Mr. Darcy's Undoing

A Pride and Prejudice Variation

By: Abigail Reynolds

Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson

Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

What could possibly make a proper gentleman come completely undone?

What if Elizabeth Bennet accepted the proposal of another before she met Mr. Darcy again? In Abigail Reynolds' bold and playful retelling of the Austen classic, a devastated Mr. Darcy must decide how far he is willing to go to win the woman he loves. Consumed by jealousy, he knows that winning her will throw them both into scandal and disgrace, but losing her is unbearable. Mr. Darcy is going to have to fight for his love, and his life. . .

©2011 Abigail Reynolds (P)2013 Abigail Reynolds

Started out promising...

What disappointed you about Mr. Darcy's Undoing?

The last maybe quarter of the book. It was so dragged out and the characters began to break apart and they all stopped behaving characteristically. Seems to be done to try to milk some last bit of pointless and uninteresting rule-defying out before the book concluded. It should have concluded much earlier...

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I thought it was all a bit silly by then.

What aspect of Vanessa Johansson’s performance would you have changed?

Nothing. She's a *great* reader.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The first half of the book truly interested me and I was hooked on it. The characters were quite like themselves in that portion of the book and the story was very romantic and intriguing. The writing was also top notch.

Great Pride and Prejudice what if

What made the experience of listening to Mr. Darcy's Undoing the most enjoyable?

I just love this story and have read it before in the past, and wanted to be able to listen to it while working and driving.

What did you like best about this story?

Abigail Reynolds is one of my favorite authors and I love her Pride and Prejudice variations. This one had more sex than some, but I loved the addition of Mr. Covington as a rival for Mr. Darcy's affection. Also, there is one particular scene where Mr. Darcy believes his love for Elizabeth is hopeless and he decides to go to Vienna for a few months. Before he leaves he says a private goodbye to Elizabeth, which ends up completely changing everything.

How could the performance have been better?

A different person to read. The reader had a very poor English accent that was very distracting, and she had a tendency to pronounce places and names incorrectly at times. Also, beware that this is not exactly an unabridged version. I have read the book at least twice and found myself missing scenes, so I picked up my copy of the book and read along for a while and noticed that scenes and paragraphs were summarized or skipped all together. This didn't happen all the time, but I noticed it on occasion.

Any additional comments?

Overall I enjoyed this book, and I hope that the rest of Abigail Reynolds books are converted to audio because I'd listen to them all.

A bit of a let down

I was hoping Lizzie would be more rational and more empowered. Frankly, not much new here besides the sex scenes.

Erotica

This is more erotica then anything. It was laking a climax and it could have been really good

Not Really JAFF

Yes, the couples are Darcy and Lizzy and Bingley and Jane, and a pivotal part of the story is Lydia eloping with Wickam, but the similarities, other than the names, end there.

Darcy is more interested in bedding Lizzy after Lydia elopes than her recovery. He has a lot of dreams about it while other things go on. No one tries to find out where Lydia is, life goes on. She may eventually come back, they may eventually marry. I honestly don’t know, I gave up and stopped listening. Its not just Lydia, there were a lot of other things that just didn’t make sense.

I might have continued listening to see how it ended if I liked the narrator because it isn’t bad as a Regency Romance. She has a pleasant voice, emotive, mostly gender appropriate voices, so she is talented. Just a personal preference against the way she pronounced a few often used words like LongBURN and ElizaBITH.

Very realistic alternate version

The author is usually so incredibly thoughtful and this is no exception. Elizabeth in the era had so many pressures we don’t have today. The story has caught me immediately! I also appreciate the reader’s very careful narration and intonations. I’m enjoying it immensely!

mostly about sex

not much plot after the first 8 chapters or so. won't listen to it again.

Lovely book

Read it before. Just love it. It is very well written. Highly recommend it. Explicit and frank but I enjoy that.

great book

If you could sum up Mr. Darcy's Undoing in three words, what would they be?

wow nice good

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet I love the LOVE story

What about Vanessa Johansson’s performance did you like?

/

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES

Any additional comments?

.

Unforgettable mr Darcy's undoing

I loved it all I was unable to put it down, however it is maybe better to listen to it alone or through headphones🤗😀

Very Poor Narration

Quite a good storyline but spoiled for me by very poor pronunciation by the narrator which will probably make me not buy another audiobook narrated by her.

Ms Reynolds repeats herself

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If they were reading Reynolds for the first time. As a first experience of a P&P variation by A.R. , it might make an interesting read ... Here, however, the authoress repeats scenes and episodes used in other similar works.

Would you be willing to try another book from Abigail Reynolds? Why or why not?

I have read four of Ms Reynolds's remakes to date. She writes quite well, but having listened to four of her books, I find she tends to repeat some narrative "modules" and that the same scenes occur across books.

What does Vanessa Johansson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

She reads well, better than the interpreters of the other three books by the same authoress. She brings the characters alive and makes dialogue quite easy to follow.

Could you see Mr. Darcy's Undoing being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

If one of this authoress's books were to become a series, I think "Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy" might be the best choice for its originality... However, if this book were to be made into a film, I think the leads might be played by any one of the recent Austen-novel heroes: Penry-Jones, Cowan, Northam, Lee-Millar ... Elizabeth by any of the recent P&P/ Austen series actresses like Ruth Wilson, Jemima Rooper...

Not in keeping with the true characters

This is a shame for the author who I normally enjoy but this is an exception.

The characters are not in keeping with their normal characters and stretch the line for a version of P&P when basing it on the two main characters while keeping true to them. They behave outside the normal for the time and are more in line with Wickham and Lydia apart from not eloping.

A disappointment and I wish I had read the book and not bought the audio book.