Book Review || Death Comes to Pemberley

Death Comes to Pemberley
P.D James

First published in 2011

Faber & Faber, paperback, 330p.
ISBN: 978057111170

Dancing, Merriment... and Murder

The year is 1803.  Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years, and the orderly world of Pemberley seems unassailable.  But all this is threatened when, on the eve of the annual ball, a chaise appears, rocking down the path from Pemberley's wild woodland.  As it pulls up, Lydia Wickham - Elizabeth's younger, unreliable sister - stumbles out screaming that her husband has been murdered.

Death to Pemberley is one of the biggest bookish disappointments I've had.  I love Pride & Prejudice.  The BBC adaptation from 1995 was amazing.  The characters memorable, the story witty and watching Darcy and Lizzy find each other leaves you with the warm fuzzies.  When I read, or watch, P&P I often wonder what could have been had Austen written a sequel.  Yet, this adaptation was complete and utter crap!  It took all my fangirl dreams and shattered them.

It has been nearly a year since I started reading this book, and after getting just over a third of the way through last January, I have not been able to make myself go back and read it.  I don't care if Wickham did it (I seriously doubt it, because I couldn't be that lucky!), or if Lydia ever leaves Pemberley.  I have post-it notes lining the pages I did read, with annotations everywhere, marking out inconsistencies, annoying rehashing of information the reader should already know, because only an Austenite would attempt to read this!, or just things that seemed out of place...

"I take it, Belcher, that your clever scientific colleagues have not yet found a way of distinguishing one man's blood from another's?  We would welcome such assistance..."   p.108

Seriously, blood typing didn't become a 'thing' until the beginning of the 20th century (1901), let alone 1803!  Such inconsistencies annoy me.  I doubt that the medical community had any idea of the existence of blood types, let alone the investigative capabilities it might provide.

Apart from that, I found the characters to be pale shadows of the originals, the dialogue annoying and this has really put me off trying any of P.D. James's other works as she has butchered this retelling/adaptation.

So after a year of trying, Death Comes to Pemberley has officially become my first DNF!  

If you love P&P, and don't want to spoil your love of the story, then I advise you to skip this.  Watch the marginally better BBC adaptation if you must find out what happened.

DNF

Well, that's all I have to say about Death Comes to Pemberley.  I can now put it on the bookshelf somewhere and forget about it. 

Do you agree with my review, or did you love it?  Let me know below as I'd love to hear your thoughts on this book.

Until next time,

 

Mrs. Bennet - a realist and successful mother

After watching some of RonLit's YouTube videos about Jane Austen, I found myself longing to revisit the world of Miss Bennet and Mr. Darcy.  It's been about three years since I've picked up P&P, and I'd forgotten just how much I love this book.  

{Side note: Jane Austen must have been a most interesting person as the witty remarks her characters make, and her personal observations of their behaviour, are just as apt and amusing today as they must have been to her readers buying P&P hot off the press.}

Now, after watching these YouTube videos where the books are critically reviewed and picked apart on every underlying meaning, I feel a new regard for Mrs Bennet.  She has always been a character that I didn't really think much of - apart from the overwhelming relief that my mother is in no way like her! - and yet after thinking about it, out of all the characters who flitter across the pages it is she who is most sensible in her doggedly obsessive hunt to secure her daughters futures.

Just think in Austen's time a mother, daughter, wife or widow had no legal rights to remain in the family home after the death of the man of the house, especially if said estate was entailed to another distantly related male.  He has the power.  This unpalatable truth is brought home by the determination of Mrs Bennet to see her daughters married come hell or high water.  Why else would you consider forcing your daughter to marry the obnoxious Mr. Collins, or to blindly look the other way in regards to Wickham's deeds?  The fact that Mrs Bennet does shows you just how far a Regency mother will go to see her daughters futures secured.  I bet that if all her daughters were to have married men of Wickham's ilk she would not have thought of anything else but an overwhelming relief that her daughters were now married and she had done her job of seeing them all wed.

It is she, instead of her husband, who has the financial security of her daughters in mind.  Why didn't Mr Bennet put aside money for their futures?  Yes, he planned on having a son, but that's still no excuse as to why once it became clear that there was no son to inherit he didn't simply not set aside some amount annually.  Especially since he would have known to whom the estate would have been entailed to.  It speaks of a lack of understanding, and a selfishness in a way, that he just didn't think about their futures once he was gone.  He retreats to his library, escaping his reality and ignoring what he doesn't want to be true.  Yet, for all this Mr Bennet is a much loved character while his wife is not.

Thanks to RonLit and BooksandPieces videos, I now read Pride and Prejudice with a better understanding of Mrs Bennet, and although I think that she is still an annoying character of the highest order ... well, behind Lydia that is, I don't think I'll ever be able to read it without the understanding that out of all the characters, she is the only one that accomplishes her goals - to see your daughters wed.

