Arrogance and Inheritance

A Pride and Prejudice Variation

By: Clarissa Joy Thomas

Narrated by: Stevie Zimmerman

If a different Mr. Collins was the heir to Longbourn, what would have happened?

Gregory Collins inherited a flourishing wine importing business in London from his father and is now a prosperous tradesman. Upon discovering he is the heir presumptive to a relative's estate, he realizes he must make the journey to meet the family, as he has no knowledge of landowning or agriculture. He is determined to amass as much knowledge as he can so that when he comes into possession, he can tend to the land and its tenants properly. Rather than hoping to evict the Bennets from the estate when their father dies, he desires to re-establish the familial bond, so there will be no difficulty living together, although he expects Mr. Bennet will live for many years more.

Mr. Collins may not be physically attractive, yet he is not repulsive or unintelligent. He is precisely the sort of man the two elder Bennet daughters had always assumed their meager dowries would enable them to marry. While becoming the wife of someone active in trade would be a lowering of status temporarily, the security of their family would be ensured. When Mr. Collins comes to understand the value of the eldest two Bennet daughters and considers if it would be advantageous to everyone if he married one, how will Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy react in the face of competition?

©2023 Clarissa Joy Thomas (P)2023 Tantor Media

Low Angst

This wasn't a high angst story, which is sometimes exactly what I'm looking for, but this one became tedious. Darcy never really learned his lesson. He just apologized often. Elizabeth was a bit of a drama llama towards the end. I'm never fond of the idea that a character can claim to be in love with someone they distrust--not through any problem with the distrust, but because distrusting someone so thoroughly is a red flag that should be addressed before deciding to love them. There's no bonus points to loving someone in spite of their sins against you. Anyway. I powered through, but didn't really care anymore for the last hour.

A different Mr Collins

I think I've listened to far too many of these variations, a good Mr Collins was so hard to wrap my head around. It was a nice touch, he was a little bland, but it made for a good story setup. Teh relationship building struggles of ODC were long, so their eventual coming together felt earned, although it felt a bit rushed. I liked the alternate family FW and Collins family members, sometimes it felt a bit contrived, but again it worked. This is a good story, it narrated more than experienced in many areas, but overall I think it was worth it.

Enjoyable story

The only thing I would mention is Elizabeth changed her opinion of Darcy very suddenly and it felt a bit rushed. Otherwise, I enjoyed the story and found Stevie Zimmerman’s narration as delightful as always. Thank you for not using an AI voice.

Great read

As always, Stevie Zimmerman does a great job narrating. Pleasure to listen to her voice. In this book mr Collins is a different type of person and not unlikeable :) He marries one of the sisters and Elizabeth goes to Derbyshire to visit people and meets Mr Darcy again. Great read. Great Jaff.

A totally different Mr Collins

3 1/2 stars rounded up

In this variation, we have a completely different Mr. Collins show up as the canon Mr. Collins passed away. This tradesman Mr. Collins was not a sycophant and was one who wanted to learn. He also saw the value in the oldest two Bennet girls. If you are one that Jane and Bingley must end up together then this is not a story for you. Here Jane is appreciated and not left with a broken heart.

Col F’s family has some serious matchmakers who make a mess of things for Darcy and Elizabeth.

I also got the audiobook when it was released as it was narrated by the fantastic Stevie Zimmerman. She completely made this story even better!