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Aaaaand, the mystery of WHO is leaking private information about Elizabeth to the malicious press… It was Mary all along ! Pious Mary was a treacherous villainess after all… bitter vile pours out as her “confession” [ eye roll ]

Elizabeth overhears Darcy talking to his uncle the judge, and the judge advises Darcy to divorce and have his wife get an abortion (yes! even though none lf them know if Lizzy is enceinte or not).

Elizabeth overhears and kickstarts a plan to fake her own death, joing Lydia and travel to the Continent undercover. Darcy is completely lost and procrastinates while he wallows in his feelings.

Darcy arrives home drunk after a ball, calls Elizabeth “Caroline” in bed, Elizabeth doesn’t react.

When Elizabeth feels ill the next morning, Darcy rushes to see if she is well, but is disgusted by the smell, says so in contempt and rushes away to his own rooms, leaving Elizabeth still sick and unwell, without even bothering to ring for a maid !

Lydia was “kidnapped” by Wickham right outside of Gunther’s, W sort of assaulted her in an arranged scandal to damage Elizabeth reputation but Lydia fought him — never mind she doesn’t like him &explicitly doesn’t want to marry him, because Darcy is already bribing W to pay all his debts &more, just to he can marry Lydia and take her far away.

This is the same Darcy who threw a tantrum over silver spoons

One minute Darcy is throwing a spat because Elizabeth is spending too much of HIS money. These are not all her purchases, but fake purchases Lady Matlock is pressuring E to make, or maybe even requesting behind her back.

Next minute Lady Matlock (again) convinces Lizzy that she NEEDS TO host a very elegant & expensive ball, and Darcy inexplicably agrees !

Then no one shows up and it’s a bust…

Now Lizzy had some inexplicable miscommunication with the seamstress, so her dress was half done & quite scandalous, and she is attending a formal dinner half naked because OF COURSE she has to wear the new dress Lady Matlock advised anyway !

Elizabeth’s first surprise visitor as lady of the house in Darcy’s London home is PRINCESS AUGUSTA, who happened to be BFFs with Lady Anne, and arrives testing Elizabeth by asking her to gift her (the guest) a random Chinese porcelain bowl, without informing ot requesting permission from Darcy [super normal situation ! ]

“Mr. Darcy’s resemblance to a Greek God chiselled in Bianco Carrara marble did much to appease her anxiety. With the confidence of Zeus, he strutted about the room in his birthday suit”

Really??

Darcy proposes to Elizabeth in haste, then rushes away from Elizabeth before they can even ejoy the moment, because he left some jewels he intended to gift her in his room (at Netherfield), leaving Elizabeth alone in a balcony, in the middle of a ball, pray to Caroline Bingley’s insidious commentary — does this make sense ??

“ Their lips met, the angels chorused, and a flock of cupids attacked her heart with a dozen prickly arrows. “ [ eye roll ]

Still stuck here — this story has failed to grab my attention, and I can usually read through anything, even when I dislike it !

Cnel Fitzwilliam’s brother has died only weeks ago, and instead of keeping mourning, he is planning to attend an assembly in Lambton and dancing rhe evening away !

I was already shocked that the Darcys of Pemberley were not going into half mourning for their Uncle’s heir (their blood cousin!). I would have expected Darcy to wear a black armband and Georgiana to darken her gowns…

Halfway into the story and there are two main mysteries remaining >> What horrible thing happened to Elizabeth, or what did she witness 5 years ago at Pemberley? And what happened to Georgiana before Elizabeth’s present visit, to make her health & spirits deteriorate (lack of sleep, nightmares?, depression, refusing to eat)

The time leaps are awkward, 3 months into E’s visit and hardly any progress in the plot

Cnel Fitzwilliam calls 20-year-old Elizabeth “a woman”, Lizzy calls 15-year-old Georgiana “this woman”, the two LADIES (girls) are called “women” by Darcy and his cousin — it sounds crass.

It’s absolutely tone deaf to Austen and to Regency speech/mindset !! Social niceties exist(ed) for a reason…

I often see a misuse of the words “woman” or “female” in JAFF/Austen variations. It’s used carelessly, without furthet meaning, maybe as authors would use them today to describe any woman…

But in Regency England “woman” alone was too generic and even more coarse. Language demanded more specific terms denoting age/class/education/status >> lady (preferable for Gentry), maiden, lass, for ex.

