Review on: Letters from Pemberley: The First Year by Jane Dawkins
Rating: 3/5
Letters are more than just conversations between people; they give us a glimpse into the daily lives and events of people and places, sometimes long after their authors have gone from this world. And just as many fans of Jane Austen have come to know and understand her more, beyond her novels, thanks to her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh who saved many of her letters, Letters from Pemberley is a glimpse into the world of Jane Austen’s beloved character Elizabeth Darcy (nee Bennet) told from the imagination of a fellow fan.
Like many fans, we oft inquisitively wonder and imagine whatever happened at the end of the Pride and Prejudice (P&P) novel. Letters from Pemberley is among the novels I’ve read which try to imagine Elizabeth Bennet’s life after the events of P&P which led her to become Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy.
As the novel’s title pretty much explains it, Letters from Pemberley is designed and written to mimic letters written by (newly-wed) Elizabeth Darcy from Pemberley – in this case, to her (also newly-wed) sister Jane Bingley. The events that occur in the duration of the book happen within a year of both Elizabeth and Jane’s marriages to their respective fiancees (which is where we see P&P trailing off).
The book is pretty much a one-sided thing, with all letters written by Elizabeth to Jane detailing her new life and events in Pemberley and as Mrs Darcy. In these letters, Lizzy also indicates her replies to Jane’s messages, acting as the go-between the reader and whatever Jane probably wrote to her. A lot of what’s written in Lizzy’s letters are about her observations of her new neighbors, acquaintances and friends of Mr. Darcy, and Georgiana, as well as her comments on letters she receives from her mother and sisters.
There are two things I find good and bad about novels that attempt to continue where the original Pride and Prejudice ends. The good part is that majority of fans of the original P&P will always have an intense curiousity towards any additional characters, details, and settings that they may create/imagine into their own fan-fiction. How are other people able to interpret or recreate something that already has a pretty solid foundation (story line, characters, build up of events and relationships) laid out, is something many of us would like to read.
Yet at the same time, what sprouts out of the imagination of one person, may not necessarily agree with other people. Each reader has built up in their imagination, a certain character or story outline, a way they personally interact or understand the stories they read. When other people attempt to re-imagine or add on to those ideas, we tend to react when it doesn’t coincide with the way we imagine our characters acting, or imagine the story playing out.
Letters from Pemberley does not follow the usual flow of stories. It’s told entirely from Elizabeth’s perspective, without indicating any other characters’ lines. There is a flow to the story line, in that it begins a little after Elizabeth’s marriage and progresses over a few weeks and months, but despite this progression, it does not really create an atmosphere that feels as if time is progressing within the novel. Because of this one person POV, it becomes difficult to see how Elizabeth’s character grows and evolves, from her first weeks of marriage compared to many months later.
Another thing I had an issue with was the portrayal of Elizabeth’s character in the novel. I found the Lizzy of this novel to be quite juvenile. You would think that after the events of the original P&P novel, she would be portrayed as much more mature, more adult, especially as she’s now married. Yet somehow, Lizzy in this book comes off as gossipy – she has somehow become quite observant of her neighbors and Mr Darcy’s acquaintances, despite not knowing them for very long. It seems as if she doesn’t have a lot of things on her plate, because quite a bit of the letters she writes is about her neighbors and her observations/opinions/perceptions of them. She also spends a great deal of time complaining to Jane about her mother and Lydia.
I also find that the Lizzy of this book concentrates much on herself, than on her sister, having very few lines where she asks after Jane. Of course, I see that there’s really no point in asking after Jane since none of her “replies” ever make it into the novel; but to keep up with the realism of the letter writing, it seems more realistic if she asked after her sister and Mr Bingley more.
There was one more thing that I found quite odd about the novel, in neither a good or bad way: when Elizabeth talks about how Darcy has hired a landscaper/architect to improve on the Pemberley grounds. Considering that Elizabeth’s stories about her new life are a little sporadic in terms of topics, it seems weird that such a topic as “how Pemberley is being improved upon”, is given such concentration. I liked how it was different from the books I’ve read before, because of course Pemberley is part of who the Darcy’s are, but detailed descriptions about landscaping and gardening just felt out of place in a novel so short.
Overall, I would say that this book didn’t really meet the standard that I expected/had hoped for in a Pride and Prejudice fan-fiction. Hopefully, the sequel of this novel – More Letters from Pemberley: 1814-1819: A Further Continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice , should I ever decide to get a copy, would prove more interesting a read than this.