Can there be too much of a good thing? Why yes, yes, there can be. I am not late to the love of Pride and Prejudice, but I suppose I'm fairly late to reading the enormous number of parody/worshipful/slavish copycats/tangential stories that arise from an obsession with Jane Austen's best-known novel. It's not that I'm unaware of this cottage industry--quite unlike P.D. James who has just written Death Comes to Pemberley, and admitted her obliviousness in this terribly cute way on an interview with Morning Edition:James, who is 91, explains how she began her Austen sequel: "When I started, I said to my PA, 'We should look on the Internet!' ... she does all these clever things which I don't do — and see how many other people had written sequels. And we were amazed, absolutely amazed."
So, I haven't read Death Comes to Pemberley, partly because an Austen-obsessed friend warned me off, but I did pick up Pamela Aidan's trilogy that imagines the events of Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of Darcy. The first one, An Assembly Such as This, was delicious, just what anyone who loves Elizabeth Bennet could have wanted. Aidan satisfyingly explains Darcy's mystifying behavior towards the woman he is obviously meant to marry. A librarian in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (something so perfect about that!), Aidan captures the humor Austen fans have come to appreciate without resorting to anachronism (the way the 2005 Keira Knightley movie did). and brings some minor characters to the forefront to help round out Darcy's true and private character. According to Aidan, he is not just governed by his status and his family expectations, but has never even learned to be easy in company, never expected that he need be, so burdened by status and responsibility. Even when he tries on what comes so easily to his friend Bingley, Darcy fails to read social situations properly. He is, according to Aidan, trying with Elizabeth, but he's not got a clue : All in all, he was rather pleased with his foray into the unfamiliar realm of flirtation, he says at one point. But of course, he's only further offended Elizabeth in this scene, much as he does with his bungled first marriage proposal.
I skipped book two, Duty and Desire, which, according to the back covers the "silent time" of Austen's novel. Aidan's imagination probably fills out Darcy's character admirably, and I do appreciate that she grounds her novels in the events of the day (Napoleonic Wars, political intrigue) because Austen's books are, essentially, romances and therefore out of the real world, but I don't really care that much about Darcy when he's not dealing with the Bennets.
The third book, These Three Remain, takes Darcy back to Elizabeth, meeting her at Rosings Park, and deals with his hand in the dreaded Lydia/Wickam affair. Neatly done, and I loved Darcy's friend Dyford, Lord Brougham, who along, with Darcy's cousin Richard Fitzwilliam, help him see the errors of his ways toward Elizabeth. Yes, yes, that would be the Darcy approach, wouldn't it?Dy had skewered him with sarcasem. Only you, my friend, would make the lady's general unfitness the leading topic in a proposal of marriage." Because, of course, Darcy's argument when Elizabeth took him to task for his poorly executed attempt was to draw himself up and say, "Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own"
Yes, well done Mr. Darcy. Girls love that kind of charm. Turns out, he's not quite the gentleman he believes himself to be, and these novels allow us to poke holes in him, just as Elizabeth does in Austen's novel.
Aidan is smart to force Darcy to open up to his friends, to unwind that pride he holds so tight. These are romance novels of a most superior kind, much like Austen's own are. They are the perfect recipe for deep winter days by the fireplace, with or without the middle novel.
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