#pride and prejudice variation

[riverstories7]

Reverie & Rancour Now Available!

Thanks to all of you who have inquired about R&R becoming an ebook. I'm pleased to say that it's now available for pre-order on Amazon. The book will be released on 31 January, and at that time it will also be included in the Kindle Unlimited program.

[mrdarcysleftnut]

“Darcy,” Bingley called, “did you hear that? She called me a sensible man.”

“She has clearly gotten fatigued and delusional.”

Bingley puffed up dramatically. “An insult to Miss Elizabeth and myself? I’m affronted. A meeting at dawn.”

“You are more likely to oversleep than I.”

Bingley deflated, laughing.

-quote from "Starch and Strategy: A Variation on Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion (Sweet Regency Saga Book 1)" by Corrie Garrett

Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/1kfjle1

[pennyngram]

Does anyone know where I could find a typical yearly schedule for Regency gentlemen in charge of an estate?

Basically, in which periods of the year were they "forced" to stay at the estate to supervise sowing or other Estate Important Tasks? I've been googling for 2 days without luck.

[stlgeekgirl]

Mouse found another one!

Mouse found another one! #BookReview #books #PrideandPrejudice #variations #LGBTQIA

You all know by now that I am here for a good Pride & Prejudice variation. If it mentions the novel, chances are I’m picking it up.After the queer YA version in Most Ardently, I found this one, Just as You Are. A lesbian-sapphic romance that touches on gender norms, expectations, transgender issues, homophobia and elder queers all while telling the story of Lizzie and Darcy. Or in this book, Liz…

[ihatetbrlists]

Review #26: Love and Loathing

Love and Loathing, by Gigi Blume.

From my TBR? Nope.

A Pride and Prejudice modern retelling about musical actors? Hello??? Did you write this specifically for me?

Author, I salute you for your service and warmly shake you by the hand. This woman is a bigger theatre kid than I am. Guys, she chose Pirates of Penzance as the play the characters are playing in. If that's not dedication to the craft, I don't know what is.

And the puns. All those musical puns. I can't even tell you. THE WAITRESS REFERENCE. That was a stroke of genius. I should seriously check out the Emma-inspired second book in the series.

Verdict: Brilliant. Read this book if you like Pride and Prejudice or musicals or romance novels or are alive and breathing.

[listening-to-free-audiobooks]

Sir Walter Takes a Wife: A Sweet Regency Romance by Laura Hile

Faced with a lonely future and finding himself strapped for cash (as the young bucks say), Persuasion’s Sir Walter Elliot manfully decides that the time has come to marry again.

His choice is a young woman of breeding and distinction. But alas, Sir Walter’s vanity is his undoing. He refuses to use his spectacles and so sends a Valentine to the wrong Lady Catherine. What a disaster!

That is, until Sir Walter gets a look at the woman’s grand estate.

Will the man’s handsome appearance and powers of persuasion be enough to win Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s hand? Not if she has anything to say in the matter!

This lighthearted Valentine novella, splendidly brought to life by Ruth Redman, features two of Jane Austen’s worst snobs. Come enjoy the fun!

[bethanydelleman]

I just stumbled across another Darcy Has Amnesia and Has Been Living as a Lower Class X and I need to say this:

DARCY WOULD BE IDENTIFED AS RICH BEFORE HE WOKE UP!

First, clothes. In Jane Eyre, despite her tramping through a bog, they knew her clothes are upper/middle class before she woke up. If Darcy is wearing anything he's gentry or merchant class on sight.

So lets say he's naked. People today kind of just look like people, but in the past, no. Lower class men in this era especially would wear their profession on their skin. Fishermen and farm workers would be tanned like crazy, carpenters would have lost bits of finger, blacksmiths burn marks and developed muscles. Do you know that winemaking can stain your hands purple for weeks? Aside from profession, Darcy would look soft to lower class people, but at the same time well fed. The lower classes were struggling with food insecurity during this era or for all time...

And then he wakes up, now I am not sure if they trained provincial accents out of kids in this era, BUT HAVE YOU HEARD DARCY TALK? Jane Austen doesn't have many servants talk, but sound like Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy they do not! He has perfect grammar and a huge vocabulary! He will be known as a clergyman, lawyer, merchant, gentry or even an aristocrat the second he speaks.

