Pride and Prejudice

by Amy Armstrong (Author/Adaptation)

Clandestine Classics:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Amy Armstrong

Why wait for Pride and Pleasure by Sylvia Day when you can read this now...

The Classics Exposed…

When the highly eligible and overtly handsome Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy first arrives in Hertfordshire, Elizabeth Bennet is instantly captivated, but his proud and arrogant manner is at odds with the heated glances he throws her way. Electrifying sexual tension soon leads to an unexpected kiss and Elizabeth’s world is turned upside down.

Misconceptions ensue and judgements abound but the attraction between the young couple endures. Can Elizabeth overlook social convention and give in to her desires for Darcy or will their Pride and Prejudice tear them apart?
Review From Literary Nymphs Reviews

Ms. Armstrong adds a little heat between Darcy and Elizabeth that show the chemistry between them is strong. The addition of Elizabeth’s constant thoughts about Darcy and his about Elizabeth were added smoothly into the story...I happen to read the classic every year, as it is a family tradition. This version will more than likely be alternately read as nothing is lost in the translation and in some parts, actually enhance the story.
Review From Night Owl Romance Reviews

Amy Armstrong conveys contemporary ardour with this revisited classic. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy have long been my favourite romantic couple and this adaptation does not change my thinking. The sexual tension had always been there but with this retelling it takes centre stage and is so artfully done that I felt almost as if this were how it were originally written. This is definitely not the Pride and Prejudice I remember reading as an adolescent girl and while the young dreamer I was loved the sweet and tender interactions this story appealed to my mature passionate tastes. I enjoyed the fact that all the original wit and cleverness remained as did all my favourite characters. Whether you are a long-time Jane Austen fan, if you are simply curious to see just what this collaboration entails or if you are looking for something different I recommend you pick this one up and enjoy the sensual journey of this timeless tale.

Amy Armstrong

About the Author:
Amy Armstrong is a Brit that loves chocolate, prosecco, and sunshine. She lives and breathes paranormal romance and urban fantasy, but is also a fan of the classics and pretty much anything else she can get her hands on, including but not limited to contemporary romance, thrillers, horror, dark fantasy and young adult fiction.

Amy writes stories filled with heart, heat and passion. She loves to read about strong woman, but believes heroes come in all different shapes and sizes. She is happiest when writing or soaking up the sun with a pina colada in one hand and her kindle in the other. Her family and friends are an important part of her life and she loves meeting new people with similar interests. She is a full time, multi—published author and loves to hear from readers. She writes M/M romance under the pen name Lavinia Lewis.

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance

532 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 30, 2012

About the author

Amy Armstrong is a Brit who loves chocolate, prosecco, and sunshine. She lives and breathes paranormal romance and urban fantasy, but is also a fan of the classics and pretty much anything else she can get her hands on, including but not limited to thrillers, horror, dark fantasy and young adult romance.

Amy writes stories filled with heart, heat and passion. She loves stories of strong woman, but believes heroes come in all different shapes and sizes. She is happiest when writing or soaking up the sun with a pina colada in one hand and her kindle in the other. Her family and friends are an important part of her life and she loves meeting new people with similar interests. She is a full time writer and loves to hear from readers.

Subscribe to Amy's mailing list for competitions, arcs and information on new releases - http://eepurl.com/bLM1fD

Reviews

[Rosalie Stanton · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I heard there was a version of Pride and Prejudice with some steamy omitted scenes, I was very much intrigued. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are my all-time favorite lovers, and I know I'm not alone in that regard. That said, I purchased this version of Pride and Prejudice with some reservations. I've read a variety of the "published fanfic" Pride and Prejudice off-shoots, though they are all usually a DNF for me because of the mishandling of the characterization.

I made it all the way through this one, though I do believe that is mostly to be accounted for Ms. Austen's writing. That is not to say I didn't enjoy the steamier scenes between Elizabeth and Darcy; I did, but the insertions felt very forced. Ms. Armstrong did a good job of adapting a seventeenth century/regency feel, but the scenes themselves were so out of character it felt very much as an addition to an otherwise classic novel.

The thing about Elizabeth and Darcy is this: while there is a good deal of physical attraction, their main draw to one another is their intellectual regard. Darcy came to admire Elizabeth for the way she holds herself, conducts herself, expresses herself, and so on. It's her intelligence, her convictions, her kindness that entrance him. Her ability to match him in discussion, debate and support her beliefs and convictions, and so on. Of course he is drawn to her physically -- Austen herself alluded to this with repeated acknowledgment of Elizabeth's "fine eyes" and her eventual status as one of the "handsomest women" of Darcy's acquaintance. And Darcy, himself, is regarded for his physical attractiveness.