Okay, that was way too deep and thought provoking for a sunny Tuesday afternoon.  I'm off to watch something lighthearted ;-D

So until next time my lovelies,

COMING SOON



Read an excerpt

THE LADY RISKS ALL

Stephanie Laurens

 

To be released September 25, 2012

 

Avon Books, Mass Market Paperback, 496 p.

(also in ebook and Large Type formats)
ISBN: 978-0-06-206863-7

 

 



Neville Roscoe, notorious and enigmatic, lives resolutely outside society, bound only by his own code of honor - until challenged by his desire for the one woman he cannot have.

 

Miranda Clifford is a lady imprisoned by rigid respectability - until tempted by a passion beyond her power to deny.

 

Flung together in peril, through danger and intrigue, they discover a love impossible to ignore ... or keep.

 

 

 

Can't wait to get my hands on a copy.  I have been following Stephanie Laurens Bastion Club and Bar Cynster's for nearly 10 years now, and although I enjoy the period, I don't read regency romances, except for these.  I have already pre-ordered my copy.

Cricket, Rain & Regency

Wow, it's already the 3rd of January!  How did that happen?  It seems the older I get, the quicker the days pass.  Gotta do something about that :P

Well, today is the first day of the 2nd test match between Australia (Go Aussie Go!) and Pakistan in their 5 game series.  Personally, I will be avoiding it as much as possible, but the rest of the household is glued to the couch for the next 5 days.  I don't get it?

So I'll be happily surfing the net, studying (not so happily) and waiting for the rain to cool things off here.  We've had so much rain recently that anytime the sun pokes it's head out from behind the clouds... instant sauna.  Thank god I have my trusty hand fan nearby.  Who doesn't!?

Now while I am waiting for the rain - and ignoring the cricket fueled calls from the lounge room - I'll be relaxing with a few books.  I have found a new paranormal romance author, Terry Spear, and have read her Destiny of the Wolf.  This is a good general lycanthrope romp, but not as involved or compelling as the Anita Blake series lycanthropes.  Not something that I would pre-order-and-pray-that-it-gets-here-soon list, but okay for the bus or train ride.

However, on the other end of the scale, due to my recent purchase of Temptation and Surrender (see Tea & Scandal blog), I had to rummage through the historical section of my bookcase(s) to find the other Bar Cynster books.  I even pulled out the Bastion Club series for good measure.  And of course, when reading any historical/Regency series, I have to get out some of my reference/great costume books to start drooling over.  This of course led to a Regency madness fuelled trip to Amazon.com where again I bought too much.  I did however, get 2 books that mum was wanting so... yeah me!

Now I get to sit back, make a cup of tea in my fine bone china english teacup, and kick back and get into the Regency vibe.

Happy New Years

After afternoon tea with Mr. Darcy

Wow, that was a fun afternoon! Although when I first turned up at the venue I thought that no one else had come in costume... {argh!} but thankfully 2 women a few cars up got out and voila! they were wearing Regency fashions!!

The afternoon tea & 'lecture' was held in the Abbey Museum, and had 2 display cases full of antique fans dating from the late 1700's through to the late 19th century and they were truly stunning. I would have loved to take the little 1820's fan home with me.

I ran across 2 ladies, Donna & Kerry (the same 2 who I first came across in costume) and they were part of the Australian Costumer's Guild. Their gowns were simply gorgeous! I only wish I was that petite! (they don't make patterns for more than a D cup so I had to get creative!) and I found that there were more than a few Georgian/Regency afficianadoes that had travelled up from the northern suburbs of Brisbane.

Now a nice cup of tea, a scone and more than 1½ hrs later, I finally had to call it quits and head home.

If you would like to know more about the Australian Costumer's Guild, check out the website at http://www.australiancostumersguild.com/

I'll add a picture of my costume (with me in it) next time as the wind just whipped my hair all out of shape... (I looked like I'd been dragged backwards through the hedgerow!)

Going Regency Today!

Well, today is the day of the 'Afternoon with Mr. Darcy' lecture at the Abbey Museum! I've been hanging out for this for a while now. The only hitch was that they would like everyone to come in costume... Thankfully I had everything BUT the dress. So it was a mad dash to my wonderful neighbour who also happened to be a wonderful seamstress. So between her and my mother, and over 4 days of 10hrs plus each day sewing and fitting, the dress and stay were done! {remind me that if I ever want to go through that again I'm an idiot!}

So this afternoon I get to don my best afternoon dress and meet with other Regency ladies and gentlemen. Should be great. I'll have to take some pics and post them later.

Ok, onto the books - and as you can imagine, my reading has been listing slightly into the Regency. So it was back to the fantastic Stephanie Laurens and her 2 delicious series, the Bar Cynster (about 14 books so far) and the intriguing Bastion Club (all 6 of them, with 2 to come). If you're looking for a bit of mystery and murder in your Regency romances, then do read her. As a homegrown author (a Melbournite) she is a breathe of fresh air into the genre.

Anyhow I must dash. Have to prepare for my afternoon with Mr. Darcy!