Being Mrs Darcy: A Pride & Prejudice Variation

De: Lucy Marin

Narrado por: 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.

Delightfully written + best narrator

This story is deep, complex, moving, sweet and entirely believable. One of the best JAFFs I’ve ever read. Harry Frost’s narration is undeniably the best I’ve heard yet: not only does he successfully create different voices for each of the characters (including believable ones for the female characters), but doing so doesn’t prevent him from the inflections and delivery the author describes. I personally hate when the a narrator’s voices always sound the same, regardless of what is happening in the scene or how the author has written the dialogue.

With Harry Frost, when a character is described as rushing through their speech, he does just that; when another’s emotions are supposed to be evident in their speaking, he brings those emotions forth in his voicing of the character. It truly feels as if the characters and the scenes have come to life with all the depth and nuance the author wrote in the original story.

I will gladly seek out more of Lucy Marin’s and Harry Frost’s works, and hope to see them collaborate more in the future.

Emotionally Charged

This book had me choking down angry screams, painful sobs, giddy exclamations and many other emotions. It was quite evocative. I don't think I have ever disliked the Darcy's, the Fitzwilliam's and Mr. Bennett so much all in the same storyline. I also admired Elizabeth her moxie and her sense of self so much.
Luckily, Mr Darcy started to realize the gem he had married. Unfortunately Elizabeth was emotionally trampled quite significantly after ODC started to interact as a couple so they were farther apart emotionally than when they married. But they slowly started building their relationship anew after some hard truths. Beautiful writing.

Top 5 P&P Favorite

So loved this! I binged just about all of this book. The storyline was realistic to what the class system was. There were times I cried. Times I laughed. But all along I was cheering for all of them.

In this variation, we get to know many more family members. We get to see Miss Bingley get a comeuppance. We get a different (and more believable) approach to Miss Darcy.

We feel Elizabeth’s emotions. And we experience the character development of Darcy and Elizabeth.

Just a fabulous read.

Great Audiobook

Just finished this audiobook and really enjoyed it! First off- 5+ stars to this narrator!!! I have listened to other audiobooks narrated by Harry Frost and he makes every book better! He has the perfect reading voice IMO!

The story- There were so many great things about this book. The author did a great job of capturing Darcy & Elizabeth’s characters and developing their relationship that began in such a rough way. There was such an emotional connection to the story & characters that drew me in right from the start. It was heart wrenching at times and the HEA was a hard fought battle that made it that much sweeter once it was realized. My only complaint was that there was way too much introspection. It made the book drag out a little too long and I tired of reading the same subject of reflection time and again from the same characters as well as other characters. If a good chunk of self reflection and self degradation could be cut out, it would go from being a great book to a really excellent book in my opinion. (less)

Compelling story

Such a compelling story, and outstanding reading! throughout! Wonderful voices for all the different characters and so fitting for each. Highly recommend!!!!!

most memorable

I love how the ending was different but still romantic in every way. they changed a few things and made it work.

Great story

My favorite FMS story. A very difficult path for ODC through a lot of pain to HEA.

Love The Story

I really like this story. Elizabeth shines brightly as, true to Jane Austen, she demonstrates her kindness, and fortitude in the difficult circumstances she finds herself in. FD is his arrogant self, Georgiana is a spoiled, lying, manipulative brat who is finally caught and dealt with. This story is well written, the characters very well developed, and at last we have our happy ending.
Harry Frost has been my favorite male narrator, and I have to say that this narration is off - it's as though his director told him to slow the narration down, and the cadence of his speech is ponderous with odd pauses in almost every sentence he utters, and it just is disapppointingly unnatural and un-Harry. He's much better than this. If this had been the first narration I'd heard Harry perform, I'm not sure I'd seek his narrated books just to listen to him as I have done. I say this honestly because I really want him not to do this again!