So what then? These are poor people, they aren't dumb. They would advertise that they have found a rich injured person and hope for a reward. Darcy would be fairly well known by face and they have artists and newspapers and printing presses. He also would be known to be missing, he has a family, he writes his sister on a regular basis.

I give it a month tops before he's safely back home.

And that's not even getting into the fact that erasing a person's entire memory is basically neurologically impossible...

[callonpeevesie]

Lizzie and Darcy are the type of couple to develop several different flavours of Eye Contacts To Make In Public. such as the "can you believe this bitch" eye contact and the "we need to leave now" eye contact

[firthbetterorfirthworse]

I've read literally hundreds of variations and I don't think anything will ever top this

[riverstories7]

Fixed Stars: A Pride & Prejudice Vagary

...is now available for pre-order!

Summary: In the autumn of 1811, Miss Bennet encounters Miss Darcy in Hyde Park, and the two swiftly strike up a friendship. Acute concern for his sister's happiness moves Fitzwilliam Darcy to propose marriage to the kind young lady. Only when he arrives in Hertfordshire does he discover that he is engaged to the wrong Bennet sister. Bound by honour to another, can Darcy ever confess his love for Elizabeth? And if he does, will scandal and ruin be the only result? Fixed Stars, the first book in the Primum Mobile duology, is a tale of thwarted longing and familial strife–but also of perseverance and triumphant love.

You can order your copy here, if you feel so inclined.

[mrdarcysleftnut]

"Cruel people those Cambridge folk, aren’t they?” here Bingley beamed a grin at Darcy. “Nobody ever behaved in such a brutish way at Oxford, I can tell you.”

“They are too busy learning to read and write over there,” Darcy kindly explained to Elizabeth and Jane.

-"The Unreformed Mr Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation" by Mei Wei Lin

Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/8MiUCUZ

[pennyngram]

My reaction: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Has anyone else received this?

[stlgeekgirl]

Pride & Prejudice with a new twist.

Pride & Prejudice with a new twist #Books #bookreview #pride&Prejudiceretelling #LGBTQ+ #romance #YA

And here we are, back on my Pride and Prejudice variation kick. By now I have read so much of these it a wonder my appetite for it hasn’t diminished. It’s fascinating to me how many ways authors can read the original text and imagine ways to change it just a little to create a whole new story.Such as it is with Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novea. I won’t lie, I preordered this book back in December…

[ihatetbrlists]

The Reading Diaries #7

Fearful Symmetry, by Gailie Ruth Caress

From my TBR? Yes.

Minor spoilers ahead.

Reader, be warned: I am obsessed with Pride and Prejudice Variations. I once read 70+ of them in one year. And I'm not even counting unpublished JAFF. Fearful Symmetry is the first I review on this blog but it certainly shan't be the last.

Ok, now onto the book itself.

The premise is simple: what if Longbourn was destroyed by a fire right after the Netherfield Stay? A lot of drama, that's what.

I usually like my P&P Variations quick and angst free and this doesn't fit the bill exactly, but it was a good Variation all the same! Usually, Variations set in the aftermath of the Netherfield Stay tend to conclude themselves by the Netherfield Ball but this one dragged on until Rosings, which I felt was a little unnecessary. They could have solved everything a long time before that but I have the feeling that the author couldn't let go of the dramatic resolution she had imagined.

There was some angst, in the form of the Bennets' precarious economic situation after basically losing Longbourn to the fire but it's not major.

Also, Darcy and Elizabeth didn't spend nearly enough time with each other. Where are the nighttime clandestine conversations in Netherfield's library that I'm so fond of? Is that just me? Ugh, whatever.

The writing felt a little over-flowery at times. I almost DNFd the book after the first few paragraphs but I soldiered on and now I'm glad I did. I loved the bit about palm reading and scars. It was the highlight of the whole book for me, it felt very meta but also super sweet (you'll get it once you read it).

All in all, not my favourite P&P Variation but it has its charm.

[listening-to-free-audiobooks]

Dimensions of Darcy Series

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Traitor by Jennifer Joy

He is England's most wanted criminal… and she is stuck with him.

Besieged by highwaymen and left for dead in a snowstorm, Fitzwilliam Darcy seeks help only to get arrested for treason. A split-second decision forever attaches Elizabeth Bennet to his side, and now, they are on the run. When adversity reveals their true character, will Elizabeth regret her decision?

