Customer Reviews

Searching for Pemberley

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The book is not a direct retelling of P&P but uses the book as a back drop for the love story between Maggie, Rob and Michael. It is set post WWII and follows the "real" family history that the JA novel was based upon.
It is a compelling read and keeps you interested. The other reviews gave detailed descriptions of the plot that I will not recreate here, but they are accurate.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wished to read JA inspired romances, rated PG. I want to know what happens to the characters and am hoping for a sequel.

I just finished this book and I absolutely loved it. It reads much more like a real life story and puts Elizabeth and Darcy and the relatives into better perspective. It helped put all the other sequels I have read into perspective as well. I found the book great fun and couldn't put it down.

On a trip to England, after World War II, an American woman, Maggie James, sets out to investigate a rumor concerning Jane Austen's writing of literature's famous Pride and Prejudice. The history of Pemberley begins to open as she meets the residents of a beautiful stately mansion in the countryside. Was this the actual home of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy? Through reading a series of old documents, Maggie begins to unravel the history and personalities behind one of the most beloved romances in literature.

The author's writing flows with ease from page to page, making it an easy, fast read. It's a story that brings new insight, meaning, and possibilities to an old favorite that is sure to fascinate Austen fans.

I had high expectations of this book based on the reviews. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to my expectations.

Strengths:
-Interesting weaving of fiction and non-fiction about the Pride and Prejudice places and characters
-Fun tie-in of 1940's characters with Regency P&P characters
- A few new twists and interpretations of motives and characterizations of P&P characters

Weaknesses: -Too much factual information compared to story and character development. Needed a good editor!
- I wondered if the author was trying to tie in parts of her own autobiography (Minook, PA etc) with the other stories she was telling. Felt campy and like a memoir in parts.
- Occasional examples of the author going off on sharp tangents (copy and pasting sections of the text?) and losing track of the story, needed closer editing!
-Weak ending, the P&P connection ended half way through the book.
- This book could easily have been a lot shorter and would have been a better book.

Weaknesses well described in review by J. H. Majeran "Lord Wilde" (Boston, MA). I am copying parts of this review that I fully agree with!

"I think the book would have worked better had either the continuous WWII history lessons been lessened or if the Pride and Prejudice bits had been taken out. In fact, the story had less to do with Pride and Prejudice than was suggested.......The story of the Lacey's connection to Darcy and Elizabeth was tied up pretty neatly halfway through the book and then the focus shifted more to Maggie's story with Rob and Michael.

I felt Maggie's story fell flat. There were too many lengthy history lessons - it felt as though the author had done a lot of research, which was great, but it felt like she wanted to make sure to cram all that research into the book and it took away from the story for me. I didn't feel very connected to Maggie as a character. She felt like more of a backdrop to the rest of them, just a narrator telling us everyone else's story and every once in a while telling us hers and expecting us to care. Her relationship with Michael didn't have much of a build up. She met him once and they had one scene together... and then when they meet up again he's telling he would have already married her. I got that he was the type of guy to believe in love at first sight and that he was a bit like William Lacey (Mr. Darcy) in that respect, but I still felt as though it was forced.... The diatribes these characters would go on got to be too much for me. I wanted to have more of a connection to these characters, but even their extensive stories did not give me that.

I made it to chapter 8, and I simply couldn't take it any more. The main character is a woman from the 40's and the author has her using poor modern day language, like 'hook up' and many other ridiculous phrases. It was so distracting that it finally caused me to return the book.

I was also disappointed in the introduction of one of her main love intrests. She hardly described their encounter, courting and feelings at all. In a page and a half they went from introduction to dating. Also, the author does very little to make Maggie a real person, spending hardly any time connecting the reader to the main character.

"When I begin writing a story, I start with a "brain dump..." - from an interview with the author. She certainly dumped this one out.

Don't bother!

Searching For Pemberly takes the premise that Ms Austen based the characters of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy on actual people living during her lifetime. The question is, who were they? Though many say that its a mystery, I found the answers or the main character, Maggie's, discovery of them to be lacking suspense.

What I did enjoy was the weaving of historical facts with fiction. I could almost beleive that the story was real and that you were meeting actual decendants of the "Darcys" throughout the tale. There were times when I was tempted to google the names of places to see if they actually did exist! The twofold plot was interesting too. The mix between life as it was prior to the two world wars, as well as life after and how the characters deal with such changes adds depth the to the story.

The similarites between Maggie's romantic life and Elizabeth Bennet's are pronounced. Each of the characters presented appear to have counterparts in Pride and Prejudice. Maggie's own personal history growing up in a coal mining town is often referenced. Though living in England, you can see how the traditions that she was raised with there effect her decisions, though it is not until the end of the book that you actually see where she grew up, and the tone of the book takes a decidely somber turn when the setting changes.

The romance aspect of the book is probably the least exciting aspect. Though the romantic triangle between Maggie, Rob and Michael is established early, the tension between the three isn't very strongly portrayed, taking a back seat to Maggie's search for information about Elizabeth and William, as well as the developing the relationship between Crowells and Maggie.

The only complaint I have is that the prose can be a bit wordy and ponderious at times with much more telling than showing action.

For anyone who truly loves Pride and Prejudice though, its certainly an entertaining read!

