Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman is a trilogy that focuses on Darcy's point of view. Unlike other Pride & Prejudice spinoffs, which attempt to continue the story into the future, this one cleverly covers the same ground from the other protagonist's perspective. It is imaginative and realistic. Aidan enhances her tome by fleshing out some of the details of Regency England. Austen herself assumed that the reader understood the mindset of the landed gentry of early nineteenth century England, and thus glosses over incidental description. Aidan introduces more of the culture, for example the Morning In tradition, and includes greater interaction with servants as well. These serve to enrich the modern reader with a greater appreciation of the background setting. This work is not without flaws but they tend toward disagreement in interpretation than serious error. For example, she has Bingley reveal annoyance privately to Darcy about sister Caroline's criticisms toward others, which seems a bit out of character with his overwhelming affability in every situation as Austen portrayed him. In a couple of places, Aidan's passages about Darcy's evaluation of his early encounters with Miss Elizabeth Bennet seem far more typical of a woman's much keener perceptions of the subtleties and nuances of relationships than the typical man, then or now. (Although a bit unrealistic, since most readers of this will be women they will probably enjoy and appreciate Darcy's analysis.) It seems a glaring mistake to have Darcy figure out that Elizabeth overheard his untoward comment about her at the first Hertfordshire assembly, when seen in light of the naivete' of his first marriage proposal in Austen. However, Aidan more than compensates with outstanding portrayal of Darcy's plausible reasoning behind many of his early attitudes that lead Hertfordshire society to think ill of him. On the whole, this is in my opinion the best of the many second party writers' books that attempt to extend Austen's timeless story. The second part of the trilogy is scheduled to appear during summer 2004 and the final installment in the fall of 2004. I look forward to reading them as well, and encourage all aficionados of Pride & Prejudice to read all three. She earns only four stars from me primarily out of respect for Austen.