Together, they make a daring team, but their nail-biting adventure will be for naught if they cannot catch the real villain on time…

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Traitor is a sweet and clean romantic suspense variation of Jane Austen's timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice. It's the first book in the Dimensions of Darcy series of standalone novels.

Make sure to listen all the way to the end for an exclusive peek inside the writing and research that you'll only see here!

Happy Listening!

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Poet by Jennifer Joy

He's a famous poet… he just doesn't know it.

Fitzwilliam Darcy was burned once. Never again. Hiding his emotions, Darcy takes pride in his marble-like façade… until he meets a lady who threatens to expose his true character.

Elizabeth Bennet longs to meet the man whose poems touch her soul—the elusive Mr. Walter Wyndham. He is her ideal; her dream… and everything emotionless Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy could never be.

Stuck in each other’s company, Darcy’s carefully constructed barriers come crashing down when he discovers the secret identity of Elizabeth’s beloved poet. It’s him!

Will Darcy measure up to the man she’s been dreaming of for years? Will Elizabeth stubbornly pursue an illusion, or will she fall for an imperfect (and very real) man?

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Poet is a sweet and clean romance variation of Jane Austen's timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice. It's the second book in the Dimensions of Darcy series of standalone novels.

Make sure to listen all the way to the end for an exclusive peek inside the writing process that you'll only see here!

Happy Listening!

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Guardian—Sweet Regency Romance

Fitzwilliam Darcy will lie and break the law to keep his sister's newborn safe. When the only way to protect her is to have an heir of his own, his search for a trustworthy wife begins…

When Elizabeth Bennet's father falls gravely ill, she is willing to shoulder the responsibility of her family's care while maintaining her freedom — until she is forced to marry Mr. Darcy.

Through grief and betrayal, Darcy and Elizabeth learn to trust each other and work together to honor the promises they have made — including the vows they exchanged.

But a spiteful enemy from Darcy's past is determined to divide their family, and the law is on his side…

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Guardian is a sweet and clean romantic suspense variation of Jane Austen's timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice. It's the third book in the Dimensions of Darcy series of standalone novels.

Make sure to listen all the way to the end for an exclusive peek inside the writing process that you'll only see here!

🎧 Happy Listening!

[bethanydelleman]

We need to talk about the Compromise Trope

Tl;DR It makes zero flipping sense because men always face a smaller social cost than women. You cannot force a powerful man to do anything, much less get married for life to someone he hates. And you wouldn’t actually want this trope to be true, because even if a man is forced to marry, he can just abandon or mistreat his wife. (This is a really long post)

Discussion of sexual assault and spousal abuse.

For those who don’t know, this is an extremely common trope in Jane Austen Fan Fiction/Regency romance. I don’t know where it originated, though there are two types of situations in Jane Austen’s works which are close. The basic premise is this: a man and woman are caught alone in a dark room/kissing (with full consent on both sides or not)/just hugging sometimes and a whole bunch of people scream and they are forced to get married.

Often both sides are unhappy with this marriage but it must happen, so they deal with it. This is the most common form of “Forced Marriage Situation” in the JAFF that I have read and heard about.

The two situations that come close are Lydia and Wickham’s elopement and then behaviour that has engaged honour in Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion. With Lydia and Wickham, that wasn’t an innocent kiss in a library, they were living together and most likely having sex for a few days/weeks before Darcy got the whole situation figured out. However, Darcy did not try to force a marriage first, he actually tries to get Lydia away. What we can assume from this is that Darcy recognizes that marriage to a dishonorable man is worse than the blow to Lydia’s (and her family’s) reputation or life’s happiness.

Situations where honour is engaged but no actual touching has happened (as far as we know), are Jane/Bingley, Marianne/Willoughby, and Louisa/Wentworth. In each of these situations, a man and a woman act in such a way that people begin to assume that they are engaged. Word is spread abroad, and the men all absent themselves from the situation in the hopes that rumours will die down. Lastly we have Henry Crawford/Maria Bertram, who do touch in the context of a play and who are acting very flirtatiously even though Maria is engaged. Henry also pointedly quits the scene. Two of these men (or their friends) are trying to exit an engagement situation fairly, two of them are just ghosting because they don’t care.