When I read Pride and Prejudice when I was 12, it made my Top Ten list and has remained on it since. I think that Searching for Pemberley has a great hook with P&P story, it just fails to deliver. The connection bogs the story down frequently, and utlimately, is quite boring. It should have been discarded completely, focusing the attention on Maggie and her story.

I could be Maggie - I come from a small coal mining town in Montana (which incidentally has the largest coal reserves in the world not PA as stated in the book. WY produces more, though.), and I left it for the big city. I know why I left it, but as a reader, I don't know why Maggie left the small town and never really returned. In fact as a reader I don't know much about Maggie. I don't what makes her tick. I don't know how WWII affected/changed her; or how living in postwar Germany and England changed her. I know that they should have affected her, though. As a reader you don't see it, and you need to because it's character development.

Rob, honestly, what straight American male in any age is going to be that curious about someone's personal life? The information he passes onto Maggie from Jack feels fake because men just don't work that way. I can't get that much information out of my husband - and he works in media! These conversation feel even less real when Rob has his final conversation with Maggie.

Michael - you only get to know him thru the eyes of his parents, brother, and family friend (or cousin, I can't remember). He and Maggie rarely spend time together to make it believable. Even Mr. Darcy didn't fall in love at first sight. He came to love Lizzie because of her wit, and of course, her 'fine eyes.'

Don't get me started on the modern lingo that Maggie uses. My grandmother would NEVER use hook up. With better research, including the use of 1940s slang, and character development this could be a good 1940s romance.

Mary Lydon Simonsen's Searching for Pemberley starts was a premise many interviewers often ask authors about their fiction: "Are any of your characters based upon real people?" Did Jane Austen use real people to write the great love story of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy? Simonsen's book may not offer the truth behind Austen's characters, but it does spin a unique mystery tale through which one possible reality of Mr. Darcy and Ms. Bennet are discovered.

Maggie Joyce is the main protagonist and an American from a coal mining town in Pennsylvania. She quickly leaves her hometown of Minooka for Washington, D.C., to help with the government with its World War II-related administrative work. Eventually she is stationed in Germany and later in England following the end of the war. She meets a fantastic family, the Crowells, who help her unravel the real family behind Jane Austen's characters.

Told from Maggie's point of view, the novel grabs readers with its immediacy as Maggie moves through war-torn Europe and reads through a variety of diary entries and letters to uncover the origins of Pride and Prejudice (Penguin Classics). Readers who have read Austen's novel once or more than a dozen times will recognize echoes of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy in the Crowells and may even find parts of the mystery obvious. However, this story is more than a look at where Austen may have found inspiration, it is about a nation (England) and its people in the midst of rebuilding after the devastation of the German blitzkrieg and World War II. There also a healthy dose of romance between Maggie and two beaus that add to the tension.

Simonsen does an excellent job examining the shell shock felt by airmen and other military personnel and how their war experiences could impact their relationships with family, friends, and lovers. While there are some occasions in this nearly 500-page book that are bogged down by too much detail, Simonsen's characters are well developed and the twists and turns as Maggie unravels the mystery of the Bennets and the Darcys are fun. The aftermath of World War II is well done and rich in emotional and physical detail, showing Simonsen's deft research and keen eye. Searching for Pemberley is an excellent addition to the every growing market of Jane Austen spin-offs.

I think the book would have worked better had either the continuous WWII history lessons been lessened or if the Pride and Prejudice bits had been taken out. In fact, the story had less to do with Pride and Prejudice than was suggested. It seemed superfluous to add that bit, as though the author decided she needed a reason to hook the readers and make a connection for Maggie with the Crowell's. The story of the Lacey's connection to Darcy and Elizabeth was tied up pretty neatly halfway through the book and then the focus shifted more to Maggie's story with Rob and Michael.

I felt Maggie's story fell flat. There were too many lengthy history lessons - it felt as though the author had done a lot of research, which was great, but it felt like she wanted to make sure to cram all that research into the book and it took away from the story for me. I didn't feel very connected to Maggie as a character. She felt like more of a backdrop to the rest of them, just a narrator telling us everyone else's story and every once in a while telling us hers and expecting us to care.

Her relationship with Michael didn't have much of a build up. She met him once and they had one scene together, he flirted with her and all of a sudden he's asking his mother about her in letters and then when they meet up again he's telling he would have already married her. I got that he was the type of guy to believe in love at first sight and that he was a bit like William Lacey (Mr. Darcy) in that respect, but I still felt as though it was forced. And it made Maggie seem a bit heartless when she was so hard on Rob when she knew that he was having difficult time reconciling all that he had been through in the war and what was to happen to him now. So much was told about how Rob felt and what he had gone through, that it seemed as though he was being tossed aside and made out to be a monster once Michael was back in the picture.

I understand that the author was trying to paint us a picture of war-ravaged Europe and the effects it had on the people surrounding Maggie as well as Maggie herself, but I still believe that less is more. You can convey a feeling and an atmosphere without expounding too much on the particulars. The diatribes these characters would go on got to be too much for me. I wanted to have more of a connection to these characters, but even their extensive stories did not give me that.

I enjoyed this book very much. The post WW11 storyline was an eye opener. The P&P research fun. However, whenever I think of Darcy and Elizabeth I see the actors from the A&E production re: Colin Firth.