Dreams and Expectations


Wendi Sotis - 2012
    Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet quickly recognize their feelings for each other and form a friendship, but misunderstandings and a bit of mystery and adventure hinder their path to happiness.

Unequal Affections: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling


Lara S. Ormiston - 2013
    Darcy, she despised him and was sure he felt the same. Angered by his pride and reserve, influenced by the lies of the charming Mr. Wickham, she never troubled herself to believe he was anything other than the worst of men--until, one day, he unexpectedly proposed. Mr. Darcy's passionate avowal of love causes Elizabeth to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about him. What she knows is that he is rich, handsome, clever, and very much in love with her. She, on the other hand, is poor, and can expect a future of increasing poverty if she does not marry. The incentives for her to accept him are strong, but she is honest enough to tell him that she does not return his affections. He says he can accept that--but will either of them ever be truly happy in a relationship of unequal affection?Diverging from Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice at the proposal in the Hunsford parsonage, this story explores the kind of man Darcy is, even before his "proper humbling," and how such a man, so full of pride, so much in love, might have behaved had Elizabeth chosen to accept his original proposal.

Longbourn


Jo Baker - 2013
    Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended. Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars—and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own.

Courage Requires: A Pride and Prejudice Continuation


Melanie Rachel - 2017
    When she invites the enigmatic Hawke sisters and the Fitzwilliams to join them for the festive season, will the company provide the friendship and solace Darcy hopes for his wife? Or will the Earl's opposition to Richard's love interest divide the family?Courage Requires is a full-length novel (approximately 90,000 words) that follows the events of Courage Rises. It is Book 2 of 2 in the Courage Series.

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England


Daniel Pool - 1993
    Author Daniel Pool provides countless intriguing details (did you know that the "plums" in Christmas plum pudding were actually raisins?) on the Church of England, sex, Parliament, dinner parties, country house visiting, and a host of other aspects of nineteenth-century English life—both "upstairs" and "downstairs."An illuminating glossary gives at a glance the meaning and significance of terms ranging from "ague" to "wainscoting," the specifics of the currency system, and a lively host of other details and curiosities of the day.

Darcy’s Paramour: A Pride and Prejudice Variation


M.A. Sandiford - 2020
    Shaken, he has retreated into solitary pursuits such as walking and fishing. Much time has been lost lamenting past errors, but he sees at last a way forward. He will try to get Elizabeth back. Risk a confession to Bingley. Convince Lady Catherine that he will never marry her daughter. Curb his pride and disrespect for others. Seek a reunion. And hope.No sooner has this resolution been formed than Darcy receives dramatic news of the Bennets. The family has been disgraced, not by Lydia, but by Elizabeth herself. She has been convicted of a felony and is now missing, believed a fugitive. Alone and without means, she faces destitution—or transportation at best if caught.Convinced of Elizabeth’s innocence, Darcy stands by his resolution. But how can he help Elizabeth without locating her? And how can he locate her without betraying her to the authorities? The conundrum seems insoluble. Will love find a way?

A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter


William Deresiewicz - 2011
    A sullen and arrogant graduate student, he never thought Austen would have anything to offer him. Then he read Emma—and everything changed. In this unique and lyrical book, Deresiewicz weaves the misadventures of Austen’s characters with his own youthful follies, demonstrating the power of the great novelist’s teachings—and how, for Austen, growing up and making mistakes are one and the same. Honest, erudite, and deeply moving, A Jane Austen Education is the story of one man’s discovery of the world outside himself.

One Thread Pulled: The Dance with Mr. Darcy


Diana J. Oaks - 2012
    Fortunately for Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth has walked away and does not overhear his insult, thus snagging the thread that would have sealed her prejudice against the prideful stranger. Unexpectedly, circumstances thrust Elizabeth into the same household as Mr. Darcy, and her proximity unwittingly proves tempting, as her tantalizing wit and playfulness evoke desires that threaten to unravel his resolve against her. In this delightful re-imagining of Jane Austen's beloved classic, Pride and Prejudice, the players are the same, but the rules have changed as the dance between Darcy and Lizzy unfolds.

And Then Love


Leenie Brown - 2016
    He is her only hope.But they will need Mr. Darcy's help for their plan to succeed.When Lucy Tolson's father dies, she must either marry quickly or go to live with her uncle. For Lucy, there is only one choice, and his name is Philip Dobney.To be presented with an offer of marriage from a long time friend is shocking to be sure! But the thought is not unwelcome. Philip, who has recently received the living at Kympton, is in need of a wife, after all, and Lucy is more than qualified to be a parson's wife.However, what seems to be a simple solution soon becomes complicated when Lucy's uncle and Wickham show up with plans to gain enough money to cover debts and secure the living that Wickham at one time refused. Events from the past combined with threats in the present threaten to tear Lucy and Philip apart unless Darcy can help his friends save their blossoming love and rid Lucy of her uncle once and for all.This book contains a bonus regency romance short story of about 5,900 words called Hope at Dawn.The story And Then Love is approximately 22,000 words in length or about 125 printed pages of story without front or back matter.

