This book is a huge disappointment. It neither delivers as a sequel
to Pride and Prejudice, nor as a mystery novel itself. There is
barely any mystery involved, and no effort on the part of the one
dimensional characters to solve what little mystery there is. A
detective was introduced, and promptly forgotten about, never to
return to the story. Why bother to build up Selwyn or give him such
long, rambling backstory when he scarcely played a part in the
novel?
The author's incredibly vain and thinly veiled name dropping of
Harriet Smith, and Anne Elliot was repugnant to me, and a pretty
shameless ploy to squeeze some more fame out of Jane Austen's own
works. But let's face facts, that's all this book really was.
I found ALL of the characters appearing from of Pride and Prejudice
to be so far off the mark in their speech and personalities, it
seemed to me like reading a teenager's work of fanfiction. Did she
not read Pride and Prejudice? The first chapter of James' book
recounts the tale of the original so blatantly incorrectly, I
thought it was a joke.
Elizabeth Bennet was the exact opposite of mercenary in her choice
of Darcy. And by this I mean, she was not after his money. The
author of this piece of atrocity claims that Elizabeth had pursued
him the entire time, and only fell in love with him in the end. She
couldn't be more wrong, and anyone who'd bothered to read the
original would know that. Elizabeth pursued Wickham, and believed
the slander he directed at Darcy. In the 'sequel', P.D. James even
frequently alludes to Elizabeth's folly in fancying Wickham several
times, yet apparently this contradiction flies right over her head.
What an ill-thought out book.
To me the story seemed short, and contrived. It spent too much time
babbling about some made up backstory which didn't seem to mesh
well with the characters or the original story at all. It meandered
on at length about descriptions of the weather, and the vapid
thoughts of characters greatly abused by James' pen. Elizabeth
Bennet, one of the most popular of Jane Austen's characters, was
completely voiceless and self-effacing, and showed none of the
verve and wit which made Pride and Prejudice so interesting! Much
of the dialogue in James' novel is embarrassingly juvenile. It
plays at writing in the style of the original, but falls shamefully
short. The characters lack any sort of real emotion, or genuine
reaction at the events that befall them, and their generic speech
makes it hard to form any sort of mental image of what the
characters are like or how they're acting at any given time.
I could go on forever about how disappointing this piece of
literary trash is, but I'm sure I'll hit the text limit. It's an
embarrassment, and I think Austen would be offended by the notion
of someone so ill-equipped to handle her characters making a
mockery of her work. Better to read Pride and Prejudice over and
stop at that. This isn't worth your time, and certainly not your
money.