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    Darcy's Story
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    Darcy's Story
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    Darcy's Story
    Ebook273 pages4 hours

    Darcy's Story

    By Janet Aylmer

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    When Elizabeth Bennet first met Mr. Darcy, she found him proud, distant, and rude—despite the other ladies' admiration of his estate in Derbyshire and ten thousand pounds a year. But what was Mr. Darcy thinking?

    Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice has long stood among the most beloved novels of all time. The story of Elizabeth Bennet's blossoming romance with "haughty, reserved, and fastidious" Fitzwilliam Darcy has enchanted readers for nearly two centuries. Yet, Mr. Darcy has always remained an intriguing enigma—his thoughts, feelings, and motivations hidden behind a cold, impenetrable exterior . . . until now.

    With the utmost respect for Austen's original masterwork, author Janet Aylmer lovingly retells Pride and Prejudice from a bold new perspective: seeing events as they transpire through the eyes of Darcy himself. One of the world's great love stories takes on breathtaking new life, and one of fiction's greatest romantic heroes becomes even more sympathetic, compelling, attractive, and accessible, all through the imagination and artistry of a truly gifted storyteller.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061841798
    Unavailable
    Darcy's Story
    Author

    Janet Aylmer

    Janet Aylmer is an English author who enjoys writing historical romances set in the early 1800s.

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    Reviews for Darcy's Story

    3/5

    238 ratings21 reviews

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    • 2/5
      The subtitle of Darcy's Story is "Pride and Prejudice told from a whole new perspective." As it says on the back cover, Mr Darcy is an "intriguing enigma," and promised to tell the story from his point of view. Sounds fun to me. Except, no. Aylmer quotes long passages directly from Pride and Prejudice and in a clunky manner, attempts to make it Darcy's story. Except she doesn't add anything that a close reader of P&P wouldn't figure out on their own. Further clunkiness ensues when she writes things like Darcy explaining to his cousin Col. Fitzwilliam that Lady Catherine is their aunt. Ugh ugh ugh.Steadfastly, Aylmer does not waiver from the canonical version of P&P. In a few places, the story demands that she fills in gaps and is forced to make something up, but she then justifies it in the lengthy author notes at the end.I'll give her a nod for writing in response to the novel and not one of the film versions. At least she did that. However, this is a poorly written shuffle of the original words from P&P and it adds absolutely no new insights into the characters or the story.Janet Aylmer is the author's pseudonym. I wouldn't let my name anywhere near this dreck either.Recommended for: I imagine that she kept those readers in mind who freak out at the smallest liberty taken in an Austen rewrite (those who always claim in their reviews that "Jane Austen is spinning in her grave."). Not sure this would even appeal to that crowd though, because I think they'd agree with me that this is entirely pointless. Those readers who want to have fun with their Austen pastiches, and don't mind liberties taken, can safely skip this.
    • 1/5
      Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer purports to tell the story of Jane Austen's inimitable classic Pride & Prejudice from the perspective of its hero, Fitzwilliam Darcy. I did not find it successful and only reached page 30 before I set it down. I was ready to enjoy it, despite being a purist who looks askance at fanfiction, but you cannot attempt to work in Jane Austen's world if you are not committed to artistic precision in your language. Aylmer unfortunately lacks Austen's ability to forge perfect phrases (don't we all?), and when she used "hopefully" incorrectly, I knew I couldn't stomach the rest. If the writing had been more skilled, perhaps the first 30 pages would have read less like a dry recital of characters' motivations and actions utterly lacking in narrative interest. And I was so proud of myself for being broadminded and giving it a chance. Ah well. Guess I will just have to reread Pride & Prejudice once again.
    • 3/5
      A big part of Darcy's allure is his mystery. For a main character he's quite under-developed. Austen had a lot to say about society but not much about Darcy himself as a person. While he is the Progenitor of the coldly polite and handsome brooding hero, he still is a person and not just an archetype. SO, obviously I'm going to jump at the opportunity to get in his head and see through his eyes.The first chapter did not impress me, and I was dismayed that the whole book would be more of the same. It's mostly the language and style: blocky, cramped and stilted. Aylmer tries to get out too much information too quickly and with none of the ease or charm of Austen's P&P style. To expect someone to write just like Austen IS ridiculous but it seemed like she was either trying too hard or not enough in her emulation. She improves though, thankfully, when there's more feeling and action. However, part of this is simply because she uses much of Austen's own writing and is frighteningly repetitive with some of it. Then I was dismayed yet again that the book would be a lame regurgitation. I was thinking that the mock-ish Zombie P&P had better characterization of Darcy than a book dedicated to him. But by Elizabeth's stay at Netherfield, Aylmer redeemed herself and I was rather impressed with the rest of her additions.She did Darcy justice, though I have mixed feelings about the obvious fan-service towards the end. It was laced with the crazy liberties that other much less talented and less respectful writers take with this loved classic. I like the inclusion of her explanation at the end (as she should do, messing with a classic and all). In all, I was satisfied and sped through it like I do the original. There are far worse re-tellings out there.
    • 1/5
      Darcy's Story, by Janet Aylmer, is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of Mr Darcy. Pride and Prejudice isn't one of my favourite novels -- far from it, although I have learnt to appreciate it at least a little -- so I suppose it isn't too surprising that I'm not all that enchanted by this retelling of it. Janet Aylmer's writing isn't as capable or smooth as Jane Austen's, although I suspect a good part of that is due to the fact that she's trying to imitate Jane Austen. Not, I'd imagine, the easiest thing to do. I kept having to remind myself of that, but I don't think it answers for everything. There's nothing exciting about narrative that simply says, 'Darcy did this, and Darcy thought that, and somebody told Darcy this other thing'. The dialogue is pretty terrible, and/or non-existant. I wish I could copy/paste quotes to illustrate this, like I would if this was an ebook, but I'll stick to one quick example: 'She told him that Lady Catherine had recently travelled to Bath...' -- I mean, why couldn't this be actually written out as a conversation?

