MR DARCY'S DAUGHTERS

All who know me, know me as a Jane Austen fan. Thus, while shopping at Costco one day I found a series of four books by Elizabeth Aston, (jacket notes: Elizabeth Aston is a passionate Jane Austen fan who studied with Austen biographer Lord David Cecil of Oxford. ) As Pride and Prejudice is tops on my list of feel-good books to read, I bought a paper-back copy of Mr. Darcy's Daughters, The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy. The True Darcy Spirit, and The Second Mrs Darcy.

Two-thirds through the first book, it is clear this sequel to Pride and Prejudice was not written by Jane Austen though well researched as to the times, 1818. One is listening to a story with too many characters so that one has to stretch one's mind to remember them there. Aston has the reader looking through a keyhole.

Nevertheless, for those who can stand to see a beloved author imitated with a brand new fantasy of what has happened to our hero and heroine of Pride and Prejudice, it is pleasant reading. I would recommend it to all Austen fans if they don't mind shifting gears in their heads for the read.

Amusingly, the two reviews on the back cover are written by Julia Barrett, author of Jane Austen's Charlotte (a biography of Austen's most beloved sister) and Joan Aiken, author of Jane Fairfax (a character in the Austen book, EMMA).

The book captures the essence of the period in upper class society in London, at that period, descriptively and clearly. It does not capture the essence of the people as well as Austen seemed to have done in her writings, so at times the shift seems abrupt. Yet, at no time should a reader find themselves bored. I am certainly not. I recommend it to Austen fans as, though not the original, a fairly realistic and innovative knock-off.