Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman PDF
Preview Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman
The second installment in Aidan's Fitzwilliam Darcy trilogy has the Pride and Prejudice hero wrestling with his infatuation with Elizabeth Bennet. While Aidan's Darcy exhibits the class snobbery and noblesse oblige readers expect of him, he also has a purpose: Darcy decides he must find another woman "of his own station as beautiful and blessed with wit as Elizabeth Bennet, whose charms would banish her from his mind and displace her in his heart." While searching for this woman, Darcy looks after his sister, Georgiana, who is emerging from a long depression. Aidan is comfortable with the overwrought Regency prose and tropes ("The horses, atremble with desire for home, broke into a canter from which no one in the coach wished to dissuade them") and, instead of imitating Austen, convincingly makes Darcy's story her own. Darcy and his loyal valet, Fletcher, travel to Norwycke Castle for a house party where murky inheritances, debt, husband-hunting aristocrats, the supernatural and dead ancestors commingle, resulting in a good time for fans of the series and those enamored of Austen. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
What is it about Fitzwilliam Darcy? Two hundred years after he captivated Elizabeth Bennett, readers still can't seem to get their fill of him. This title is just the latest in Darcy-inspired Jane Austen "fanfiction." It's better to forget Pride and Prejudice and read Aidan's knockoff on its own terms. Duty and Desire takes place during a few short weeks following Darcy's departure from Netherfield. After spending some time in London with his sister Georgiana and noting some puzzling changes in her interests, he sets off for a house party, determined to put Elizabeth Bennett out of his mind and find himself a more suitable partner. At first the aristocratic group gathered at Norwycke Castle seems to offer matrimonial possibilities, but soon Darcy is embroiled in a somewhat improbable mystery, which is solved thanks in part to the below-stairs access of Fletcher, his resourceful valet. Plenty of period detail, witty dialogue, humor (including a scene in which several characters discuss the new novel Sense and Sensibility), and elements of the gothic will keep readers entertained. This is the middle book in a trilogy, preceded by An Assembly Such As This (2006) and followed by These Three Remain. All three were originally self--published. Simon & Schuster will bring out These Three Remain early next year. Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
The list of books you might like