Austen's Darcy and Armstrong's Darcy are at such odds with each other so as to contradict their characterizations. No matter how strong Darcy's attraction to Elizabeth, I cannot be persuaded to believe he would do more than perhaps the only organic "clandestine" moment between them: kissing her at Netherfield. The other intimate moments between them -- the Netherfield ball and what occurs when Elizabeth is visiting the Collinses -- is a vast stretch of character. The Darcy who said the following would have had much too much respect for societal boundaries, and for Elizabeth, to behave as he did:

``I cannot give you credit for any philosophy of the kind. Your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the contentment arising from them is not of philosophy, but, what is much better, of innocence. But with me, it is not so. Painful recollections will intrude which cannot, which ought not, to be repelled. I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You shewed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.''

Furthermore, given what occurred between Georgiana and Wickham, and given Darcy never explains himself or his deeper sentiments before presuming to endanger Elizabeth's reputation, any intimacy between them is a vast stretch of his character.

And then, of course, is Elizabeth. Elizabeth is proper, yes, but fiercely independent and quite quick to make a judgement of someone's character. I wanted to see some of her fighting spirit in the new material. She should have slapped Darcy when he presumed to kiss her at Netherfield, she should have hated him by the time of the Netherfield ball (especially since he presumed a kiss), and she would never have allowed him so close to her after she had made up her mind regarding his character. That is not to say these things couldn't be believably accomplished, but it would take more care than what was presented here. Elizabeth Bennet is not the sort of heroine who throws her convictions out the window in exchange for physical pleasure, and to render her as such is, in my opinion, a great disservice.

I don't wholly believe this is the fault of Ms. Armstrong. As I stated, I am guilty of wanting to see intimacy between Darcy and Elizabeth, and have purchased the fanworks to prove it. I am not convinced, as I said, that reworking Pride and Prejudice to include those scenes isn't possible, but I have read nothing that has managed it believably. I think that is a testament to Ms. Austen's characters. I WANT very much to see more of them, but haven't been able to suspend my disbelief in the portrayals that have been provided. I do believe Ms. Armstrong could rework the Austen storyline into a contemporary setting, as others have, and I would very much enjoy reading something along those lines. The same characteristics that make Elizabeth Elizabeth and Darcy Darcy could be achieved believably alongside the steamy scenes if societal norms altered. Both Elizabeth and Darcy are very much products of their environment, such to the point the environment needs to change before does their behavior.

I enjoyed reading Pride and Prejudice again, and commend Ms. Armstrong on a good effort in her additions to the original, even I ultimately didn't believe it. Her writing itself is strong enough I would like to read some of her other work.

I would recommend this version for those who love Austen and don't mind the occasional flight of fancy. The new intimacy between Darcy and Elizabeth might throw you momentarily out of the story, but the result is a fun guilty pleasure detour of an otherwise brilliant book.

[Reverenddave · Rating 1 out of 5]

In an attempt to cash in on both the literary mash-up trend and the wild success of 50 Shades of Grey this book aspires to be Pride & Prejudice & Sex. And if it had more fully committed itself to that a premise so wildly at odds with the very nature of the source material it might have been highly amusing. As it was the bodice ripping was limited to three instances and supplemented with lots of looks of deep longing and Liza Bennett daydreams of manly hands doing manly things to her. Leaving the book sufficiently corrupted to detract from the original and insufficiently committed to raise it to the level of enjoyable insanity.

Also, seriously what's up with the use of "her sex" as a euphemism for a female's genitals? Is this a thing? Cause its dumb.

[Hardly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is DREADFUL. Not the parts by Jane Austen, of course, but everything else. Just... dreadful. Austen provided very clear characterization of pretty much everyone, but Amy Armstrong's versions are so dissimilar, it's as if she simply spliced a completely different (horrible) book into P&P with reckless, apathetic abandon.

It's not easy to imitate early 19th century prose, to be sure, but the modernity of Amy Armstrong's is often very obvious. Plus, the informality of her wording and frequent grammar mistakes-- far more noticeable in a book that employs such painstakingly perfect English-- is jarring. Example: "Was he used to more experienced women than her?" is just awful, as "used to" is informal and slangish, and "than her" is poor grammar.

