Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813), describes a society whose members, constantly fearing the loss of personal reputation, ask themselves this question like a reprimand: What will people say? The title’s timeless alliteration also displays how words shape reputation’s near relation–memory. Soniah Kamal’s Unmarriageable (2019), a retelling of Austen’s novel, explores the way in which language impacts cultural and personal memory. Set in Pakistan in the early 2000s, the novel follows Alys Binat and her sisters as they navigate the marriage market, female identity, and British and Pakistani influences on their self-expression. Kamal translates “What will people say?” into Urdu: ” کہیںگے/ Log kya kahenge” (35). She applies a post-colonialist perspective to…
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Most Ardently: Pamela Aidan’s Mr. Darcy in An Assembly Such As This
Pamela Aidan’s An Assembly Such as This, A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman (2003) is a partial retelling of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) from the perspective of Mr. Darcy. It is the first in a series of three novels by Aidan that follow the story of Pride and Prejudice, and this volume covers the first part of Austen’s famous novel once the Bingleys have moved into the neighborhood bringing their friend, Mr. Darcy, with them. Aidan’s novel covers the events that take place from the Netherfield Ball up until Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley’s departure to London through Mr. Darcy’s perspective. She creates a character who looks…
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Yours Forevermore, Darcy: Exploring the Feminine Side of the Romance Hero
Mr. Darcy, the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice (1813), has become the model for many romance heroes. According to Deborah Kaplan, the romance hero is characterized by being “self-assured, hot-tempered, capable of passion, and often mysteriously moody” (171). All of these qualities are evident in Darcy’s character. Yet, despite Mr. Darcy’s undeniable status as a hero, his narrative remains a point of intrigue for readers and writers. Darcy’s shift from the “arrogant young man” at the beginning of Austen’s novel to the “polite gentleman whom Elizabeth marries” has generated an ongoing debate about his true character (Moler 491). The mystery surrounding Darcy might be why KaraLynne Mackrory’s novel, Yours Forevermore,…
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Jane Fairfax and Emma Woodhouse Can’t Be Friends
Emma Woodhouse is quite atypical for an Austen heroine in that her prettiness and charm are bolstered by both financial security and status, albeit within the intimacy of Highbury. This is an advantage not experienced by Anne Elliot, Fanny Price, the Bennets, or the Dashwoods, who for all their attributes, either have no fortune or only a tenuous proximity to one at the start of their stories. Emma is also arguably the most unlikeable Austen heroine, which is no accident on the part of the author who was famously quoted by her nephew James Edward as having stated that she had written “a heroine whom no one but [her]self will…
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Presumption: An Entertainment
Julia Braun Kessler (1926-2012) and Gabrielle Donnelly’s Presumptions: An Entertainment: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice (1993) offers a continuation of the well-loved 1813 novel, from the perspective of Georgiana Darcy. Written under the nom de plume Julia Barrett, who has also written two other Austen engagements, Presumption introduces readers to the happy marriage of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, explores Georgiana Darcy’s coming of age, and follows the Bennet family through another set of crises. The focus of the novel is marriage, particularly the marriage of Georgiana Darcy. While echoing the beginning of Pride and Prejudice (1813), as any discerning reader will recognize, Presumptions opens with “If, as the prevailing wisdom…
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Privileging the Male Perspective: Wendy van Camp’s The Curate’s Brother
Wendy van Camp’s The Curate’s Brother: A Variation on Persuasion (2015) traces its literary ancestry back to fanfic more than the Regency novel. Whereas the Sir Walter Elliot of Jane Austen’s Persuasion (1818) reads through centuries of his family’s published lineage, the modern reader of Camp’s novelette skims through just over a decade’s worth of literary internet culture deceptively packaged as a period piece (Persuasion 1). Fanfic may have been coined in the 1930s, but according to Stephanie Burt in “The Promise and Potential of Fan Fiction”, the digitized fanfic that we recognize today began in 2007 (The New Yorker). Notable for its interactive qualities, fanfic allows writers and readers to mold literary…
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An Arranged Marriage: Mary Bennet’s Alternate Path
Jan Hahn’s novel An Arranged Marriage: A Pride and Prejudice Alternate Path (2011) imagines an alternate ending to Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice (1813): Elizabeth accepts Mr. Darcy’s second proposal not as a result of the revelation of the actuality of his genuine care for her and general benevolence, but because it is necessitated by her family’s financial crisis following the death of Mr. Bennet. Hahn’s central intent is intimated by Elizabeth’s own pointed reflection on the elucidating letter she received from Darcy following her initial refusal to marry him, that “much was gained by reading between the lines” (60). Where Elizabeth looks to this letter to “[e]nlighten [her] to…
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Henry Tilney’s Diary
In Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (1798/1818), Henry Tilney pokes fun at Catherine Morland for not keeping a journal: “‘my dear madam, I am not so ignorant of young ladies’ ways as you wish to believe me; it is this delightful habit of journalizing which largely contributes to form the easy style of writing for which ladies are so generally celebrated’” (Austen, Northanger Abbey, 27). Henry’s teasing disbelief at Catherine’s lack of journalizing informs Amanda Grange’s novel inspired by Northanger Abbey: Henry Tilney’s Diary (2011). Grange chronicles three major periods of Henry’s life through the form of a personal diary. Set between 1790 and 1799, the diary traces Henry’s maturation and…
