Rating: Summary: Leave the Darcys Out of It! Review: I usually stay away from fan fiction, particularly when it involves my favorite literary characters. Unfortunately, the pretty cover wooed me into picking up this mediocre novel made more dreadful by its pretense as a Pride and Prejudice sequel.In this sequel, Darcy and Elizabeth venture to Turkey for a year on a diplomatic trip. The five Darcy girls are introduced to all the delights and disappointments of a London season, wreaking havoc in a familiar fashion. Ms. Aston makes a number of missteps throughout this tale, each worse than the last. The book opens with the author unable to decide if she's telling the story in her own voice, or if she's just channeling Jane Austen. The awkward juxtaposition of 21st century language and early 19th century phrasing fails miserably. Ms. Aston has reincarnated the original Bennet sisters in the Darcy daughters. Eldest Leticia is Mary, Camilla is a poor imitation of Lizzie, and the twins Georgina and Isabelle are mirror images of Kitty and Lydia. Only the youngest, Alethea, escapes this fate. She sticks out like a sore thumb, as a girl more like a 21st century mallrat than a well-bred 19th century British girl. It's a tiresome re-tread of the same characters. Perhaps that's a better fate than the resurrected characters suffer. Ms. Aston saw fit to return the Gardiners, Lydia, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Caroline Bingley to the stage, only to strip them of all semblence of their original personalities. Lydia has been transformed into the toast of London. Caroline is no longer desperate with a wicked sense of humor; she's just an old woman with a taste for weak pranks. The beloved Colonel Fitzwilliam, who once admired Lizzy for her lively manners and mind, now seems to abhor all appearance of life in women at all. He's become a narrow-minded bigot. Mrs. Gardiner has become jealous and harping, rather than sensible and understanding. Would that Ms. Aston had left them out of the story entirely... The final failure - grievous indeed - is originality. The end of the tale is a shade too familiar, with two of the girls reliving the same fates as their Pride and Prejudice counterparts, though without as much charm. ...
Rating: Summary: Elizabeth in Constantinople! Review: As an Austen fan I have read practically all sequels to P&P. This one has a very imporatant fault from my POV: the author sent Elizabeth and Darcy to Istanbul and forgot them here. Instead we have a bunch of lively girls who are positioned as Mr. Darcy Daughters and have very little manners if at all. It seems that Elizabeth was a very careless mother and Darcy - a very indifferent father. All other personages are transformed and transformed very strangely. For example, Lydia and Gardiners becomes the cream of the ton! The story would be passable as "A Daughters of Somebody" but as a sequel of P&P it is simply uninteresting because the main heroes are absent and all others are not like themselves at all. I strongly recommend 1) the author to rename the story and sell it as not so bad Regency romance and 2) the Austen fans use their time more profitably and reread "Bar Sinister".
Rating: Summary: Mr. Darcy's Daughters Review: I didn't expect this to be on a par with Jane Austen, but I was looking forward to visiting the characters again. It is terrible! The characters that were in Pride & Prejudice are not the people they were - they're wooden and stripped of the good qualities Miss Austen gave them. There is no love, not even affection between the sisters or other family members. Those bonds of love and care that made Miss Austen's story so touching - that made them so powerful - are totally missing here. The characters in this book aren't even likeable! It makes for a very long read - in fact I gave up and tossed it in the trash.
Rating: Summary: Good beach book Review: I am an Austen fan and loved P&P so was thrilled to see this book. I bought it without reading a single review. I just finished the book and have to say it reads more like a modern day romance novel. If you don't get your hopes up for quality writing it's a decent little book and a quick read. By the end of the story, however, you're not wishing the book would never end and that you would love to hear about the future of the characters. You're simply satisfied that it's ended. The book feels overly drawn out and the characters become somewhat annoying.
Rating: Summary: Outstanding! Review: I'm always a bit leery when reading a sequel to a novel I love but Mr. Darcy's Daughters more than satisfies. It's a fun romp and the characterizations are wonderful.
