Pride and Prescience: Or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged [Hardcover]

Carrie Bebris (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mr & Mrs Darcy Mystery S. | Publication Date: February 1, 2004

Mr. & Mrs. Darcy, the joyous newlyweds from Pride and Prejudice, have not even left for their honeymoon when they find themselves embroiled in a mystery involving one of their wedding guests.
The lovely Caroline Bingley is engaged to marry a rich and charismatic American. Unfortunately, this windswept courtship is marred by many strange events: nocturnal wanderings, spooked horses, carriage accidents, and even an apparent suicide attempt. Soon the whole Bingley family seems the target of a mysterious plot.
Only the Darcys recognize the danger as the Austen genre of Regency romances mixes with the unearthly gothic threats of Ann Radcliffe and the Brontës. Dark forces are afoot and the Darcys must get to the bottom of the plot before the blushing bride descends into madness or worse.
In Pride and Prescience, the Darcys take center stage as the Regency era's answer to the Thin Man's Nick and Nora, in search of the truth, universally acknowledged and otherwise.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her well-crafted mystery debut, fantasy author Bebris (Pool of Radiance, etc.) picks up the action where Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice left off-on the wedding day of Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy, who marry in a double ceremony with Elizabeth's older sister Jane and Charles Bingley. The Bennett brides are soon upstaged by Bingley's sister, Caroline, who announces her engagement to a Louisiana planter. Caroline's imminent nuptials mean the Darcys must remain in London, where an evening party leads to a meeting with an archeology professor who specializes in the indigenous culture of North America. Newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Darcy later travel to Netherfield, as does the professor, who brings along some "curiosities" he's collected that he credits with unusual powers. A series of improbable events ensues, leaving one murdered house guest and two sedated hosts. Can the American artifacts hold the key to the bizarre occurrences? When an unexpected blizzard cuts the house off from the rest of the neighborhood, it's up to Mr. and Mrs. Darcy to unmask the killer and restore everyone's peace of mind. Despite an anachronism or two (e.g., summoning a constable rather than the local magistrate), the author provides convincing portraits of life in London and at Netherfield. With a touch of sorcery and lots of red herrings, Bebris works her own brand of Austen magic, whetting the reader's appetite for a sequel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Bebris' charming mystery employs the beloved characters from Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice in a bit of sleuthing. The novel opens with a double wedding--that of Elizabeth Bennett to Fitzwilliam Darcy and Jane Bennett to Charles Bingley. It's the happiest day of Elizabeth's life, but she's a tad put out that her former rival, Caroline Bingley, has chosen this day to announce her engagement to a wealthy American landowner named Frederick Parrish. Rather than returning to Pemberley as they would like to do, Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam stay on in London until the wedding. But events conspire to keep them there longer when Caroline begins acting strangely: they discover her walking in a dangerous neighborhood, and days later she almost dies from wounds that appear to be self-inflicted. Everyone close to Caroline is baffled, and the mystery deepens when the father of a former rival for Parrish's hand is found murdered. Fans of Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen books will want to check out Bebris' series debut. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (February 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765305089
• ISBN-13: 978-0765305084
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #634,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Wonderful!, June 28, 2004

By 

Susan Sloate "Author, FORWARD TO CAMELOT" (Mount Pleasant, SC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Pride and Prescience: Or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged (Hardcover)

For lovers of Jane Austen's PRIDE & PREJUDICE, Carrie Bebris's brilliant sequel appears to pick up precisely where Austen left off, with the first days of married life for Mr. and Mrs. Darcy. The style, grammar and characters are so thoroughly consistent with Austen's masterpiece that they seem to blend into one. You cannot imagine Elizabeth and Darcy NOT behaving as they do in this wonderful novel. Their witty verbal sparring and Elizabeth's no-nonsense observations of the other characters are fresh, engaging and authentic.

For those who think that drawing room comedies are gentle and lack action, Bebris has provided an antidote: PRIDE AND PRESCIENCE features a woman going mad, a spooked horse, a terrible carriage accident, arson and murder. It's hard to imagine the characters have time to change their gowns for tea, with all that going on. Yet the plotting is strong and sure, and each incident appears both surprising and inevitable.

Bebris's own new characters are intriguing and well drawn. They blend beautifully with the Darcys, et al from Austen's classic.

I picked up this book the night I got it and have been unable to resist it since. A lovely, swift and absorbing read, featuring characters you already know if you know the original P&P. If you don't know them, reading Bebris BEFORE reading Austen's original will whet your appetite for the original itself.

This book gets my highest recommendation.

You'll love it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A 3.5 on the sequel scale..., December 26, 2004

By 

Anonymouse (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pride and Prescience: Or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged (Hardcover)

..which means that it's not bad, I don't regret purchasing it, I'd probably buy the next installment, but I have some reservations.

My cons: 1. I really didn't like the fact that Darcy and Lizzy had to postpone going to Pemberley for the sake of Caroline Bingley. Jane and Bingley would have been obligated, but not the Darcys.
2. The whole subject of the occult ~ Austen's original characters didn't seem the type to be interested.
3. Caroline's fiance - I doubt if she would have considered marrying an American and even if she had,(given the importance of family, connections, etc. at the time) someone would have nosied about for his true background.

My pros: 1. The language was not Jane Austen (of course not) and some 21st c. expressions came through but I liked it. The tendency of other sequel authors is to compose wordy sentences to mimic Ms. Austen. Thank goodness Ms. Bebris didn't do this.
2. The witty scenes between Lizzy and Darcy.
3. There was nothing offensive. I know that this doesn't sound like much of a compliment, but it is. ;) The characters were recognizable and obviously much effort was made to stay true to the original personalities.
4. The quality of the book itself was good; hardbound, no typos that I could tell.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Irritating sequel, May 3, 2004

By 

Woodbuckley (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pride and Prescience: Or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged (Hardcover)

I must admit to being an eager consumer of sequels to Jane Austen's novels. Dreadful I know, but I am almost helpless with curiosity when I see a fresh addition to this very long and seeminlgy endless list of the imaginings of others regarding our favourite characters and stories from Austen.
'Pride and Prejudice' I suspect to be the most popular in this regard, and so when I saw this one and read its premise I was intrigued. A new slant on the whole matter! We have had Miss Austen as detective in Stephanie Barron's series and now Darcy and Elizabeth!
Alas all my anticipation did not meet a happy eventuality. I found this made a good start with the opening scenes of the wedding and re-introducing the characters, but ... The whole thing upended itself with the arrival in London and Caroline Bingley's engagement to the mysterious American gentleman. It definitely became Gothic suspense and this is a genre that does not sit well with Austen, especially if one considers her gentle, sharp parodying of it in 'Northanger Abbey'. The resolution made my eyebrows shoot up with annoyance - the supernatural! All the good things in it were subsumed by this and it became silly. Very sad.