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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Silver Falls Library | FIC AIDAN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Aidan, P. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
³There was little danger of encountering the Bennet sisters ever again.²
Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice is beloved by millions, but little is revealed in the book about the mysterious and handsome hero, Mr. Darcy. And so the question has long remained: Who is Fitzwilliam Darcy?
Pamela Aidan's trilogy finally answers that long-standing question, creating a rich parallel story that follows Darcy as he meets and falls in love with Elizabeth Bennet. Duty and Desire , the second book in the trilogy, covers the "silent time" of Austen's novel, revealing Darcy's private struggle to overcome his attraction to Elizabeth while fulfilling his roles as landlord, master, brother, and friend.
When Darcy pays a visit to an old classmate in Oxford in an attempt to shake Elizabeth from his mind, he is set upon by husband-hunting society ladies and ne'er-do-well friends from his university days, all with designs on him -- some for good and some for ill. He and his sartorial genius of a valet, Fletcher, must match wits with them all, but especially with the curious Lady Sylvanie.
Irresistibly authentic and entertaining, Duty and Desire remains true to the spirit and events of Pride and Prejudice while incorporating fascinating new characters, and is sure to dazzle Austen fans and newcomers alike.
Author Notes
Pamela Aidan has been a librarian for thirty years and a fan of Jane Austen even longer. She is the author of two previous books in the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy: An Assembly Such as This and Duty and Desire. She lives with her husband in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The second installment in Aidan's Fitzwilliam Darcy trilogy has the Pride and Prejudice hero wrestling with his infatuation with Elizabeth Bennet. While Aidan's Darcy exhibits the class snobbery and noblesse oblige readers expect of him, he also has a purpose: Darcy decides he must find another woman "of his own station as beautiful and blessed with wit as Elizabeth Bennet, whose charms would banish her from his mind and displace her in his heart." While searching for this woman, Darcy looks after his sister, Georgiana, who is emerging from a long depression. Aidan is comfortable with the overwrought Regency prose and tropes ("The horses, atremble with desire for home, broke into a canter from which no one in the coach wished to dissuade them") and, instead of imitating Austen, convincingly makes Darcy's story her own. Darcy and his loyal valet, Fletcher, travel to Norwycke Castle for a house party where murky inheritances, debt, husband-hunting aristocrats, the supernatural and dead ancestors commingle, resulting in a good time for fans of the series and those enamored of Austen. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Second installment of Aidan's trilogy retelling Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's point of view. While An Assembly Such as This (2006) closely followed Jane Austen's original opening chapters, the plot here wanders a bit farther afield as Darcy carries on his fictional life away from the world of the Bennetts. When his friend Bingley decides to forgo his love for Elizabeth's sister Jane, Darcy is relieved but not exactly happy. He still pines for Elizabeth, but only secretly and from a long distance; she never actually appears in this rendition. Darcy socializes in London and spends Christmas with his beloved younger sister Georgiana, who has recovered from her infatuation with the evil Wickham and committed herself to charity. She challenges Darcy's innate snobbery when she does the unthinkable and actually visits the poor in their homes. The bulk of the story, however, revolves around a country-house party Darcy attends in hopes of forgetting Elizabeth by finding a wife within his own social caste. The host, Lord Sayre, is a former Cambridge classmate, as are most of the other male guests. But Darcy soon realizes that the gentlemen are all bad-tempered fools, the ladies all desperately conniving to find husbands or lovers. Their petty intrigues take an ominous turn when the one genuinely innocent houseguest discovers a bloody piglet dressed up as a murdered human infant. Darcy is powerfully attracted to the bewitching charms of Lord Sayre's Irish half-sister, but she and her old servant prove to have dark secrets of their own. This sort of revisionism definitely has a readership, but Aidan's authorial arrogance and excessive reliance on research are evident in that she requires multiple installments to cover events that her predecessor nailed so deftly in a single volume. More reminiscent of Wilkie Collins than Jane Austen. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
What is it about Fitzwilliam Darcy? Two hundred years after he captivated Elizabeth Bennett, readers still can't seem to get their fill of him. This title is just the latest in Darcy-inspired Jane Austen "fanfiction." It's better to forget Pride and Prejudice0 and read Aidan's knockoff on its own terms. Duty and Desire 0 takes place during a few short weeks following Darcy's departure from Netherfield. After spending some time in London with his sister Georgiana and noting some puzzling changes in her interests, he sets off for a house party, determined to put Elizabeth Bennett out of his mind and find himself a more suitable partner. At first the aristocratic group gathered at Norwycke Castle seems to offer matrimonial possibilities, but soon Darcy is embroiled in a somewhat improbable mystery, which is solved thanks in part to the below-stairs access of Fletcher, his resourceful valet. Plenty of period detail, witty dialogue, humor (including a scene in which several characters discuss the new novel Sense and Sensibility0 ), and elements of the gothic will keep readers entertained. This is the middle book in a trilogy, preceded by An Assembly Such As This0 (2006) and followed by These Three Remain. 0 All three were originally self--published. Simon & Schuster will bring out These Three Remain 0 early next year. --Mary Ellen Quinn Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
For the umpteenth time, Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice is retold, now from the perspective of her romantic hero, Fitzwilliam Darcy. But the authors employ very different approaches. Aylmer, the pen name of an Austen enthusiast who lives in Bath, England, incorporates huge sections from Austen, including entire conversations. She explains why in her introduction, which also includes an analysis of Darcy's character that she attempts to demonstrate in her reworking. Unfortunately, too many of Aylmer's additions may annoy rather than enlighten Austen fans. Such insertions as "replied Darcy" or "she asked him with surprise" impede rather than clarify their exchanges, and including information on things like Wickham's relationship with Georgiana early in the story reduces Austen's narrative complexity. Why settle for a pale imitation that includes so much of the original? In contrast, Aidan creates plot lines scarcely hinted at in Austen. After an impressive start in An Assembly Such as This, the first title in her "Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" trilogy, originally self-published, she now tackles the months during which Darcy is absent in Pride and Prejudice. Darcy is delighted to observe Georgiana's growing self-confidence after her rescue from Wickham, although he is somewhat uneasy about her intense religious devotion. Attempting to forget Elizabeth and find a suitable wife, he visits a university friend at his country estate, where he evades a love charm, interprets mysterious portents, and uncovers the true identity of an Irish "servant" scheming for revenge. Readers who enjoy Gothic romance might be intrigued by Aidan's foray into the genre, though others may see this volume as filler until Darcy and Elizabeth meet again in the trilogy's final installment. Libraries may want to wait for that book to see whether Aidan succeeds as well as she did in the first and to decide whether this bridge volume is a necessary purchase.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Mankato (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Chapter 1 Natural Frailty |
| Chapter 2 The Hand of Providence |
| Chapter 3 The Uses of Adversity |
| Chapter 4 The Quality of Mercy |
| Chapter 5 An Honorable Man |
| Chapter 6 Dangerous Play |
| Chapter 7 The Frailty of Woman |
| Chapter 8 The Woman's Part |
| Chapter 9 The Whirligig of Time |
| Chapter 10 That Perilous Stuff |
| Chapter 11 Gentlemen's Wager |
| Chapter 12 This Thing of Darkness |