Being Mrs Darcy: A Pride & Prejudice Variation

By: Lucy Marin

Narrated by: Harry Frost

One distressing night in Ramsgate, Elizabeth Bennet impulsively offers Georgiana Darcy aid. Scandalous rumors soon surround the ladies and Fitzwilliam Darcy, forcing Elizabeth and Darcy, strangers to each other, to marry.

Darcy despises everything about his marriage to the daughter of an insignificant country gentleman with vulgar relations. Georgiana, humiliated after a near-elopement with George Wickham and full of Darcy pride, hates her new sister. Their family look upon Elizabeth with suspicion and do little to hide their sentiments.

Separated from those who love her, Elizabeth is desperate to prove herself to her new family despite their disdain. Just as she loses all hope, Darcy learns to want her good opinion. He will have to face his prejudices and uncover the depths Georgiana’s misdeeds to earn it, and Elizabeth will have to learn to trust him if she is to ever to find happiness being Mrs. Darcy.

©2020 Lucy Marin (P)2020 Quills & Quartos Publishing

An excellent "what if?" P&P variation

This is a favorite "forced marriage" version of P&P. In this variation, Elizabeth, Mr Bennet, and Jane are in Ramsgate for Jane's health. By chance, Elizabeth sees Wickham trying to elope with Georgiana and sees the distress and fear in Georgiana. While she detains them long enough for Darcy to arrive, the resulting scandal forces a marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth. The book is about them learning how to deal with each other, as well as a petulant, spoiled Georgiana.

There are several things I like about this.

1. Georgiana is a sneaky, spoiled teenager. In Austen's book, she is not talked about much. You hardly see her and she is shown as very shy. However, there had to have been too high a level of indulgence from her guardians for her to think it fun to elope with Wickham. When you study her and Lydia in Pride & Prejudice, you see that the two girls are much the same. The difference is their station in life. In this, we get to see more of that spoiled nature.

2. Mr Bennett is much more harsh than usual. He is angry at Elizabeth for helping Georgiana and lashes out at her because this makes his life harder. He, like Georgiana in this story, shows a selfish petulance to his character that uncovers his indolence. In the P&P novel, Mr Bennett is an extremely flawed character who is not interested in exerting himself for the betterment of his family. In this book, he exerts himself because he must but he punishes Elizabeth in the process because HIS life has to change.

3. The personal changes take a while. Too many "forced marriage" P&P variations have them in love with each other in a matter of weeks, if not days, and everything is peachy. This one shows that it would take months for those changes to be made. In Austen's novel, the changes Darcy makes to his own character happen between Hunsford and the reopening of Netherfield. While we don't get to see these changes happen, they still happen over a few months. In this book, we see them as they happen. We hear Darcy and Elizabeth's own thoughts as time goes on. We even occasionally hear Georgiana's thoughts. For them to adjust to this marriage and to learn to fall in love would take a lot of time. They come from very different backgrounds and have much to learn about compromise.

4. Jane's story is different. I am so happy about this! I always want her to have someone stronger than Bingley. He is too easily influenced in Austen's novel and I always want him to either be written with more strength or for Jane to have someone better. Her story is delightful.

5. Harry Frost's narration is wonderful. I've owned the book on Kindle for quite a while and have read it numerous times. I had hoped for an Audible version with either Mary Jane Wells or Harry Frost and am very happy. He does not disappoint.

Engaging story

The story was engaging and I really loved the narration. The characters actions and personality weren't inline with their original counterparts, though I've found few variations that are. Mr Bennett was mean, Georgiana was awful, Darcy was colder and Eliabeth felt more like a mix of herself and Jane. That being said, it was an entertaining and emotional listen. I absolutely wanted to cry for Elizabeth in the beginning.

Average

The story drags out with no climax. There is just a lot of angst in the story. Which is good in some parts but overall a little too much. I wouldn’t read again.

So romantic

I love this book, it traces the whole gamut of a forced marriage scenario from despair to redemption. It’s everything I want in my Darcy and Elizabeth fix. So so satisfying. So romantic. So period correct. And Harry Frost is the BEST.

Very emotional

This story was engrossing but very very angst ridden. Elizabeth saves Georgiana physically from Wickham but rumors force her and Darcy to marry, again to save Georgiana and the Darcy family from the disgrace of her almost elopement and to Keep it hidden from the ton. She is ridiculed, demeaned and verbally abused by all of Darcy’s family and friends and even Mr. Bennet. Yet she perseveres and does all she can to be a good mistress of Pemberley. She’s almost too saint like. Darcy doesn’t begin to see her good qualities until chapter 22 but by then she’s lost hope and trust. It took so long to get to a HEA that I wished there were more chapters with their growing happiness or at the very least an epilogue. Harry Frost’s narration was great per usual.