Mr. Darcy's Daughters

By: Elizabeth Aston

Narrated by: Morag Sims

Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's Summary

Picking up 20 years after Pride and Prejudice left off, Mr. Darcy's Daughters begins in the year 1818. Elizabeth and Darcy have gone to Constantinople, giving us an opportunity to get to know their five daughters, who have left the sheltered surroundings of Pemberley for a few months in London. While the eldest, Letitia, frets and the youngest, Alethea, practices her music, twins Georgina and Belle flirt and frolic their way through parties and balls and Camilla - levelheaded and independent - discovers what joys and sorrows the city has to offer an intelligent young woman.

Listeners will delight in the return of such beloved Austen creations as Elizabeth's old nemesis Caroline Bingley (now Lady Warren), the ever-reliable Gardiners, and wayward Aunt Lydia. Charming, beautifully written, and full of societal intrigue and romantic high jinks, Mr. Darcy's Daughters is a tale that would please Austen herself.

©2003 A.E. Books, Ltd. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

soooo much drama!

start to finish unbelievable silly drama.. seriously not at all believable! and to say Jane Austin would approve? oh hell no.. it was extremely tough to get thru but I persevered and was rewarded with well a wasted couple of days. good luck -oh the narrator was great I can't blame her...but the story? ugggh

Pleasant Austen Fanfic

The narrator made this book very pleasant to listen to. I mostly enjoyed the story. I didn't think it was necessary to include Caroline Bingley Warren's stepson, a plot thread that went nowhere. And in the original Pride and Prejudice, there's an explanation for the younger daughters' wild behavior (neglectful parenting and a too-young chaperone). There are no such explanations here, and I have a hard time buying the behavior of the youngest three girls if they'd been brought up by Darcy and Elizabeth, without more explanation from the author.

Basic romance with "Darcy" in the title

Enjoyable enough but I feel slightly scammed because of "Darcy" in the title. Darcy and Elizabeth are conveniently off scene in Constantinople and the five sisters just romp through London. It is hard to imagine how Darcy and Elizabeth could possibly have raised the 3rd and 4th daughters to be as completely thoughtless of others as these two are. They absolutely "do not care" what happens to any of their sisters or the reputations of any relatives as long as they are momentarily having fun. Fitzwilliam is invoked as the girls' guardian but his character is completely made over to be a stuffy idiot. Lydia is brought in as a villainous aunt but now she is subtle and clever, which is also not believable. Nevertheless the story is well told, and very well narrated. There are plenty of twists and surprises and a happy ending.

Loved it!

What a great addition to Austin's story. Can't weight to listen to the next book.

Mediocre at best

The narration is truly bad. While she has a pleasant enough voice, the timing, the inflections, leave a LOT to be desired. There are spots where she employs a positively shrill screech that set my teeth on edge. The story itself...meh.... Miss Aston is NO Miss Austen. Make no mistake. The characters are thin, weakly fleshed out and vapid. I got the book for free, and I’d say that was just about my money’s worth.

Jane's story extended

I enjoyed this book more as a part of the series than for itself. Narration was good even if some of the voices were a little shrill, thus... annoying. The Narrator did change their voice for almost every character which helped to keep things straight. I appreciate this Author's attempt at continuing Austin's classic more than most. But be aware the style is less subtle and more descriptive.

Full of drama.

Little long but great story the ending was a little rushed. Full of drama and discriptive writing.

Basically a repeat of Pride and Prejudice

I don' t have an issue with the narrator as some of the other reviewers do. I have an issue with the story. I got the feeling that it might be pretty similar to P&P but I didn't realize that it would be THAT similar. It's basically just a rehash of the original story. I also don't like that way that Col. Fitzwilliam and the Aunt Gardiner were written. The author took so much from the original book, I wonder that she didn't take the original personalities of the above mentioned characters as well. I'm actually glad that Darcy and Elizabeth are not really in this story cuz I would hate to have their characters ruined, too. Overall, it's ok. I'm glad I didn't have to buy it.

AWFUL!

Poorly written, boring as well as unbelievable story line made even worse by an unprofessional narrator.

wonderful!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I was very happy to find it and can't wait to read more!

Bring back Phyllida Nash

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator made the voices of various adults in the book sound as if they were very young children. She is also unable to pronounce a number of word properly, such as ogle and chaise longue.

Any additional comments?

At the end of the audio book there is a free chapter of the next book in the series and the narrator ends the whole book by encouraging the listener to download this second book. But it is not available from Audible at the moment...
It would have been preferable if Phyllida Nash had narrated the whole series!

Perfect Elizabeth Aston Novel

I had already read the book form of this Audible, so I was looking forward to having the book read out to me. I was disappointed with the narration. All the female were at best different from one another, but not that well that I could tell which character was speaking and all the male characters were exactly the same. For those that have listened to the first 3 novels read by Phyllida Nash will probably likewise disappointed. The story line is excellent However, I hope Audible will put the story about Miss Alethea Darcy in their repertoire, even if it is the same narrator I shall download it because it was a very good read.

Easy listening, but . . .

Easy listening but if they were Darcys Daughters the three younger daughters would NEVER behave as these ladies did. Nor would Elizabeth and Darcy leave their daughters to their first London season without being there for them. Mr Darcy and Elizabeth would be excellent parents in teaching the correct behaviour. The girls would also have too much respect for their hosts! However, as I cannot change the storyline, if you dismiss the Jane Austen characters this book is an easy listen. The voice of the narrator grate's a bit, as she doesn't manage to change the tone very well between characters. Along with other reviewers I would prefer Phyllida Nash to read this. The story moves along fairly well and is easy to follow. I dislike the impression this book gives that everyone in fashionable London at that time were all small minded, petty gossips. I believe that there were some "nice" people in society in those days. Although I like happy endings, I could not see where Sophy and Belle's love matches came from - its not as if their lovers are strong dynamic men, ready to push their claims or arrange clandestine meetings! Even saying all this, its is still an easy listen!

Mostly enjoyable

An enjoyable Regency romance centred around the London season of Elizabeth's Darcy's daughters - all five of them - slightly marred by the reading. Morag Sims has a pleasant voice but some of her attempts at the voices of male characters are rather odd, especially Mr Roper, unless he permanently wears his stock tied too tightly. More disconcertingly, she mispronounces various words, including the name Alethea, and I was reduced to shouting "rowt!" every time the characters discussed a proposed rout party. For someone who seems to specialise in reading historical novels this lack of familiarity with the period really won't do. And if "ogle" was pronounced "oggle", as seems to have become current, it would have been spelt that way! Grrr!

It seems odd to me that the rational and well-read Darcys should produce two offspring as silly as Lydia and Kitty Bennet, but since Aston is playing with the parallels between her Darcy daughters and the Bennets, I suppose it's allowable. I'm more sorry for what Aston has done to Mrs Gardiner, who seemed very pleasant and capable in Pride and Prejudice but seems here to have lost many of the qualities which made Elizabeth and Jane so fond of her. The heroine, Camilla, is a worthy successor to her mother, though.

Despite my reservations, I shall probably "read" the rest of the series - I think my blood pressure will stand it!

darcy fan

Where does Mr. Darcy's Daughters rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Enjoyed the story, nice and light hearted.

What other book might you compare Mr. Darcy's Daughters to, and why?

Can't say, just enjoy this genre.

What aspect of Morag Sims’s performance might you have changed?

All of it, Phyllida Nash so much better, love her reading of the georgette heyer books

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No

Any additional comments?

Can't wait for alethea darcy book,very enjoyable read.