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)

Emotional rollercoaster

I love P&P and many of the adaptations of this wonderful story. I struggled through the first 10-20 chapters of this book. It is a difficult one if you do not appreciate your favs being out of character (as I do not). Georgiana, Darcy, and Mr. Bennett’s character were hard for me to accept for good portions of the book. Overall, the story came together nicely but it was a journey for emotions to get there.
The narration was good and for the most part I was able to distinguish which person was speaking.
Would I listen again? Nope. But I am glad I was able to get through it. There have been other adaptations that I was unable to finish because they were so off script. So it was nice to finish this one and be pleased with the ending.

A good tale told differently

Started slow, but was riveting by the end. I was surprised by the story. Excellent.

Great story

This was a very great variation. having read over thirty Pride & Prejudice variations, retellings, or sequels, this is one of the better ones. I feel it is more realistic at the onset for Darcy's haughty feelings. While it made me feel nothing but contempt for Georgiana, it was very well written. the narrator did a very good job overall, though I confess his stunted speech did bother me at the onset. However, I think it is a more realistic way of speaking; when people are trying to convey difficult emotions. the words do not come out so easily or flow out like other narrators do. Much thanks to Lucy Marin for a job very well done.

Forced Marriage and Hard Fought Romance

A forced marriage scenario, bitter recriminations, and a deeply emotional slow burn romance made for a momentous first encounter with the author’s respectful nod to Jane Austen’s most famous classic. Lucy Marin is a nearly new to me author whom I’ve been wanting to read one of her full-length stories for a while and, when I spotted Harry Frost was voicing the story, I had not a doubt in the world that I was not going to be disappointed.

Being Mrs. Darcy asks a few fundamental ‘what if’ questions in this P&P variation that takes an off scene dramatic encounter that occurred chronologically before the events of Austen’s original story that effects the whole rest of the story. First, what if Georgiana Darcy’s interrupted Ramsgate elopement had been interrupted not by Darcy, but Elizabeth? Second, what if the situation that ensued threatened to damage their reputations rather than Georgiana’s so they are forced to marry? Third, and of the greatest significance is now that their marriage takes place before his Pride has been properly humbled and he doesn’t realize the jewel of a woman he married until it is too late.

Being Mrs. Darcy separates Elizabeth, a comfortable small estate owner’s daughter, from her relatively humble origins and pitches her into the world of wealth, high society, and entitled people- literally titled, actually. Her husband is disgusted and her new sister in law hates her. Her father inexplicably sent her into exile breaking her connection with her family. And, now she is undergoing a grueling and humiliating experience with Darcy’s paternal and maternal relations while she learns what it means to be Mrs. Darcy. Isolated and lonely, she takes the good advice of her aunt and does her best, but her best will never be enough for these people.

However, slowly, Darcy is on a personal journey of the heart and Elizabeth has no idea she’s the teacher. He has all the voices from family and his own bitterness telling him he’s being punished with such a wife. Only, slowly, he realizes that she’s bright, intelligent, lovely, and his household, tenants, friends, and neighbors including his resentful sister and judgmental relations are all in Elizabeth’s good, capable hands. It takes a betrayal from one close to him and Elizabeth’s good will finally being all used up before the stunning truths all coalesce for him. Is it too late?

Being Mrs. Darcy was emotionally exhausting, but captivating to listen to. Darcy dug a deep hole and Elizabeth, well, she was pretty much a candidate for sainthood early on. The author didn’t make a forced marriage between two strangers from different social classes easy and she didn’t make it easy once everything was out in the open. Elizabeth was in agony for the first half – trust me, it got ugly with characters like a mean, uppity Georgiana with a bitter, resentful Darcy- and Darcy had to work hard for much of the second half- felt like good balance to what he put her through early on. Totally worth it to see them through it all in this strong character-driven plot which lagged at times, but steadily made it to a fabulous finish.

Harry Frost vocalized this large cast of characters masterfully and he got the emotional depth of the story so well that I went through the feels right along with the characters. His work accentuated an already fab story making it even better.

All in all, whether familiar with Austen’s work or new to it, this is an excellent choice for sweet historical romance fans who like a hard-fought forced marriage situation.