Charlotte's Wisdom

A Pride and Prejudice Variation

What if Elizabeth decided to listen to the words of her good friend, Mrs. Charlotte Collins, when she told her that Mr. Darcy was in love with her?

Thus begins Charlotte's Wisdom...

Elizabeth is thrown for a loop when she reconsiders Charlotte's words, "My dear Eliza, he must be in love with you, or he would never have called on us in this familiar way.''

She wonders about Mr. Wickham and his tale of woe, and she begins to consider the possibility that perhaps the man, for whatever reason, had lied to her about Mr. Darcy. Asking for Charlotte's advice, Elizabeth implores her friend to explain why she believes Mr. Darcy admires her, and with this in mind, Elizabeth slowly reconsiders the entirety of her acquaintance with Mr. Darcy. She determines upon a course of action: she must ask Mr. Darcy directly about Mr. Wickham and discover the truth.

Darcy is shocked to find that Elizabeth ever disliked him enough to believe Wickham's lies, and he questions everything he previously assumed about his relationship with her: he had been on the brink of proposing, and it turns out Elizabeth wouldn't have even been expecting a proposal, let alone want one! He has to decide how he will move forward from here.

Will Darcy change his ways and gain Elizabeth's respect, and will Elizabeth allow herself to fall in love?

Read on to discover what happens in Hailey Jones's Pride and Prejudice variation novella Charlotte's Wisdom.

Pleasant, gentle story without much angst

I enjoyed the story, but there were problems with the narration. I'm willing to listen to virtual voice, but in this story, the female virtual voice seemed to get confused between when a man was speaking versus a woman. There were times when Darcy would say something, and his voice would be pitched very high. And then, in some conversations with Charlotte, Elizabeth had a deep voice. It was confusing until I realized what was happening, and then it was just annoying. As an extension of this issue, the characters' voices were not consistent throughout the story.