Death
Comes To Pemberly by P.D.James
If you
are a Jane Austin fan than this book is right up your alley. The book starts
right about where Pride and Prejudice left off. The author gives a great recap
of all the comings and goings of the Bennett family of Longborn. As you know,
if you read Pride and Prejudice, wild child Lydia married Mr. Wickham the
dashing, drunken cad. The lovely eldest Jane married the loveable Mr. Bingley.
My favorite character Elizabeth Bennett married the very brooding but handsome
and oh so well off Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy had to work very hard to overcome his
ingrained prejudice to marry his beloved Elizabeth and he is not over it.
Throughout the entire book you can see poor Mr. Darcy struggling between his
prejudice of Elizabeth's family (namely Wickham and Lydia) and his deep love
for his wife Elizabeth. In his mind he has sacrificed a great deal to be with
her.
As you
might remember Jane and Elizabeth are thick as thieves, joined at the hip in
other words really close. If it was modern times, on any given day you would
most likely find the sisters in one of their kitchens drinking tea and catching
up. The Bingleys live only a short distance away and are at the Darcy’s Mansion
the night before Lady Anne’s Ball, eating dinner.
This is
where the story really gets rolling. The Ball originated with Mr. Darcy’s
mother Lady Anne and the young couple felt the need to continue having this
Ball since this event was greatly anticipated by the aristocracy. After all
what else did they have to do to amuse themselves.
So crazy
Lydia Bennett nee Wickham shows up at Pemberly wildly out of control nothing
new for her, screaming that shots were fired in the woods and poor Wickham is
probably dead. Although Darcy loathes the fact that he must get involved, he
organizes a search party. Believe me he is pissed. He despises Wickham and
can’t stomach Lydia. In fact by mutual agreement Darcy and Elizabeth basically
told the Wickhams that they were not welcomed at Pemberly. If they had only
listened but Lydia listens to no one. Now Darcy is forced to deal with this
situation. He finds Mr. Wickham very much alive in the woods of Pemberly but with
him is the body of Captain Denny, Wickham’s BFF and the story goes on from
there.
The
author does a great job transitioning the characters into her book. This allows
us to get to know them a little better so we have a better idea of what makes
them tick. She even manages to keep the tone of Pride and Prejudice without
getting too stuffy.
The thing I find most interesting about this book is how well the author
seems to know the characters and how this book is a natural and believable
continuation of Pride and Prejudice. It is rare that an author can write a
“sequel” when they did not write the original book. This has been attempted
before in the book Scarlet the Sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with The
Wind. That author totally missed the boat. So if you read this book, tell me
how you think it stacks up to Pride and Prejudice. Is it a believable sequel?
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