Summary: Basically this is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, except told from Mr. Darcy's point of view. The events and timeline are identical, save a few editorial errors. The dialogue between Elizabeth and Darcy is taken exactly from the original text.

My Review: There are several things that I was hoping to get from this book. First, I wanted to see insight into Mr. Darcy's mind as he met and fell in love with Elizabeth. Second, I hoped that Janet Aylmer could write dialogue that would keep in step with the original and that I would get to enjoy more of the Bingley sister's wit and censure of Elizabeth behind her back. Unfortunatley, I was largely disappointed in both respects.

While we do see Mr. Darcy falling in love, I found no new information on what he was thinking when he was talking, save the one line that Darcy says to E. at Rosings, "We neither of us perform to strangers", which the author seems to discuss to a bit of depth. But as far as his thoughts, the first half of the book, is almost exactly the same as the original. To paraphrase Darcy's Story, his thoughts generally run along the line of...He was drawn toward the piano in hopes of partaking in conversation with Elizabeth, but he didn't know why...Hmm, not exactly what I was hoping.

In the case of my latter wish, I can not think of any extra dialogue spoken by Miss Bingely or Mrs. Hurst, although there were a couple pages of other pleasant surprises. When Mr. Darcy is talking to Georgiana, trying to explain his feelings for Elizabeth, I was ready for ten pages of their discussion. Unfortunately, Ms. Aylmer only gave us about three, though they were rather nice. Yet I felt they definitely fell short of making Georgiana all that interested in wanting to meet E., nor would their conversation have made it clear to Georgiana how strongly Darcy felt about E. Nor did Darcy's rendition encompass enough of Elizabeth's personality and accomplishments to inspire Georgiana to 'particularily wish to be introduced to' Elizabeth.

One of the reasons that I felt that this book was worth reading for me, is that although it isn't particularily well-written and editing errors are abundant, is because it did offer me a bit of insight into Mr. Darcy. I suppose that I may have been expecting too much, but in the end I was thrilled with Ms. Aylmer's handling of Darcy's decision to repropose to Elizabeth. It made me realize that in my countless readings of the original book, I had never been convinced that Mr. Darcy had truly given up hope of ever being able to win Elizabeth's love. The way Darcy's Story presents Darcy's decision process is very interesting and made me realize a side may exist to him that I have never considered before.

I think that your enjoyment of this novel would depend on HOW you love Pride and Prejudice. If you love all things Austen, then I would put this book aside and reread Emma. If you love all things Austen, but have a particular affinity for all things Darcy, then this is definitely worth a read.

Go back Anita's books page.