An Assembly Such as This
A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- 15,99 €
Publisher Description
The first installment in Pamela Aidan’s irresistible trilogy, An Assembly Such as This takes us into the world of Jane Austen’s Fitzwilliam Darcy.
“She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me.”
So begins the timeless romance of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen’s classic novel is beloved by millions, but little is revealed in the book about the mysterious and handsome hero, Mr. Darcy. And so the question has long remained: Who is Fitzwilliam Darcy?
In An Assembly Such as This, Pamela Aidan finally answers that long-standing question. In this first book of her Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy, she reintroduces us to Darcy during his visit to Hertfordshire with his friend Charles Bingley and reveals Darcy’s hidden perspective on the events of Pride and Prejudice. As Darcy spends more time at Netherfield supervising Bingley and fending off Miss Bingley’s persistent advances, his unwilling attraction to Elizabeth grows—as does his concern about her relationship with his nemesis, George Wickham.
Setting the story vividly against the colorful historical and political background of the Regency era, Aidan writes in a style comfortably at home with Austen but with a wit and humor very much her own. Aidan adds her own cast of fascinating characters to those in Austen’s original, weaving a rich tapestry from Darcy’s past and present. Austen fans and newcomers alike will love this new chapter of the most famous romance of all time.
Customer Reviews
Great initial effort
“An assembly such as this”... Several authors have attempted to either write a continuation after P&P or render Darcy’s POV. This is one of the better ones. Part 1 remains fairly close imho to the nature of Darcy, nor eschews his ugly part in dissuading Bingley from his attachment to Jane Bennett.
I appreciate the author’s efforts in writing novel conversations and meetings in Hertfordshire (rather than go over the same ground again than what Jane Austen provided), as well as the research and allusions to history and particularities of the regency period.
But I find those same efforts are also cause for incomplete satisfaction. Especially upon the arrival in London, the narrative seems to become more and more an expose by the author of “see how well researched this was”, or at least it seems to me the author relished so much in the research she could not resist indulging herself in writing it into the story. This would not be any problem if it adds to the story. For me, some of it failed to add and worse slowed the plot unnecessarily.
The author has her own voice of course, but when writing something that originates with Austen and is inspired by her, then much of the writing becomes sluggish in plot and too descriptive. Jane Austen did not use names of historical characters in such a forward way. Her descriptions were short, succinct and to the point, and she relied much more dialogue to drive the plot. We know Darcy to be sort of a ponderous fellow, but verbose descriptiveness does not seem to fit either Darcy nor Austen. Nor did I ever need such descriptions to envision what Jane Austen envisioned.
So, while I was enticed by the prospect of reading Darcy’s side of the story, and I think the plot of part 1 well crafted (aside from imo a deviation of the timespan, order and reasons for Bingleys leaving for London with the canon), the last third of the first novel of this series lost its initial shwung by the author refraining to cut anything non-essential to plot and losing the emotionality of the characters in the story to showing off research and descriptions.