      It is clumsily executed in general. Around chapter eighteen or nineteen or so, it relies heavily on excerpts from Pride and Prejudice itself, and on excerpts from earlier in the narrative. I skipped much of that. I've read it before: if you're going to insist on recounting it, please present it in some new, fresh sort of form. The same thing happens early in the novel -- big regurgitated sections that are purely intended to cover all the backstory of Darcy in one long word-vomit, rather than getting on with the story and letting that all spin out in its own good time.

      I didn't find that the book added anything in particular to Pride and Prejudice that didn't happen in the original novel. There were a couple of scenes between Darcy and his sister, Georgiana, which were new, but overall, there wasn't much there. At least, not if you read Pride and Prejudice and understood everything that was going on, followed all the changes to Mr Darcy's character and understood why they were happening, etc.

      If you're interested in reading the book anyway, it's available on the HarperCollins website at the moment, here, though I don't know how long it'll be up.
    • 2/5
      This book was supposed to give the reader a different perspective of the events originally laid out by Jane Austen in Pride & Prejudice. Since so much of the story has to mirror Austen's work, a great deal of this book offers nothing new. In fact, it quotes heavily from P & P. Furthermore, I had never really felt that I was unable to deduce Mr. Darcy's motives and thoughts. Nothing Aylmer writes in this book differs much from what I would have assumed had happened. It is always nice to revisit these characters, though!
    • 1/5
      Stiff and unoriginally written. Supposedly Pride and Prejudice told from Mr. Darcy’s point of view, it is instead a bland recital of Austen’s scenes. Absolutely nothing new is added to what we already know of Darcy or any of the other characters. It is a very, very disappointing book.
    • 1/5
      Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer purports to tell the story of Jane Austen's inimitable classic Pride & Prejudice from the perspective of its hero, Fitzwilliam Darcy. I did not find it successful and only reached page 30 before I set it down. I was ready to enjoy it, despite being a purist who looks askance at fanfiction, but you cannot attempt to work in Jane Austen's world if you are not committed to artistic precision in your language. Aylmer unfortunately lacks Austen's ability to forge perfect phrases (don't we all?), and when she used "hopefully" incorrectly, I knew I couldn't stomach the rest. If the writing had been more skilled, perhaps the first 30 pages would have read less like a dry recital of characters' motivations and actions utterly lacking in narrative interest. And I was so proud of myself for being broadminded and giving it a chance. Ah well. Guess I will just have to reread Pride & Prejudice once again.
    • 4/5
      Darcy’s Story is a Pride & Prejudice accompaniment novel, told from Darcy’s perspective.

      The story opens with Darcy’s background and a few letters from his sister that give him enough warning to know that he should go to Ramsgate at once. Naturally, once there he stops the elopement with Wickham. I liked this beginning, indeed. I had always thought that was overly-fortuitous that Darcy should appear just in time to stop the elopement, and clearly Ms. Aylmer agrees with me.

      Darcy’s Story has been criticized for bringing nothing new to the world of Pride & Prejudice, and I have to disagree. While this is certainly not the best* Darcy’s perspective story that I have ever read, I thought it was pretty good. The author’s goal was to bring to life the hero of Pride and Prejudice and tell the story through his eyes. She quotes a little too much from the book, but I can’t help walking away from this read seeing Darcy as more three-dimensional and understanding a little more than I had before.

      It is not written in the style of Austen, which I know bothers many out in the fandom. But it was still reasonably well-written and I don’t expect casual writers (this is Ms. Aylmer’s first publication) to be able to channel Ms. Austen.

