Great Idea, Poor Execution.

I must say I'm a sucker for any of the many "Pride and Prejudice" sequels that I can find. I've read many, although certainly not all of them. I just finished reading "The Pemberly Chronicles" by Rebecca Ann Collins. I can sum it up in the simple phrase ... great idea, poor execution.

The story picks up after the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth and is purported to weave Ms. Austin's fictional word with the realities of England during the reigns of George IV and William IV. I am a huge fan of Ms. Austin's novels. However, I was excited to think about Ms. Austin's characters leaving the sphere of knowledge that Ms. Austin wrote; that is I was looking forward to seeing characters I enjoying the world beyond the single girl looking of a husband. However, I was greatly disappointed.

Rebecca Collins simply hints at the world beyond Ms. Austin's imagination. She talks about politics in generalities instead of details. Rather than focusing on the world outside the marrige hunt, she spends much of her energies reliving her favorite scenes for the BBC version of the Pride and Prejudice movie. For example, when Mr. Darcy is faced with the decision about whether to fence in the common land on his estate a Pemberly, the reader is not presented with arguments about why others are fencing their land or the political realities that have lead to the trend in fencing common lands. Rather the reader is told to remember how silly Elizabeth Bennett was to ever think Mr. Darcy was not a liberal man and to be joyous at the follies of Eliza and Fitzy in their courtship. If this is all I wanted to do I would simply reread P&P rather than a new book.

Furthermore, we as readers, are not treated to any plot or arc within the book itself. We are told this child is born or this young woman is married without any introduction or conflict. The characters do not grow or change or really seem to interact in any way that would make us want to learn more or keep us reading. The story can best be called dull. It seems that Rebecca Collins has wrtten more seuqules to P&P, however, I for one will not be reading them.