Mr. Darcy's Daughters
A Novel
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3.8 • 12 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen devotees everywhere, a charming and delightful novel for anyone who has ever wondered what the Darcy children might be like.
Picking up twenty years after Pride and Prejudice left off, Mr. Darcy's Daughters begins in the year 1818. Elizabeth and Darcy have gone to Constantinople, giving us an opportunity to get to know their five daughters, who have left the sheltered surroundings of Pemberley for a few months in London. While the eldest, Letitia, frets and the youngest, Alethea, practices her music, twins Georgina and Belle flirt and frolic their way through parties and balls, while Camilla—levelheaded and independent—discovers what joys and sorrows the city has to offer an intelligent young woman. Readers will delight in the return of such beloved Austen creations as Elizabeth's old nemesis Caroline Bingley (now Lady Warren), the ever-reliable Gardiners, and wayward Aunt Lydia.
Charming, beautifully written, and full of societal intrigue and romantic high jinks, Mr. Darcy's Daughters is a tale that would please Austen herself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This sequel to Pride and Prejudice from first-time novelist Aston reads more like a beach book for historical fiction fans than a literary homage to Austen's masterpiece. The novel is set in 1818, when Mr. and Mrs. Darcy (nee Elizabeth Bennett) have gone on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople and left their five daughters in London with Darcy's cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam and his wife. Bossy Letitia and rebellious Camilla, the two eldest girls at 21 and 19, look forward to London's social whirl; the youngest, 16-year-old Althea, has an opportunity to study voice with an Italian master musician; and 17-year-old twins Georgina and Belle can't wait to flirt and break hearts. But the young country ladies "need to keep their wits well about them" in the city; pitfalls abound, suitors come calling and soon the Darcy girls-especially the mischievous Camilla, who "had too much of a sense of humour, too witty a tongue and too clever a mind"-are raising eyebrows and incurring the censure of some powerful Londoners. Aston attempts to imitate Austen's style, with little success-the prose is stilted and anachronistic ("it would be very fortunate if we were to find a suitable young man for Letitia. To help her get over Tom's loss, you know, and give her thoughts a new direction"). The daughters' personalities are drawn in broad, predictable strokes, and the romantic plot feels contrived and overly drawn out. Despite the curiosity factor, even Austen fans will likely give this a miss, perhaps turning instead to Emma Tennant's superior Austen sequels (Pemberley, etc.).
Customer Reviews
A wild chase!
This book is a great chase through the social scene of London. As you might imagine, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett are a match, if considered eccentric for their time and they have produced daughters with the same headstrong sensibilities. Watch as these girls bloom into women and find their own way into the world in true Darcy style.
The plot has a few thin spots, but all in all this is a very enjoyable read that is hard to put down. It is the things that happened in real life that were just too scandalous for paper in Austen's day.