I have read, and loved, Pride and Prejudice as well as many “spin-off” titles, including Longbourn, which was mentioned in the introduction to this book, so any book which returns to these beloved characters to tell us more about them is instantly attractive to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first few chapters of this offering - it is nice to see another more sympathetic side to Mr Collins, who appears in the original novel to be a pompous windbag, and something of a buffoon! Here he is being treated much more kindly, and this rounds out his character nicely. It is also good to find out what happened to Charlotte after her marriage to Collins, because, although she doesn’t disappear from Pride and Prejudice after this event, the focus is obviously elsewhere in the original.
It is also interesting, and rather refreshing, to find that in this offering, at least at the outset, Elizabeth and Darcy are not inhabiting some kind of fairytale Happy-Ever-Afterland, but have problems of their own - although I would hope for them to be resolved by the end of the book!
I feel that the author has understood the characters in the original work well, and will take them in new and interesting directions, and the writing style is similar enough to Austen’s not to jar, without coming across as a pale imitation. I also enjoyed some clever references to the original, such as when Lizzy tells Charlotte of their conquering of (to paraphrase) “Darcy’s pride and my quick prejudice” when they married.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this excellent beginning, and would love to find out how things turn out here for all of these characters whom I love so much.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first few chapters of this offering - it is nice to see another more sympathetic side to Mr Collins, who appears in the original novel to be a pompous windbag, and something of a buffoon! Here he is being treated much more kindly, and this rounds out his character nicely. It is also good to find out what happened to Charlotte after her marriage to Collins, because, although she doesn’t disappear from Pride and Prejudice after this event, the focus is obviously elsewhere in the original.
It is also interesting, and rather refreshing, to find that in this offering, at least at the outset, Elizabeth and Darcy are not inhabiting some kind of fairytale Happy-Ever-Afterland, but have problems of their own - although I would hope for them to be resolved by the end of the book!
I feel that the author has understood the characters in the original work well, and will take them in new and interesting directions, and the writing style is similar enough to Austen’s not to jar, without coming across as a pale imitation. I also enjoyed some clever references to the original, such as when Lizzy tells Charlotte of their conquering of (to paraphrase) “Darcy’s pride and my quick prejudice” when they married.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this excellent beginning, and would love to find out how things turn out here for all of these characters whom I love so much.