Customer Reviews

Pride and Prescience: Or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

..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.

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.

Pride and Prescience is a fantasy mystery, relying on the occult for victim control and for resolution of the mystery. Reads as a contemporary, rather than a Regency setting story.

As far as Pride and Prejudice sequels go, this one is one of the better. This was a fun book to read.

The plot of this book is very different from other P&P sequels. I found the most interesting part was the fact and Darcy and Elizabeth are the detectives of the story.

The book was well thought-out and it had many good twists and turns. Ms. Bebris also does a good job of picking up where Jane Austen left off. The characters remain true to themselves, but I do have one slight problem. The only issue I have with this book is that Elizabeth seems overly cynical, but other than that, it was great.

I think most Austen fans would like this book. Ms. Bebris did a good job with it.

Taking Jane Austen's wonderful characters and plotting this unbelievable mystery is such a grave injustice. Caroline Bingley would never have married an American and taking the mystery into occultic and mysticism is so beneath Mr. and Mrs. Darcy. Changing the ending of the original was not a good choice - everyone wants to know that the Darcy's spent a splendid holiday with friends and family at Pemberley. The author does try to keep up some of the interesting teasing that goes on between the newly married Darcy's, but after the first several chapters that is mostly missing from the story. I think it's better to leave the original alone and allow Jane's characters to stand alone and untouched.

I found this book just as interesting as the first one in this series. There was more of the supernatural in this book, and also very enjoyable interactions between the characters. I will read the rest of her series, and hope she writes more very soon.

I really enjoy the Stephanie Barron "Jane Austen mysteries" and thought that a "Mr. and Mrs. Darcy mystery" was a very clever idea. The book started well, I can live with some modernisms. Unfortunatly the book then veered in a direction completely contrary to the charactors Austen discribed. If Ms. Bebris wanted to write a story about the Occult in Victorian England that is fine, but she shouldn't highjack Jane and Darcy to do so.

I read this after reading the second installment in this series. Based other reviews I was expecting something rather worse that what I read.

I didn't find the plot as objectionable as some. Some fantasy elements mixed in do not bother me.

What did was the witchcrafty elements. Pentagrams, candles, 'mote it be'. I just can't see Dr Randolph convincing Elizabeth with her upbringing that a pentagram wasn't a sinister emblem and much less that she should be convinced that carrying one etched on a pocket watch around was more efficacious than prayer. I couldn't help wondering if the author was actually addressing these things in a sideways manner to the reader.

Even with these faults I did find it a well constructed and entertaining read so I give it a four. The next installment is better and I am starting in on the third book.

I love P&P and love a good mystery, so what a great combination! I have read quite a few sequels to P&P & this is one of the best! The author shows the relationship between both Darcy and Elizabeth in more depth than other sequels and I love how the tease and banter back and forth. It's just a delight to read.

I'm currently in the middle of reading the sequel, "Suspense and Sensibility", which I also highly recommend, and looking forward to the 3rd book in the series, "North by Northanger", which is due out in March 2006.