Ditching Mr. Darcy


Samantha Whitman - 2017
    What would you do if you crashed your car into a ditch and woke up as the main character of your favorite book? What if nothing happened the way it was supposed to? What if you met the dreamiest romantic hero in literary history and yet you fell in love with someone else instead? What would happen if you never woke up again? What would happen if you did? Elizabeth Baker is about to find out.

Alias Thomas Bennet


Suzan Lauder - 2013
    . . of most interest to Bennet was Mr. Darcy of Pemberley.When Fitzwilliam Darcy attends the Meryton assembly, he befriends a quiet, intelligent gentleman. In frequent visits to his friend's home, he becomes acquainted with the Bennet family of Longbourn. Yet Mr. Darcy is distracted by a strange feeling of having met some of them before. This is a different Bennet family from the cleverly crafted one in Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice. This Mr. Bennet is a responsible gentleman who takes an active role in the education and upbringing of all five of his daughters, manages Longbourn to be prosperous, and displays loving guidance toward Mrs. Bennet-a gentle, caring mother and wife. There is a mystery lurking at Longbourn-a secret unknown even to Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy is entangled in its extraordinary revelations. Who is Thomas Bennet?---Notes: This is a "what-if" variation on Pride and Prejudice: What if Mr. Bennet's personality were entirely different than in canon? What events would change in Austen's original, leading to fresh, new plot points? How would it affect Elizabeth and Darcy and the other characters? There is a second story line to tell how Mr. Bennet's personality became different, and that's the heart of the mystery!This book contains sexual scenes and violence, including one brief scene of non‑explicit sexual violence that may be concerning to sensitive readers. The sexual violence does not include Elizabeth Bennet.

Pride, Prejudice, and Cheese Grits


Mary Jane Hathaway - 2013
    She struggles to regain her momentum only to discover that Fielding has taken a visiting professorship at her college. The place that was once a refuge from the poverty of her past is now a battlefield of Civil War proportions. Ransom is still struggling with his role in his wife’s accidental death six years ago and was hoping a year at Shelby’s small college would be a respite from the reminders back home. He never bargained for falling in love with the one woman who would give anything to make him leave. Together Shelby and Ransom learn that home is never very far away, and when you least expect it, love arrives. With a cast of Civil War re-enactors, an evil wedding planner, antebellum mansions, and several mysterious diaries, 'Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits' will take you on a touching and hilarious ride through a modern South you haven't seen before.

Jane Austen, the Secret Radical


Helena Kelly - 2016
    Kelly illuminates the radical subjects--slavery, poverty, feminism, the Church, evolution, among them--considered treasonous at the time, that Austen deftly explored in the six novels that have come to embody an age. The author reveals just how in the novels we find the real Jane Austen: a clever, clear-sighted woman "of information," fully aware of what was going on in the world and sure about what she thought of it. We see a writer who understood that the novel--until then seen as mindless "trash"--could be a great art form and who, perhaps more than any other writer up to that time, imbued it with its particular greatness.

A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen


Susannah Carson - 2009
    It is a delight and a solace, a challenge and a reward, and perhaps even an obsession. For two centuries Austen has enthralled readers. Few other authors can claim as many fans or as much devotion. So why are we so fascinated with her novels? What is it about her prose that has made Jane Austen so universally beloved?In essays culled from the last one hundred years of criticism juxtaposed with new pieces by some of today’s most popular novelists and essayists, Jane Austen’s writing is examined and discussed, from her witty dialogue to the arc and sweep of her story lines. Great authors and literary critics of the past offer insights into the timelessness of her moral truths while highlighting the unique confines of the society in which she composed her novels. Virginia Woolf examines Austen’s maturation as an artist and speculates on how her writing would have changed if she’d lived twenty more years, while C. S. Lewis celebrates Austen’s mirthful, ironic take on traditional values.Modern voices celebrate Austen’s amazing legacy with an equal amount of eloquence and enthusiasm. Fay Weldon reads Mansfield Park as an interpretation of Austen’s own struggle to be as “good” as Fanny Price. Anna Quindlen examines the enduring issues of social pressure and gender politics that make Pride and Prejudice as vital today as ever. Alain de Botton praises Mansfield Park for the way it turns Austen’s societal hierarchy on its head. Amy Bloom finds parallels between the world of Persuasion and Austen’s own life. And Amy Heckerling reveals how she transformed the characters of Emma into denizens of 1990s Beverly Hills for her comedy Clueless. From Harold Bloom to Martin Amis, Somerset Maugham to Jay McInerney, Eudora Welty to Margot Livesey, each writer here reflects on Austen’s place in both the literary canon and our cultural imagination.We read, and then reread, our favorite Austen novels to connect with both her world and our own. Because, as A Truth Universally Acknowledged so eloquently demonstrates, the only thing better than reading a Jane Austen novel is finding in our own lives her humor, emotion, and love.

Gentlewoman Urgently Seeks Husband


D.L. Carter - 2017
    Bates and Miss Bates(from Jane Austen’s EMMA), Elizabeth Bennet is sent to Hunsford with orders to become a flirt and return married or not at all. Unfortunately her mother’s letters to Mr. Collins are misunderstood and the local gentry assume that she is ‘in a certain condition’.You know that won’t end well.