Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FitzWilliam Darcy, revisited! Oooooh, mercy!, 10 May 2007
What an insidious book this is! It just grabs you and sucks you right into it, so that you can't or don't even want to put it down for even one second. You just want to keep reading and reading and reading. Oh, my.
It is so easy to picture the Darcy and Elizabeth of the marvelous BBC/A&E production of ten years ago as you read Darcy's words. You wonder how this pompous stuffy prig ever managed to have even one friend, let alone the darling Charles Bingley. Darcy is the most disagreeable character until Lizzie takes him down several notches. Good for her!
When you first start reading this, you tend to think, `oh, this is so simple,' but then before you quite know what's happened, you're part of the story, and it just won't let go. You ride along, sort of on Darcy's shoulder, watching as the action unfolds with the Bennet family and Wickham, the Lucases and Mr. Collins, Lady deBourgh and her household, and Darcy's sister Georgiana and cousin FitzWilliam, plus of course, Bingley and his sisters. It's amazing! In the other versions (including the wonderful original) you see everything as it happens from your standpoint as an observer. First person is so very different, creating almost a `you are there!' situation.
You won't soon forget this Mr. Darcy. Of course, I've not yet forgotten the other one - Colin Firth as the premier Mr. Darcy of all time. It was amazing to hear that voice in my mind as I read his words and felt his inner pain as he tumbles from his lofty perch to join the rest of us mortals in his quest for the love of his life. Eventually, he's even willing to put up with Mrs. Bennet if only he can have his Lizzie.
Of course, true love wins out in the end. Hooray! Brava to Ms. Grange. This is a masterful concept, masterfully executed. I wouldn't mind a sequel, either.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gets the balance just right, 4 Oct 2007
This is only the third Austen-inspired novel I have read but I found it excellent. I only read it by chance because my mother saw it in the library and picked it up thinking I would like it and I loved it.
What a writer has to be careful of with taking a character like Darcy as the main focus is that his reserve must be just as much of a feature as his growing love for Elizabeth Bennet. Amanda Grange has done well not only to show her reader the warmth of feeling hidden behind the proud exterior, but has also skilfully demonstrated his changing attitudes and the way his character evolves throughout the timespan of Pride and Prejudice.
The book being in diary form, meticulous attention is given to the dating of events. It could be argued that many of the conversations in the novel are drawn from Austen's original text, but given that this story is essentially Pride and Prejudice from another perspective it is inevitable that some crossover should occur.
One other thing I appreciated was the pains Amanda Grange took to make the novel's action "period-correct". Darcy and Elizabeth are never inappropriately close and she explores the disgrace of Lydia and the trouble her relations take to try to make her see the reality of her actions.
I have not yet purchased this book but when it goes back to the library, I think I will have to. It comes to a satisfying conclusion and - given the possible hint of further plot development at the end - I hope the author is considering making her Darcy begin another diary where this one finishes.
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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
read the original and use your imagination, 13 Jun 2008
224 pages, out of which:
49 pages - mid-titles or blanks
100 pages - dialogues copied directly from "Pride and prejudice", the difference is changed perspective (Darcy instead of a third person, so it is "I said" instead of "he said") and the loss of charm and witty comments on society
75 pages - new content (Georgiana's seduction, winter in London after leaving Netherfield, the time between 1st proposal to Elizabeth and seeing her in Pemberley, searching for Lydia and Wickham in London, wedded bliss in Pemberley)
This is supposed to be Darcy's diary, but imagine a diary in which a man writes down page after page after page of his conversations with his friend and the friend's sisters, his cousin, aunt, wife and every person he meets. And when he writes a letter to Elizabeth to explain himself with regard to separating Bingley and Jane and his treatment of Wickham he copies into his diary all 5 versions of the letter that he has written. But there is nothing about how he sees the world, the society, what he thinks and feels (only that he cannot help looking at Miss Bennet, yes, we already know that)
I love "Pride and Prejudice" and will stay with Jane Austen's version of Darcy and whatever I can imagine about him and his character, the person presented here is simply arrogant and boring (I can't see how Elizabeth would fall in love with him). This book offers nothing interesting, the dialogues from "P&P" I can read in original, much better setting. And the fact that only 75 pages (33%) of the book is Ms Granger's own work makes me think not too nicely about the author.
(the page count refers to hardcover edition)
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