Chunks (with every bit of ponderous gracelessness implied by that word) of lustful attraction by Elizabeth and Darcy (henceforth referred to as E and D) for each other are inserted clumsily into or at the end of thoroughly unrelated scenes, and the development of E's and D's sexual relationship progresses insanely rapidly.

E giving it up so quickly and easily, and with few scruples afterward, effectively destroys one of the main reasons this book was so wonderful to begin with: the slow, delicious blooming of love as E falls in love with D, with all the sexiness of that taut mutual awareness growing steadily between them until it culminates.

And the way the sex scenes are rendered is atrocious. I'm not one for euphemisms as a general rule, but to go from Austen's exquisitely rendered prose to such gems as the stark "As he thought of her soft lips and her big brown eyes, his cock grew hard" makes one's lip curl in derision.

The idea of E-- or any gently-reared girl of that period-- permitting D such liberties, so quickly, is ridiculous. This was a time when, literally, spending a single minute unchaperoned with a man could mean being required to marry him, as even that one minute meant the young lady had been compromised. Virginity was a prized commodity.

Also, let's not forget how the pivotal plot point, the single event that proves to E that D is not the awful person she thought he was, and catapults her into love with him-- how he rushes to Lydia's rescue when the stupid girl runs off with Wickham-- is predicated on how Lydia, and the rest of the family, would be utterly ruined if D had not forced Wickham to marry Lydia. How Ms. Armstrong, presumably having read P&P at least once, could have E banging D in spite of this issue is baffling.

It was unthinkable for women in the Bennets' echelon of English society to consider sex outside of marriage, because if found out, the repercussions were disastrous. Not just the woman, but her entire family, would be ruined, shunned by society, possibly even turned away at businesses and deserted by servants who wouldn't want to be tarnished in association. Her sisters would never be able to make decent matches, and her family's name would be gossiped about and mocked throughout the land. And this is if she DIDN'T get pregnant; if she did, you can treble the amount of badness to follow.

There were exceptions, certainly, and it's not unreasonable to posit that E might have fleshly desires and risqué thoughts. But E's remarkable familiarity with the particulars of sex just does not make sense in relation to the period in which she lives. Armstrong doesn't bother to give us a reason for WHY our intrepid heroine, who heretofore gave every impression of being a typical and proper young English lady, suddenly is entertaining raunchy thoughts of "his strong, masterful body crushing hers as they lay together, lost in the throes of passion". How would she even know to THINK of such a thing?

Given that this time period throve on ideals of repression and denial, with the scant minimum being offered to young brides in preparation of their upcoming wedding night, the idea of E entertaining thoughts other than "What a handsome man" (or some version thereof) when seeing D riding is laughable.

And yet we're treated to "His thick muscular thighs gripped the horse's back with unmistakable power, and she imagined her legs wrapped around them, her feet digging into his buttocks while he took her with wild abandon." LOL WHUT.

And that is NOTHING compared to how their second clinch rockets right to cunnilingus. And this is maybe the fourth time they've met (at Bingley's party at Netherfield). Picture in your mind the strong, sensible (Austen informs us so, multiple times, both in narration and through her characters) E we've known and loved for two centuries. Then try to reconcile her with this pearl.

"If I gave you my word that upon my honour I would not do anything you did not explicitly want, would you have faith in me?"

She should not. She hardly knew the man, after all, and what she did know was not all good. The only conceivable answer to his question was no, she could not have faith in him.

"Yes," she breathed."

THIS BOOK IS SO BAD, Y'ALL.

Instead of that adorable, acutely uncomfortable scene where Darcy calls at the parsonage while Collins and Charlotte are away... they go upstairs and knock Hessians. And instead of any sort of sane, reasonable reactions as might be expected of a pair of aristocratic Georgian Brits (here, I'm thinking dazed horror on E's part, shocked apology and marriage proposals by D) they... go downstairs, D starts reading the paper, and they discuss her vacationing in the Kentish countryside. As one does, after losing one's virginity. I know that's what *I* did, my first time. I'm sure your own experience was similar. Paper-reading is definitely the best way to handle the demolition of one's future.

This travesty cost over $4.00, which is $5.00 too much. Ugh.

[Books & Vodka Sodas]

Totally excited to read this!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not good. The steamy scenes between Darcy & Elizabeth just feel forced.

