issues, coupled with a consistent ease so notable in Ms. Collin's work. And as always, it is artfully dappled with Austen-like wit and historical flavour of the time. Each adroitly contrived chapter leaves you anticipating what the next one will hold with eager expectation. A truly "capital" read!
I surmise that Miss Austen herself would have been very well pleased with Mr. Darcy's Daughter, the fifth novel in the lovely well-researched Pemberley series.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
More Darcy drama sans wit and humor, November 30, 2008
This review is from: Mr. Darcy's Daughter: The acclaimed Pride and Prejudice sequel series (Pemberley Chronicles) (Paperback)
In Mr. Darcy's Daughter, book five in The Pemberley Chronicles, author Rebecca Ann Collins' focuses on Cassandra, the beautiful and intelligent daughter of Pride and Prejudice's Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. It is now 1864 and Cassy has been happily married to Dr. Richard Gardiner for twenty seven years with a large family of her own. When her troubled younger brother Julian renounces his inheritance and fails in his responsibilities to his own family, Cassy must step forward and assist in the running of Pemberley and raise his son Anthony as the heir to the Pemberley estate. Bound by honor and duty, Cassy is indeed her father's daughter, and accepts the responsibilities, balancing her role as daughter, wife, mother, sister and aunt.
In the mean time Mr. Carr, a single man in possession of a good fortune enters the neighborhood looking to purchase a country estate, and sure enough he is immediately considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters! Cassandra soon discovers that this young American comes with a bit of a past in his family's mysterious connection to the Pemberley estate prior to their immigration to Ireland. Cassy's young daughter Lizzie is quickly drawn to him even though his grandparents came from the wrong end of the social ladder. Also included in this Victorian drama are an array of family travails and life events challenging Cassy and the whole Pemberley clan including mental illness, death, deception, theft and murder pressing the plot along.
After reading Mr. Darcy's Daughter there is no doubt in my mind that author Rebecca Ann Collins is an ardent admirer of Jane Austen, proficient at historical research and has a very creative imagination. Her most loyal fans deeply entrenched in the genealogy and historical minutia of the series will be well pleased to be at home again in her Pemberley universe being served "new wine in an old bottle." New readers challenged with the multi-layered connections of three generations of families will find themselves frequently referring to the character list provided by the author in the back of the book as to which Mr. Bingley, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Gardiner, et all that she is referring to and how they are connected.
Aficionadas of Austen's style will see more similarities to Victorian era authors such as Dickens, Gaskell or Trollope in her narrative approach, depth of historical references and sentimental dialogues than to the original inspiration. Even though Ms. Collins does take liberties with Austen's usual limited scope of "three or four families in a country village," she is true to formula in opening with a conflict and concluding with a happy marriage. After nearly sixty years since the conclusion of Pride and Prejudice, we can hardly expect more than the essence of Austen to remain and understand the direction that the author has chosen. What has evolved from the happy day that "Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters," in Pride and Prejudice is a circa 1860's multilayered family saga that will interest classic historical fiction readers and satisfy Collins' devoted fans. Jane Austen enthusiasts will find comfort in familiar characters respectfully rendered, but miss the wit and humor of the original.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As I think back on this book... its remembrance gives me pleasure., October 20, 2008
This review is from: Mr. Darcy's Daughter: The acclaimed Pride and Prejudice sequel series (Pemberley Chronicles) (Paperback)
Book five in the amazing Pemberley Chronicles by Rebecca Collins is out! Mr. Darcy's Daughter follows the life of Cassy Darcy, daughter of Lizzy and Darcy. Cassy is the classic "exception which proves the rule." Good at nearly everything she does, Cassy is a devoted mother, wife, daughter, and sister. Time and again she is called upon to meet the extraordinary needs of her family. The standard to which she holds for herself far exceeds any that she would impose on her loved ones. As a result, she puts herself last (like so many busy women I know!).
Through Cassy and close knit circle of friends, we come to understand the limitations faced by women of this era. Within the family they were called upon to meet incredible challenges - raise children, run households, run businesses, arbitrate disagreements, prioritize, triage, and basically "do it all." Sound familiar? But there are significant differences between Cassy Darcy and the 21st Century "do it all" woman. Cassy was expected to do all of this within the rigid rules of Victorian society - do not travel unescorted, do not discuss business with men, do not display your intelligence in mixed company, and do not usurp the authority of the men. In other words: run the estate, but understand that your brother will inherit it!
Add to this pressure cooker Cassy's innate inability to say no, and we can easily sympathize with her occasional bouts of frustration. In truth, I was more frustrated than she was and often wanted to scream at the characters: "Enough already. Deal with your own problems!"
With the demands of motherhood, a strong desire to please her parents, and a deep empathy for her troubled younger brother, it is easy to imagine Cassy crumbling. And yet, she thrives. She succeeds and excels as a result of the very same factors which cause her such difficulty - her wonderful, loving, and realistically flawed family. Her husband Richard Gardner loves her beyond measure (and obviously finds her still quite desirable - even though she's well over 40), and his love and support give her great strength. Her own five children adore her, and this only adds to her strength (even if her daughter does fall in love with an American, while Cassy is busy running Pemberley!). Her parents could not be prouder of her. The weight of Cassy's responsibilities is more than counterbalanced by the buoyancy of the love of so many in her life.
Not exactly the classic, textbook romantic heroine, Cassy Darcy faces life with a unique combination of strength, sensitivity, and yes, romanticism. In so doing, she remains true to the smart, strong, and complex women that Jane Austen - and more recently Rebecca Collins - have given us over and over again.
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