Rating: Summary: Very Disappointing... Review: I am in love with Jane Austen, so I saw this book and eagerly picked it up. I didn't expect it to be on par with the original P&P, but just silly fun. It doesn't even amount up to that. My main problem with this book is that it betrays the number on rule of writing: show, don't tell. Austen never said directly who her characters were, she let the dialoge and actions speak. This author tells us directly who each person is, and its quite annoying and shallow. The second problem is that all of the orginal characters lose much in the retelling. Mr. Fitzwilliam was a kind, sensitive gentlemen, now he's fussy. Caroline Bingley is reduced to a petty gossiper. The Gardiners become wealthy and on the top of society. Britain was not at the forefront of social mobility at this time, and its just stupid to have this done. Aston is neither witty, engaging or revealing. The characters are weak, silly and confusing. Avoid this like the plague. Spare yourself and go reread Austen.
Rating: Summary: Horrible horrible HORRIBLE Review: Honestly, do not read this book. It is not just that it offended the Jane Austen fanatic in me. Regardless of whether or not this book is a worthy sequel to 'Pride and Prejudice' (it's not), it's just a poorly written book. The prose is trite, the plot is choppy and unnecessarily elaborate (not to mention predictable) and the characters are painfully unappealing. Aston tries hard to reveal the social and family politics that oppress women of the time, but does it without any of Austen's wit or subtlety, making it distasteful rather than enlightening.
Rating: Summary: Deja Vu, but in a Good Way... Review: It's over twenty years since the eligible Fitzwilliam Darcy married the ineligible Elizabeth Bennett for love. We find them still very much in love and the parents of seven. The oldest five of which are young ladies of a marriageable age. Mr. Darcy must take a business trip to Constantinople and his wife decides to accompany him on a journey which should last several months. The girls are to stay with Darcy's cousin, Fitzwilliam, and his wife in London, while the youngest children, two boys, will stay at Pemberley with Elizabeth's father. And thus five country maidens who lack neither fortune or beauty find themselves in the glittering swirl that is the London Season...without their parents' watchful eyes. Let the games begin... Leticia- Longs for the love she lost three years before at Waterloo, only to discover that he is still alive and married to another woman, sending Leticia down an unexpected road that could lead to heartache or true love. Camilla- The sensible and intelligent one forms a tendre that proves unsensible in the extreme... Georgiana and Belle- The beautiful Darcy twins are taken under their Aunt Lydia's wing...need I say more? Alethia- The youngest of the sisters has a few secrets of her own. Pride and Prejudice fans will adore it. A first rate sequal.
Rating: Summary: A great Sequal Review: The story starts put with the Darcy's having already left Pemberley and their five daughters are in London. The daughters aren't very loveable. Though they do seem very fun. It's very well written and a quicl pace. There's many new characters and it definately isn't about the original story of Pride and Prejudice. The one thing I didn't like was that Lydia (for the brief section she was mentioned) was almost mean, whereas Jane Austen always portrayed her as silly and flightly, but still kindhearted. I really loved it, and it's a very good read!
Rating: Summary: good consept but disappointing. Review: When I saw this book the title made me think that Mr Darcy had been afflicted similiarly to the poor Mr. Bennett. A family of daughters and no sons. Not so, as I found. But it would have been more fun. Actually the book is disappointing in all aspects. The author did not try to recreate the dialogue between Elizabeth and Darcy, sending them overseas, but she did tackle Darcys' cousin Fitzwilliam. This energetic character from P % P she turned into a prejudiced, rule bound, critical and unsympathetic grouch. Caroline Bigley, now married, no more than a gossip- no strenght to her. And worst, is Lydia's transformation from the unlucky ... to the wife of a friend of the Prince of England and hostest of the greatest parties (routs) of the London season. NO. This is not amusing or entertaining. I won't give away the punch line of the scandal that is the denoument,(and how they are rescued) but it is far and away the most unrealistic contrivance that I have ever seen.
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