[Strangecrabbe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having access to Darcy's feelings is a definite bonus in this version of the story and while it is clear in the original story that he is intrigued by Elizabeth's intelligence and wit, I can easily believe Darcy having such strong sexual desires towards Elizabeth as well. These feelings are why he is drawn to Lizzy despite her unfortunate relations and ultimately proposes to her in the first place while they're visiting in Kent. My issue is that the author has also included Elizabeth's intimate thoughts towards Darcy and they're far too explicit to be believed. Her attraction to Darcy is not in question. It's the detail in which the author portrays this attraction I find fault with. I seriously doubt a well brought up young woman like Elizabeth living in that era would have knowledge of such graphic detail about sex. That was bad enough, but then the author has Lizzy act on these feelings. I couldn't help thinking how ridiculous it all seemed. Elizabeth would've never behaved with such wild abandon, especially considering she believed Darcy's character to be flawed. The incident upstairs at the Netherfield ball was too much, too soon. That scene should've ended in the newly written garden scene and gone no further. Same goes for the incident in Lizzy's bedroom while visiting Mr. and Mrs Collins. That should've ended before they headed upstairs. While Elizabeth's sexual attraction to Darcy is 100% believable, she would never risk her reputation (and ultimately her entire family's) in such a careless way. Allowing Darcy to kiss her passionately and her response to that kissing, allowing him to do it in the first place and then enjoying it, would've been scandalous enough to both us, the readers and to the characters themselves. Considering all that Elizabeth and Darcy do get up to in this version of the book, it makes the reaction to Lydia's indiscretion with Wickham almost laughable!

I believe this version would have been perfect had the author toned down some of Lizzy's fantasies, stuck with the passionate kissing scenes only (they were perfect and seamlessly woven into the story) and finally, because this rewrite has been written in the style of a romance novel, near the end of the book, when Jane, Bingley, Elizabeth and Darcy go walking and Lizzy thanks Darcy for helping Lydia, allowed that lovemaking scene in the meadow to happen as written. It makes sense she would give herself over to Darcy then, when she is sure of not only his good character, but their feelings toward each other.

I would rate this 3.5 stars if I could, because despite my criticisms, the added scenes were well written and very nicely woven into the story.

[Cristina Straton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this writer and her style. Pride and Prejudice it is a very good book and she have to be read. Why? Because Jane Austen is a classical writer, and their love stories are epical, for me. She presented a different type of people, a different relationship and also a several love story.
Elisabeth Bennet and Mister Darcy are the principal heroes in this book, and their love story is very palpitant. Elisabeth is a erudite girl who loves books and also she has a opinion about everything, and she has a very bad opinion about mister Darcy. This opinion was formatted about her prejudice.
Mister Darcy are very rich man and single. In this way he is a very good variant for future husband for the one of the girl Bennet.
Elisabeth and mister Darcy met at the ball and he refuse dance with her because she doesnt have something special. But she has, and he fall in love, and she all. But social difference and pride both was an obstacle for their love.
However it is love story and have a happy ending. I love this book because action happened in the past, when girl and boys wear a beautiful dress and suits. Their balls are amazing, with dance and flirtation. In this book we can see a pure love, a demnity, and a wish. It is very nice how Austin related this story. How the met, and how their relationship are progressed.
I recommend this book for every who want to read a good story and to know a bygone era.
Something about Jane Austen is a author of several book, part of was published one she was in live. In the same time nobody dont know who is the author for their novells. She was fall in love but never married, she write for pleasure and letter she won money for this activity.

[Krysten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's because I read predominately historical romance but the idea of a more romanticized version of Pride and Prejudice (read: with sexy times) intrigued me. Also, I'm in a very P&P mood and have read several versions of the story recently. This was NOT my favorite. I'm really disappointed in how the story was handled. If I was going to write P&P with sexy times, I would try to keep the romantic tension between Darcy and Elizabeth that was so compelling in the original. I think maybe this author wasn't skilled enough to handle this project. I think she missed the mark with the characterization. And, IF you're going to rewrite P&P, then you're already taking creative license so do something fantastic with it! Tell part of the story from Darcy's POV. Wait and let them have their first encounter later on in the novel after some of the tension has built up. Just do something more creative than sticking some sex scenes into the novel.

[Donna Campbell-Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

[C.L. Barbera]

Five stars to the parts that are all Jane Austen's - no surprise there ;) - and zero stars to the rest.
A pointless retelling and a boring read.

[Elin Eriksen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rehash intersped with explicit sex.
Personally I prefer ODC not to anticipate their wedding vows and when Elizabeth after said interlude, rejects Darcy's proposal it is h... no from me. The passionate exchanges was very well written though.