But here is the problem with the trope: while a man may be honour-bound to propose if he’s been raising expectations, no one can force him. Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Jennings both complain to the world that Jane and Marianne have been ill-used, but nothing comes of it! Bingley comes back eventually, but not because he’s “compromised” Jane and feels bad about it. Willoughby gets married to Miss Grey anyways and he doesn’t suffer that much socially (Sir John forgives him before the novel ends). Also, Willoughby seduced and impregnated Eliza Williams, which is way past “compromise”, and while it’s not clear how widely known this is, he is not shunned socially for that indiscretion either.

This is the whole problem with the trope: powerful men can survive far greater social disgrace than women!!! This is probably partially because women are expected to be virgins and men are not, but also because of the imbalance in marriage prospects. I imagine that a woman with £30,000 pounds could weather a scandal far better than someone like Eliza Williams. Men like Henry Crawford and Darcy would be basically bulletproof, or at least that is how they are portrayed.

Oscar Wilde spends a lot of time on this imbalance of consequences (especially in A Woman of No Importance) and his conclusion is that men can basically get away with anything while women, and sometimes their children, bear the full brunt of social cost. We still see this today! It’s the woman who most often bears the consequences for getting pregnant as a teen, for example, and the largest blow to their future prospects.

In the only “compromise” I’ve read in a contemporary novel, Molly in Wives & Daughters (written in 1866) is caught giving Mr. Preston a letter and meeting with him clandestinely. What happens is nothing like the JAFF compromise trope. Molly’s reputation is trashed, but Mr. Preston is certainly not forced to marry her, people just talk about how they will probably marry. Molly is the one who bears almost the entire social cost, Mr. Preston isn’t even that worried about it until his employer gets involved. He is only a steward and could be held accountable by a higher up, people like Darcy and Crawford have no one who could do the same thing.

Another thing I see now which is just wild is Caroline trying to sneak in Darcy’s room at night. I don’t know how that is supposed to make a “compromise” since there are no witnesses, but also, that is incredibly dumb. A man as powerful as Darcy could have full on sex with a woman and deny it and probably face almost no backlash. Especially since Caroline would have no proof. I mean she can’t get a DNA test in this era and once she admits she’s had sex it could have been with a footman.

And you say, but Darcy is honourable? Sure, but this woman threw herself at him without consent! I am sure he wouldn’t have sex with Caroline without marrying her, but if she started kissing him and then people demanded they marry? It would be perfectly moral for him to throw her under the bus. And then Caroline’s reputation is destroyed and she gains nothing.

The fact is, if “compromise” was a real thing, it would be gamed. Humans will take any loophole and widen it until you can drive a truck through it. All of the nobility would be married by women throwing themselves at them, here, I wrote a farce about it.

If anything, the “compromise” trope is a fantasy where men are actually held accountable for violating women. Which seems like it would be nice, but considering that some women, especially Caroline, weaponize “compromise”, you start to border on some disturbing territory. Like the idea that women who accuse famous people of rape are just doing it for attention/wealth. And that is not great! That is something we also still struggle with today.

The only way “compromise” works as it is presented is if someone more powerful than the man involved forces him to marry. So for example, a father threatens to cut off his son’s allowance or disinherit him, like Mrs. Smith in Sense & Sensibility. However, even married a man isn’t “trapped”, he can just leave his wife behind and fuck off to Italy. Which is literally the plot of All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare, in which the king forces a man to marry. This happens in Jane Austen too! Wickham just goes to London and Bath to enjoy himself and leaves Lydia with her family. Or if you’d like real world examples: Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. Also Jane Eyre now that I think about it...

But that’s not even the worst that could happen! In Mrs. Hubback’s The Younger Sister, (a completion of the novel fragment The Watsons by Jane Austen) which was written in 1850, we have this chilling exchange about a man forced to marry:

"Ah, I am glad I have brought you to your senses, at last; now consider, if we could do as Emma advises, and persuade this Mr. Musgrove to marry, as he ought, there would be an end of all trouble in the affair."

"To you, perhaps, but not to Miss Margaret; I dare say her amiable husband would beat her every day."

This situation was a bit different, they were suing for breach of contract because Mr. Musgrove proposed to Margaret and then pretended he hadn’t. Two women overheard the proposal and would have been able to testify in court against Mr. Musgrove. This was a real thing and could either result in restitution payments or marriage. However, you couldn’t sue for breach of contract over a kiss or a “compromise”, you needed proof of engagement. The real cases I have seen involved publicly known engagements, or letters and tokens of affection (think Lucy Steele in Sense & Sensibility) So again, not “compromise.”

