Being Mrs Darcy: A Pride & Prejudice Variation

By: Lucy Marin

Narrated by: Harry Frost

Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Average

The story drags out with no climax. There is just a lot of angst in the story. Which is good in some parts but overall a little too much. I wouldn’t read again.

So romantic

I love this book, it traces the whole gamut of a forced marriage scenario from despair to redemption. It’s everything I want in my Darcy and Elizabeth fix. So so satisfying. So romantic. So period correct. And Harry Frost is the BEST.

most memorable

I love how the ending was different but still romantic in every way. they changed a few things and made it work.

Great story

My favorite FMS story. A very difficult path for ODC through a lot of pain to HEA.

Love The Story

I really like this story. Elizabeth shines brightly as, true to Jane Austen, she demonstrates her kindness, and fortitude in the difficult circumstances she finds herself in. FD is his arrogant self, Georgiana is a spoiled, lying, manipulative brat who is finally caught and dealt with. This story is well written, the characters very well developed, and at last we have our happy ending.
Harry Frost has been my favorite male narrator, and I have to say that this narration is off - it's as though his director told him to slow the narration down, and the cadence of his speech is ponderous with odd pauses in almost every sentence he utters, and it just is disapppointingly unnatural and un-Harry. He's much better than this. If this had been the first narration I'd heard Harry perform, I'm not sure I'd seek his narrated books just to listen to him as I have done. I say this honestly because I really want him not to do this again!

Excellent Forced Marriage Scenario

I loved this book! It is very well written. It begins with Elizabeth rescuing Georgiana from Wickham at Ramsgate. This book is all about relationships—not only between Darcy and Elizabeth, but all those surrounding them, especially Georgiana and Darcy’s extended family. It was a completely refreshing change with no Netherfield being let, Hunsford, kidnappings and the usual deceitful plots by Wickham or other villains. There is some lying and deception on Georgiana’s part, however. This book will go on my list of most memorable, favorite JAFF variations. Harry Frost is outstanding in his performance and narration, as always.

Wonderful!

I read this novel in its fanfiction form and loved it then - its complexity & ultimately likability of character, innovative plot, and Lucy Marin”s fabulous prose.

So so glad that the audiobook delivers on that promise with deft editing and an ideal narrator. I listened in a single sitting despite its length.

I truly hope the author is working on the edit of her modern P&P classic - that would be an audiobook preorder for me!

Interesting take on an old story.

I didn’t know that there could be so many different tags on the classic pride and prejudice. Those some things were predictable. I enjoyed the twists and turns. I especially enjoyed Mr. Darcy coming to realize his faults.

Lovely story arc

The narration was great. The writing was superb. Lovely Lizzy. Perfectly pompous Darcy. Recommended variation.