I just finished reading Death Comes to Pemberley yesterday while driving home from Illinois. It was a nice easy read compared to Vanity Fair which seemed to kick my butt every time I tried to sit and read it. Death Comes to Pemberley was written by P.D. James and is a murder mystery surrounding the beloved characters of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It certainly was not what I was expecting. And I may have had my hopes up a little too high for it.
It was set at Pemberley 6 years after Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy married days before the glorious Lady Anne's Ball that is held every year at Pemberley. Jane and Mr. Bingley, Georgianna and Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Lydia and Wickham all appear throughout the story.
The night before the ball a murder takes place in the woods of Pemberley and Wickham is accused. Turns out he has an illegitimate child and a scandalous plan for saving face. Lydia is constantly in hysterics (just like her mother I suppose). Georgianna is falling in love with a good friend of Mr. Bingley. And the love between Elizabeth and Darcy is growing more and more and takes a prominent place in setting the stage of their home and relationship.
The story is interesting to say the least. There are a lot of chapters or stories that don't seem to fit at all. And the flow of the story seems to be pretty choppy because of it. Her writing style is unique as she tries to be as much like Austen as possible (she has quite a few lines that are exactly what Jane Austen wrote... especially the line about the "shades or woods of Pemberley being thus polluted"), but in my opinion it comes nowhere near as good in style of writing as Jane Austen's. But it was a good attempt at trying to further the stories of such loved characters.
I am now going to start reading The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux which is one of my Classics Club picks. I am excited to delve into a book from which one of my favorite musicals is based on. I just hope that I am not too disappointed.
It was set at Pemberley 6 years after Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy married days before the glorious Lady Anne's Ball that is held every year at Pemberley. Jane and Mr. Bingley, Georgianna and Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Lydia and Wickham all appear throughout the story.
The night before the ball a murder takes place in the woods of Pemberley and Wickham is accused. Turns out he has an illegitimate child and a scandalous plan for saving face. Lydia is constantly in hysterics (just like her mother I suppose). Georgianna is falling in love with a good friend of Mr. Bingley. And the love between Elizabeth and Darcy is growing more and more and takes a prominent place in setting the stage of their home and relationship.
The story is interesting to say the least. There are a lot of chapters or stories that don't seem to fit at all. And the flow of the story seems to be pretty choppy because of it. Her writing style is unique as she tries to be as much like Austen as possible (she has quite a few lines that are exactly what Jane Austen wrote... especially the line about the "shades or woods of Pemberley being thus polluted"), but in my opinion it comes nowhere near as good in style of writing as Jane Austen's. But it was a good attempt at trying to further the stories of such loved characters.
Comments
Post a Comment