The point though is that a man being forced to marry a woman could abuse her without much repercussion. In JAFF/Historical romance it always works out, but in real life I can see someone being pretty resentful that they were forced to get married and taking it out on the other party.

Also, the entire concept of a man trapped in an engagement and unable to get out because of their reputation/honour is kind of laughable because that’s why breach of contract laws exist! And women, who were technically “allowed” to back out, faced pressure to marry:

“But after a certain time—after the world suspects that two people are engaged to each other, it is scarcely possible for the woman to recede: when they come within a certain distance, they are pressed to unite, by the irresistible force of external circumstances. A woman is too often reduced to this dilemma: either she must marry a man she does not love, or she must be blamed by the world—either she must sacrifice a portion of her reputation, or the whole of her happiness.” (Belinda Ch 18, Maria Edgeworth)

So again, the social burden is carried by women

(Brief note about Edward Ferrars, he is trying to honour his promise to Lucy Steele and is “trapped” in an engagement, but he made that proposal of his own free will. His family would clearly have supported him in a breach of promise suit so he could marry Miss Morton. Lucy only has a hold on Edward because he’s too honourable to jilt her.)

Lastly, duels. I know almost nothing about duels but they just sound profoundly stupid to me. The only duel we see in Jane Austen is between Colonel Brandon and Willoughby, they are both unwounded and go home quietly. I don’t know what duels are supposed to solve, if Colonel Brandon had killed Willoughby he probably would have gone to jail/been hung (I don’t know if he’s rich enough to get away with it). So if he wins, Eliza is screwed, if he loses, Eliza is screwed, there is really no good outcome.

Mrs. Bennet wants Mr. Bennet to fight Wickham, but to what end? If Mr. Bennet killed Wickham, then Lydia isn’t un-ruined? So what is the point? I guess maybe the man agrees to marry your daughter rather than face death? It just seems like pointless drama to me. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a duel with a good outcome, illuminate me in the comments/reblogs if you have.

Here is what I imagine is a more realistic scene of “compromise”: A man and woman are making out, some people burst into the library! Social pressure mounts for the couple to marry, but the guy isn’t interested. He goes to Italy for fun, leaving the girl to bear the full brunt of slut shaming and reputation damage.

Five years later, the man returns and is invited back into society. The girl is unmarried and unmarriageable, perhaps banished by her family to some cottage. Or she stuck it out and hoped people would forgive a youthful lapse of propriety, was she rich and pretty enough to get over the stigma? One can only hope.

Now specifically in Pride & Prejudice variations:

There are some cases where Darcy doesn’t like Elizabeth and is mad that he has to marry her. I just don’t think those would happen. After all, he encourages Bingley to leave Jane while there is still wiggle room, I think he’d just leave and hope for the best. He might even pay a breach of contract fine, after all, if he marries a woman he hates or distrusts, that’s the rest of his life and the reputation of Pemberley forever. Paying a fine and waiting for people to forget would hardly hurt him. And he probably wouldn’t think it was morally wrong if he suspected that Elizabeth did it on purpose to try and trap him.

There are other situations where Darcy is happy to marry Elizabeth but she hates him. These may also not result in marriage because Elizabeth is pretty big on not marrying people she does not love for social gain. I mean especially a man who just sexually assaulted her! If she thinks as poorly of him as she does canonically at Hunsford, I can’t see her saying yes. After all, now not only is Darcy someone she dislikes, he just proved he isn’t trustworthy or capable of self control.

Also, there are way too many variations where despite hating Darcy, Elizabeth is totally into the kiss. Which is so weird to me! If someone I hated kissed me they would be slapped! I doubt people are going to be screaming for Elizabeth to marry someone who assaulted her, they’d probably be angry at Darcy.

Lastly, Caroline Bingley. She is trying to compromise Darcy but sometimes ends up in a compromise marriage herself. Now she is actually rich and has a very caring brother. I cannot see her doing something like actually marrying Wickham or Mr. Collins. She could probably survive the reputation damage because of her large fortune or live on her dowry. After all, Darcy has told her Wickham can’t be trusted. It would be dangerous for her to agree to marry him.

Basically, I think any compromise situation in Pride & Prejudice is out of character. If one really wants Darcy and Elizabeth married pre-understanding and reformation arc, I would suggest placing Elizabeth in reduced financial circumstances, like Mr. Bennet dying. Otherwise, you need to significantly change the characters of both Elizabeth and Darcy.