For Worse and for Better: A Pride & Prejudice Variation

By: Alexa Douglas

Narrated by: Kathryn Vinclaire

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

A resentful husband. A miserable wife. How can their marriage survive when “for better, for worse” becomes worse...and worse...and worse?

Elizabeth Bennet does not want to marry Fitzwilliam Darcy. He's rude, arrogant, and selfish. But her father's illness changes everything: If she holds out for love, her family may be destitute. Hoping Mr. Darcy's friends are right - that he is truly a better man than she knows - she accepts him. Afterward she begins to glimpse the generous, affectionate man she'd heard about. Until he learns what she really thinks of him.

Furious and betrayed, ensnared by a fortune-hunter who hates him, Fitzwilliam Darcy is nevertheless a man of his word. He will marry Elizabeth Bennet, but he will never again trust her with his heart. Returning to Pemberley and his sham of a marriage, he can hardly bear to be in the same room with his wife. Then he falls, and the real troubles begin.

Shakespeare wrote, “The course of true love never did run smooth,” but the Bard never scripted a path so perilous as Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy's. Join them as they face disasters both natural and man-made in search of their happy ending.

©2021 Alexa Douglas (P)2021 Alexa Douglas

Narrator was a distraction

This Pride and Prejudice variation was interesting; however, as I continued listening the narrator’s voice became increasingly irritating. The performance was overly dramatic, and Georgiana’s voice made me cringe. I did manage to finish the book.

Great story

This story was different due to an annulment. Very interesting and it hooked me early on. Great Jaff

Unbelievable.

The narrator did an excellent job with the different voices. Kudos.

The writer is good at writing and describing events, places and characters. However, I found the plot had too many unbelievable events and a lack of adherence to the moral dictates of the 1800’s. Spoilers to follow…

Within about a 4 month period… Mr. Bennett has an illness leading to Elizabeth accepting Darcy for mercenary reasons. Darcy finds out, becomes angry, states he will marry her due to his honor, but leaves until the wedding. On their wedding day, Whitcomb takes off with Lydia, and Darcy has to find them and make them wed.

When Darcy returns he is “cold” towards Elizabeth. He then becomes ill with a neurologic disorder, GBS, with accompanying delirium and pain leading to a physical and mental dependency on laudanum which results in vulgar and verbally abusive language towards Elizabeth. This delirium was diagnosed by the Darcy’s physician, who told Elizabeth that Darcy was not in his “right mind” due to the disease and the necessary use of laudanum during his episode.

At the same time two other events occur at Pemberly, an influenza outbreak in the community causing the sickness and death of the Pemberly tenants, and torrential rainstorms that ruin the tenant crops that would have lead to the financial ruination and starvation of the tenants, that simultaneously have influenza, except for the intervention of the heroine.

Elizabeth, aspiring to sainthood, tirelessly cared for both a verbally abusive Darcy and the entire community while figuring out how to get food for the tenants and prevent them from becoming destitute. She then comes down with influenza and gives Darcy influenza on top of his neurologic disease, GBS.

Elizabeth then decides to get an annulment due Darcy’s coldness and verbal abuse at the recommendation of Pemberly’s rector. She leaves Darcy before he has fully recovered, also leaving the people of Pemberly that she has come to care for through the influenza endemic. The final impetus that causes her to leave… The death of her father.

Elizabeth and the semi-recovered Darcy risk the censure of the”Ton” and go to court for an annulment. Elizabeth lives with Jane in Hertfordshire and Darcy returns to Pemberly.

There is a gap of about 6 months following the annulment, where the story picks up. Within the next 2 months Darcy figured out a way to see Elizabeth, apologize to her and the community that he offended. Pemberly burns, Mrs. Reynolds’s dies and Elizabeth, who is no longer married to Darcy, travels back to Pemberly with him to help him manage the tenants and rebuild Pemberly, as a friend.

Whitcomb, who is married to Lydia, shows up and declares Darcy is insane and should be locked up in Bedlam. Whitcomb will manage Pemberly in Darcy’s absence until Georgianna has an heir. All works itself out fairly quickly with not much growth of the characters. Darcy goes to court where everyone but the maid state that they didn’t sign the document stating Darcy was insane and the “will” stating Whitcomb can act as manger of Pemberly…it is actually a forgery. The H&H declare their love and decide to get remarried. They anticipate their wedding vows 17 days before their wedding because…well, they just don’t care anymore.

The characters are unrecognizable. Elizabeth’s is portrayed as the faultless, angelic, rescuer. Darcy is a jealous, vindictive, verbally abusive man (in his delirium which means that is what he is subconsciously thinking) who, when he comes to realize his faults, is a groveling spineless man who has to constantly be rescued by Empress Elizabeth.

There are too many unbelievable events to make this story enjoyable. Could Darcy who is paralyzed from GBS, barely able to take liquids, because his tongue doesn’t work well, who is malnourished with muscle wasting from being paralyzed for months really survive getting influenza at the same time? This does not seem like a realistic outcome with the medical care available at the time.

How likely is it that Darcy’s illness, an influenza endemic and torrential rainstorms would happen all at the same time? How likely would it be that a new bride would be able to care for her husband, the community, and financially manage Pemberly all at the same time, without assistance?

While Elizabeth might have gone home to be with her father as he is dying, would she really not try to go back and work out her marriage? Both characters would not risk their reputations to end an engagement, however, they would go to court to get their marriage annulled. Is this plausible? Is Darcy the only person to have any societal repercussions from the annulment, and then only from the Hertfordshire residents? Would Elizabeth really have been welcomed back into her community?

Is it realistic that Whitcomb, who is not a family member and has debts in Lambton, would be able to provide enough evidence to question Darcy’s sanity 6 months after Darcy has recuperated from his illness? In light of the fact that he would be the direct beneficiary of Pemberly, could Whitcomb really convince the magistrate to listen to him over a landed gentry? There were too many implausible events that happened within the story.

In addition both Darcy and Elizabeth are honorable people who would have been “bound to” and “chosen to” adhered to the moral dictates of the 1800s. It is more likely that they would have lived apart then that they would have gotten an annulment. Bottom line…The story was just not believable.

Unique Twist

Wow what a ride! I will say this up front, this one is not for the faint of heart. At times the depth of the despair seems so severe that you think there's no way our heros will find a way to claw themselves out of it.

The level of detail the author uses for some of the medical mystery in this adds a richness to the story that makes it especially believable. There are some circumstances later on I found sort of less believable, mainly involving a seeming disregard of social mores of the era but I still enjoyed the story immensely.

One disaster after another

I have read a few JAFF novels were there is a tragedy or a disaster that either gets the story started, or sends romance off course for awhile, but this couple….WOW.

Spoiler Alert. It is not just amazing that they find a way to have a HEA ending, it is amazing they lived through it long enough to survive. Tragedy, injury, sickness, plague, famine, insanity, heart break, more injury, another injury, arrest and a trial, more devastating news and tragedy. Even our Beloved Pemberly isn’t spared.

The narrator doesn’t do male voices well, Mr. Darcy sounds like a woman with a sore throat

Almost returned this one, to be honest, but I was able to finish it…sample before committing.