There are two strange points so far >>

1) Elizabeth has some mystery memories from her previous visit to Pemberley, which are painful/traumatic, and her strong emotions + avoidance to name them gives it a sordid, unsavory vibe.

2) Darcy hardly remembers she girl who visited Pemberley one summer, but Elizabeth has a set recollection of a cold, distant, dismissive Darcy, and she has beef against him ! Why ??

Pet peeves = cliché phrases or formulas repeated as fillers and with a bit of a modern ring

- utterly and completely
- “My thoughts exactly”
- “I could not agree more”

Yeah, this Lizzy is a nasty piece of work ! This is Elizabeth addressing the step-mother who raised her and the mother of her younger half-sisters…

“ And from now on, if any of you wishes for something particular from me, you will beg me, with proper gratitude and humbleness! Not asking, not demanding, but begging and showing thankfulness afterwards! “

Here it comes ! The set down moment >> Elizabeth unleashes an “epic” talk to Mrs. Bennet about how entitled she is and how poorly she has treated Elizabeth [ eye roll ]

I strongly dislike these contrived moments of “reckoning” authors inflict on characters they want to demean or punish. It gives “power” to main characters and highlights a childish idea of “justice”.

I find it usually misogynistic.

The “two steps forward, one step back” progress in the relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth is getting boring.

He is courting her within marriage, she remains clueless about his/her feelings, and they are both constantly getting interrupted by servants/family/random trouble whenever they get a private moment and a small understanding between them!

Darcy likes Elizabeth and he has been nothing but honourable and courteous to her. Elizabeth likes Darcy, so every time she gets nervous she “unintentionally” brings up her money, “unintentionally” offending him [ eye roll ]

Also, it’s really awkward to read how much Elizabeth despises her stepmother and how she only deals with her Bennet sisters out of social obligation.

So far Darcy has been nothing but decent, kind and considerate towards Elizabeth. She met him through her uncle Gardiner, who is Darcy’s dear friend and confidante.

So HOW IN THE WORLD does Elizabeth get into her head that Darcy is a snob who dislikes Wickham because he is a servant’s son and lower in social class??? This makes no sense, and it stinks of Lizzy reading P&P beforehand [ eye roll ].

Elizabeth knows her husband (Darcy) despises Georgiana’s husband, she knows he was a former family friend and now her husband disapproves of him. She knows Darcy is pained by him marrying Georgiana.

So when she meets Wickham “by chance” in the rain, she thinks it’s perfectly natural to INVITE HIM INTO THE HOUSE when Darcy is away, and feed him brandy and cake !!!!

Juvenile, comedic, fast-paced style.

Each short chapter offers a different first person point of view with much internal dialogue, harsh judgements, and plenty of illogical-yet-cheeky references to original P&P text [ eye roll ].

The four syllable plot point was forgotten after the first (presentation) chapter — thankfully !

We are told Darcy is struck surprised by seeing Elizabeth “in color” for the first time (at an asembly).

But we were explicitly told that from the first day the Bennet sisters left mourning attire, Darcy and Elizabeth have been together several times, at Pemberley (visiting Georgiana) and once on a day excursion to see Bingley’s new home.

Very ill advised for the author to name Bingley’s newly purchased home Haddon Hall — this is the name of a super important, well known, real-life historic building in Derbyshire. It’s a massive medieval castle, former seat of the Dukes of Rutland, still in the hands of the Manners family (the current Duke’s brother)

Bingley can’t afford this one !

There are several instances of editorial gaffes in which a scene is sort of retold in different/consecutive paragraphs with slight alterations or in a circular pattern that is confusing to read : a farewell that happens with similar words in two or three different places, Mary or Kitty saying the exact same words on different scenes reacting to similar situations.

Probably different drafts copy-pasted together

1) Darcy agrees to have Georgiana invite ALL the Bennet ladies to Pemberley, G goes to write the note asap

2) weeks go by and the Bennet household only see the Darcys at church

3) an eternity afterwards the note is sent to the Bennets with an invitation for Mary ONLY

Strange that…

Mr Darcy addresses Miss Darcy and says “with your mother’s approval” — WHAT IS THIS???

Is this a typo, an editorial misstep, or a new addition to this variation that we have not been told before ??

Funny how a trip from Meryton to Lambton includes commentary on the landscape near London (a usual geographical gaffe).