Letters From Pemberley by Jane Dawkins

Letters From Pemberley by Jane Dawkins

(The First Year)

I did say at the end of the last book I read (Mr Darcys Great Escape by Marsha Altan) that the next book would seem pretty dull.

Well, may be but Letters from Pemberley is rescued by it’s charm.

It is written in the form of letters from Elizabeth Darcy the new mistress of Pemberley Manor, to her dearly beloved and newly wed Sister, Jane Bingley.

Sisters used to sharing their daily insights and inner feelings with each other I am sure, would keep in touch regularly wi regarding each others gossip of the day.

The author has moved characters from several of the other Jane Austen books and changed their names and moved then to Derbyshire, hence the Knightlys from Emma become the Daleys, it is easy to see which characters have been used even with the changed names and is a nice touch.

Mention is given to Mr Darcys schemes to up date his home and farming methods in keeping with the times, well researched and in character.

This book is calm charming and in no way racy, I feel it could have had a little more of Elizabeths cutting tone to it.

But pleasant none the less the letters from all the sisters to each other especially Lydias would be quite fun to read. May be that could be another book?

Pemberley Manor by Kathryn L. Nelson

Pemberley Manor by Kathryn L. Nelson

Darcy and Elizabeth For Better Or For Worse by Kathryn L. Nelson

This book starts at the Wedding of Mr Bingley to Jane Bennet and Mr Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet and as you would expect Caroline Bingley is hating every minute and Mrs Bennet’s nerves are in shreds.

The couples head out to start their married lives and the story follows Darcy and Elizabeth, we are led to understand that Darcy has had a troubled child hood with dark undercurrents that he does not understand and this leads to his massive swings in temperament, one minute blissfully happy and the next thundering tempers of the blackest kind and in another tears of weeping remorse.

I have to say in this day and age he would probably be pronounced bipolar and put on prozac or at the very least valium.

This does not stop it from being a ripping yarn, but, you can’t help feeling that Lizzy really has bitten off more than she can chew. Jane definitely having got the better deal.

My other problem is with Caroline Bingley who is quite as ruthless and horrid as she could be, but at the end of the story (and even though I hate to give story lines away) she goes through an epiphany and turns into a Jane Bennet.

Why? Jane Austen was happy to have rotters in her books, why do so many feel the need to turn the bad good ?

We allow Elizabeth to change Darcy for the better that’s what all women cherish (of getting a leopard to change his spots) but Caroline is a Bitch with a capital B, she is not going to change the habits of a life time whatever she has done.

Please leave the bad guys bad, I like them that way as I am sure do many others.