Community Reviews
'A Dutiful Son: A Pride and Prejudice Variation' is another Jane Austen retelling by Kelly Miller that I enjoyed. I read her other book and found it nicely written and entertaining, and was so glad to see this available on KU.
Mr. Darcy's father is alive, but he is ailing with heart problems and he feels his time is limited (at the surprisingly young age of 55!) He is the obstacle to the romance between Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Bennett, but I think he's still a sympathetic character. One scene has him grieving his late wife Anne (Fitz and Georgie's mother.) He 'talks' to her in her old bedroom, telling her his hopes for their son's marriage and his values of honor and duty. After Father is disappointed by non-gentry young man Wickham's uncouth behavior- (which earned him fisticuffs by Darcy after saying lewd things about Lizzie) Darcy Senior decides his children shall NOT marry anyone who is of a class lower than them.
He does allow Georgiana to have a close friendship with Lizzie, and Lizzie spends a good period of time at their estate. There, she and Darcy interact; their romantic feelings can't be denied. But Father arranges for Fitz to court another girl of a higher rank, Amelia, whom he simply can't connect with and she isn't even marriage-minded. Along with this, poor Lizzie has a dreadful tool named Mr. Voss forced upon her. Voss is described as good looking but not only is he a man with a scandalous past, but he's snobby and horribly cruel to Lizzie's young friend, a special-needs boy from a tenant family. Lizzie stands up to the disabled boy, tells off Voss, and stops associating with him, one of my favorite scenes.
Plenty of balls, gossipy mothers and sisters, and an appearance by awkward old Mr. Collins (poor Charlotte- I felt so sorry for her and wish she wouldn't settle like that!) The book includes several charming outdoorsy horse riding scenes- all things you expect in a Jane Austen retelling!
I was a bit disappointed by how Fitzwilliam let himself be pushed by Father for so long instead of standing up for himself (and for Lizzie.) A lot of rehashing and 'talking about the same things over and over again' made the dialogue hard to muddle through. I did prefer the scenes where the main characters were riding horses, walking in the gardens, or doing something memorable while they interacted. A lot of the scenes were 100-percent dialogue which went on and on, with hardly any description of the environment around them. It felt like 'talking in a dark room' syndrome and I found those passages to be less engaging.
But the ending was really satisfying, and I enjoyed this and Kelly Miller's way of recapturing the elegant Regency writing and speech styles.
4 stars.
Mr. Darcy's father is alive, but he is ailing with heart problems and he feels his time is limited (at the surprisingly young age of 55!) He is the obstacle to the romance between Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Bennett, but I think he's still a sympathetic character. One scene has him grieving his late wife Anne (Fitz and Georgie's mother.) He 'talks' to her in her old bedroom, telling her his hopes for their son's marriage and his values of honor and duty. After Father is disappointed by non-gentry young man Wickham's uncouth behavior- (which earned him fisticuffs by Darcy after saying lewd things about Lizzie) Darcy Senior decides his children shall NOT marry anyone who is of a class lower than them.
He does allow Georgiana to have a close friendship with Lizzie, and Lizzie spends a good period of time at their estate. There, she and Darcy interact; their romantic feelings can't be denied. But Father arranges for Fitz to court another girl of a higher rank, Amelia, whom he simply can't connect with and she isn't even marriage-minded. Along with this, poor Lizzie has a dreadful tool named Mr. Voss forced upon her. Voss is described as good looking but not only is he a man with a scandalous past, but he's snobby and horribly cruel to Lizzie's young friend, a special-needs boy from a tenant family. Lizzie stands up to the disabled boy, tells off Voss, and stops associating with him, one of my favorite scenes.
Plenty of balls, gossipy mothers and sisters, and an appearance by awkward old Mr. Collins (poor Charlotte- I felt so sorry for her and wish she wouldn't settle like that!) The book includes several charming outdoorsy horse riding scenes- all things you expect in a Jane Austen retelling!
I was a bit disappointed by how Fitzwilliam let himself be pushed by Father for so long instead of standing up for himself (and for Lizzie.) A lot of rehashing and 'talking about the same things over and over again' made the dialogue hard to muddle through. I did prefer the scenes where the main characters were riding horses, walking in the gardens, or doing something memorable while they interacted. A lot of the scenes were 100-percent dialogue which went on and on, with hardly any description of the environment around them. It felt like 'talking in a dark room' syndrome and I found those passages to be less engaging.
But the ending was really satisfying, and I enjoyed this and Kelly Miller's way of recapturing the elegant Regency writing and speech styles.
4 stars.
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