In Search of Beauty, A Pride and Prejudice Variation

By: Melanie Schertz, A Lady

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Fitzwilliam Darcy and his sister, Georgiana, journey to Bruges, Belgium for Georgiana to study with some of the finest art masters. They meet Mr Thomas Bennet, an art history professor at one of the universities there, and his two daughters, Jane and Elizabeth. The Bennets are part of a group trying to restore the stolen works of art taken by Napoleon's army when they plundered Belgium. One piece of art in particular was the Bruges Madonna, sculpted by Michelangelo. Along with Colonel Fitzwilliam, the Bingleys, Lord and Lady Matlock, the search for the missing art leads through Belgium while the hearts of two gentlemen find their matches in Mr Bennet's home.

meh, enjoyable but shallow

there were some lines of plot that were laid down early and never picked up again, like Elizabeth being a talented sculptor. It's not smutty and everyone is generally in character as laid down by JA, save one weird bout of Jane's which was oddly satisfying and humanizing. it's nothing compelling, nice to change the scenery a bit and drag in some historic drama from post war Belgium. Not an unpleasant waste of time, overall.

Awful Virtual Narration, Badly Wtitten

I don't know if this was early AI writing or a bad translation. Grammar poor at times, odd use of words and absolutely non prosodic "reading". Gave up early, wouldn't recommend at all.

Pride & Prejudice meets The Monuments Men

Non-canon events and characters. Widowed Mr Bennet and his two daughters (Jane and Elizabeth) are living in Bruges after the final defeat of Napoleon, whose government had behaved like Nazis and plundered the art treasures of conquered countries. Bennet uses his expertise to find, reacquire, and return these treasures. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam assist. Treasonous British and ruthless French use murder and terror to thwart the effort. While the terror and murders are mostly told not shown, it’s not my personal preference for JAFF. Interesting story, however.

Dialog heavy writing style poorly suits virtual voice

I'm very tolerant of virtual voice but when there's a lot of back and forth dialog, who's talking becomes muddled.

I decided to stop reading at chapter 18 after some disturbingly graphic depictions of wartime torture. It feels like the author inserted a description of wartime behavior they read in a history book. It was abrupt and distasteful in this otherwise boring story.

I really enjoyed the flow

Things seem to flow together in a continuous motion. It was a fantastic Read that was fairly easy.