      Bottom line, if you are looking for a sequel, back story, or what if to Pride and Prejudice, this is clearly not your book. But if you are looking for a fast read with the general flavor of Pride and Prejudice, and don’t have the time or inclination (perish the thought!) to read the original, this story fits the bill.
    • 2/5
      This is "Pride and Prejudice" told from Darcy's point of view, and it's very true to the original. The author was painstaking in making sure all the plot movement lined up. If you're a fan of the book, it will be a fun and undemanding read. If not, it would be a bore.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      A big part of Darcy's allure is his mystery. For a main character he's quite under-developed. Austen had a lot to say about society but not much about Darcy himself as a person. While he is the Progenitor of the coldly polite and handsome brooding hero, he still is a person and not just an archetype. SO, obviously I'm going to jump at the opportunity to get in his head and see through his eyes.The first chapter did not impress me, and I was dismayed that the whole book would be more of the same. It's mostly the language and style: blocky, cramped and stilted. Aylmer tries to get out too much information too quickly and with none of the ease or charm of Austen's P&P style. To expect someone to write just like Austen IS ridiculous but it seemed like she was either trying too hard or not enough in her emulation. She improves though, thankfully, when there's more feeling and action. However, part of this is simply because she uses much of Austen's own writing and is frighteningly repetitive with some of it. Then I was dismayed yet again that the book would be a lame regurgitation. I was thinking that the mock-ish Zombie P&P had better characterization of Darcy than a book dedicated to him. But by Elizabeth's stay at Netherfield, Aylmer redeemed herself and I was rather impressed with the rest of her additions.She did Darcy justice, though I have mixed feelings about the obvious fan-service towards the end. It was laced with the crazy liberties that other much less talented and less respectful writers take with this loved classic. I like the inclusion of her explanation at the end (as she should do, messing with a classic and all). In all, I was satisfied and sped through it like I do the original. There are far worse re-tellings out there.
    • 3/5
      I liked it, but didn't love it. Aylmer lifts far too many passages directly from Pride and Prejudice for this book to be very original. I much prefer Mary Street's "The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy."
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this story very much. It's basically a retelling of Pride & Prejudice, from Darcy's viewpoint. Though there are many novels out there that try to expand upon the original story, this one is still worth a read.
    • 3/5
      Pride and Prejudice is largely told from Elizabeth's point of view. This novel attempts to tell Elizabeth and Darcy's story from Darcy's point of view and, to some extent, succeeds.A conscious choice, the author, who writes under the pseudonym of Janet Aylmer, repeats much of Austen's original dialogue. While this works to allow the novel to stand on its own, having just finished the original, I found myself skimming over long passages.To its credit and to my enjoyment, Darcy's Story fleshes out the character of Georgiana, Darcy's sister and allows her to play an integral role in Darcy's growth and ultimately successful courtship of Elizabeth. Aylmer also provides some insight into Darcy's motivations and rationale for the approach he takes when he first asks for Elizabeth's hand.And yet, the novel is often just presenting Austen's work all over again. This repetition rather weighs down the few original insights which Aylmer offers.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. I was happy that the author stuck to the real story so closely and made the scenes between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy they same as P&P. It is a quick read and makes me want to read it again and again as a kinda of quick fix for a P&P craving. My only problem with it was that it's not P&P hence the 4 and a half stars instead of 5 full stars. I enjoyed "Mr. Darcy's" point of veiw. I have plans of reading this one over and over again.
    • 5/5
      This was a very pleasant visit with Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy. The author has retold much of Pride and Prejudice from Mr. Darcy's viewpoint. Many quotations from Austen are used in context from Darcy's side of the relationship. The best thing about it was not having to read much about Lydia and Mrs. Bennett, since Darcy found both of them distasteful and silly. It was obvious from the way the author treated the characters that she holds Jane Austen in high esteem.
    • 3/5
      Easy read... I prefer the Pamela Aidan interpretation of Darcy, though. I think she gave Darcy a more well-rounded character and provided additional information to help me better understand him.
    • 3/5
      Short, fun read of what Jane might have written had she written from Darcy's POV. With all the fans of P & P, the author faces a tough crowd of critics and she did a fairly good job of exploring who Darcy was and how he changed. Don't go to it expecting Austen as we'll never know what she would have written, but do go it in the spirit of reading one person's idea of what happened. Then enjoy being back at Pemberly and Longbourne with Elizabeth and Darcy.
    • 4/5
      I was so pleasantly surprised with this book. The author is able to keep the feel of Jane Austen's story.
    • 4/5
      A very good retelling of Pride and Prejudice from Mr. Darcy's point of view. I liked it better than the 3 volume Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman series.
    • 5/5
      Is it possible to love the famous Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy any more than we do? Thanks to Janet Aylmer's "Darcy's Story: Pride & Prejudice told from a whole new perspective" - it is. An excellent companion piece to Miss Austen's masterpiece, this book does exactly what the title conveys. The reader gets to see Darcy's side of the events from P&P. Suddenly, it's harder to blame him for his pride, and it is easier to love him as a friend and as a big brother. Watching his relationship with Georgiana grow from siblings to friends & confidants is definitely a different and a heartwarming theme. Otherwise, Miss Aylmer's book was very true to the original work's mood, facts, and timing. I've only been able to credit Carrie Bebris with capturing the true spirit of Darcy & Elizabeth ... UNTIL NOW! Thank you, Miss Janet Alymer, for this book!
    • 2/5
      I bought this before getting on a plane, figuring it would make for some good fluffy reading. It actually turned out to be mostly a collection of scenes from P&P that involve Mr. Darcy and not very much else. If I recall, some dialog is taken verbatim from Austen, which is probably necessary, but results in this book feeling pretty superfluous. This is rather like very conservative fan-fiction, but it's a really quick read. It put me in the mood for a day-long P&P miniseries and movie viewing.