Book picks similar to
Quitting the Sphere (No Cause to Repine Book 4) by Jann Rowland
jaff
austen
regency
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A More Gentlemanlike Manner
Harriet Knowles - 2021
The end of Darcy’s hopes and dreams.He decides to give her the letter and escape the humiliation.But he cannot do it.No matter the cost, he will do anything — anything — to be worthy of her acceptance.Elizabeth Bennet must decide which of the two characters is the real Mr. Darcy, before she can choose which path in life will make her happiest.Should she follow her heart, or her head?
In Search of Beauty, A Pride and Prejudice Variation
Melanie Schertz - 2020
They meet Mr Thomas Bennet, an art history professor at one of the universities there, and his two daughters, Jane and Elizabeth. The Bennets are part of a group trying to restore the stolen works of art taken by Napoleon's army when they plundered Belgium. One piece of art in particular was the Bruges Madonna, sculpted by Michelangelo. Along with Colonel Fitzwilliam, the Bingleys, Lord and Lady Matlock, the search for the missing art leads through Belgium while the hearts of two gentlemen find their matches in Mr Bennet's home.
Cinder-Liza: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary
Shana Granderson A Lady - 2021
Thomas Bennet married the love of his life: Miss Fanny Gardiner. She gave him three children, Jane, Elizabeth and Tommy. 2 years after Tommy, Fanny was taken from her loving family birthing a second son, who was stillborn.Another branch of the Bennet family, cousins to the Longbourn Bennets, are titled, the Earl and Countess of Holder, who live in Staffordshire with their 5 children. The two families are extremely close and after Fanny dies Bennet’s cousins, at his request, keep and raise Tommy. In his grief Thomas Bennet doesn't think he can raise a 2-year-old at the same time as his two daughters. He also feels Tommy needs a mother figure in his life.Martha Bingley is the widow of an honourable tradesman, Mr. Arthur Bingley, who had died of a heart attack. Bingley senior was a minor partner of Edward Gardiner in Gardiner and Associates. They had three children, Charles, Louisa, and Caroline. Unlike canon, the Bingleys are not very wealthy, and the girls have small dowries of £2,000 each.Bennet is introduced to Martha at his brother-in-law’s house. The Bingleys live in a leased house a few houses down from the Gardiners on Gracechurch street. Martha has always dreamed of climbing up the social ladder, raising her family above their roots in trade, so she compromises Bennet as he is a landed gentleman with an estate. Being an honourable man, and against advice of friends and family, he marries her.Our 'prince' in the story is of course none other than His Grace Fitzwilliam Darcy, Duke of Derbyshire, Earl of Lambton. Like canon his parents have already passed away. Dear old Lady Catherine de Bourgh will do anything to make her sickly daughter with a nasty disposition a Duchess. At some point the Duke purchases Netherfield to be closer to London so his sister, Lady Georgiana, will have her preferred music master close by.Bennet never reveals the existence of his son, or his relations, who are peers of the realm, to his new wife, who he dislikes intensely. The neighbours, none of whom like the new Mrs. Bennet or her children, keep the Bennet’s secrets without question. Bennet allows his new wife to believe the entail on Longbourn is away from the female line giving her the impression that on his death, she and her three spawn will be evicted from the estate by a distant unnamed cousin.Sometime after sending Jane to live with his cousins, for reasons which will be revealed in the story, with Lizzy refusing to leave her father’s side, Bennet has an accident which kills him. When no heir presents himself to throw her and her children, still at Longbourn, into the hedgerows, the stepmother feels more secure at the estate.Several of the usual suspects are present as well as some other characters. This is a story of hope and survival and the eventual triumph of good over evil.
Barely Betrothed to Mr. Darcy: a Pride and Prejudice variation
Valerie Lennox - 2020
She lives with her sister and her sister’s husband, Mr. and Mrs. Bingley, and she dotes on her niece and nephew. She doesn’t long for a husband or children of her own. To do so would only bring her misery.Then news reaches them which tears Elizabeth’s contentment to shreds.Mrs. Caroline Darcy is dead. She’s drowned herself.Everyone has long observed the late Mrs. Darcy’s dissatisfaction with her loveless, childless marriage, so the news, while tragic, is not entirely surprising. Elizabeth knows that Caroline trapped her husband into marrying her by falsely accusing him of a compromise that never occurred. Of course, that truth has never mattered, nor has the fact that Mr. Darcy is still in love with Elizabeth and that she is in love with him.Now, Mr. Darcy is free, but propriety dictates that he cannot remarry immediately. A quick marriage would court scandal and it would wound Caroline’s brother, Mr. Bingley, who is also Mr. Darcy’s dear friend. So, though Elizabeth knows that Mr. Darcy will be hers eventually, they cannot be officially engaged yet. Now, they must wait.For these two who have waited so long for each other, the waiting will prove to be the hardest part.Read this variation if you like our dear couple angsty and yearning, and if you’re amenable to a steamy culmination to all that tension.
Mr Darcy Got Married: A Pride and Prejudice Variation
Florence Gold - 2020
Darcy decides to follow the demands of duty and family. Realizing that he can never have a marriage of love, he settles for one of convenience.His decision throws Elizabeth into despair, as she now understands that he is the man best suited for her. Yet she never has the chance to bare her heart to him before his engagement. A happy ending seems impossible when their hasty decisions, made in anger, sentence them both to a life of misery.What will happen to Mr Darcy’s union of convenience, strangely planned by the last woman in the world whom one might think capable of such a scheme?Will fate ever give Elizabeth and Darcy a chance to share and fulfill their mutual love and eventually find happiness?
Why Wed?: A Pride and Prejudice Variation
Renata McMann - 2021
Despite her mother’s objections, Elizabeth goes to keep house for him at the Hunsford Parsonage near Rosings, where she meets Mr. Darcy again.Mr. Darcy decides to marry his cousin Anne de Bourgh, but that doesn’t work out as planned.Many characters from Pride and Prejudice marry for a variety of reasons, including health, wealth, and of course, love.This sweet Pride and Prejudice novella has about 28,000 words.
Longbourn's Son: A Pride and Prejudice Variation
Laraba Kendig - 2021
Can Elizabeth balance her responsibilities and also find love?With the birth of a son, the Bennet family no longer fears the loss of Longbourn. There is much sorrow when Mrs. Bennet later succumbs to sickness and dies.Young Luke Bennet prefers barns to books, and he and Mr. Bennet do not see eye to eye. When Wickham conspires to fleece the local young gentlemen of their money, Luke hesitantly joins the card parties at the insistence of his friends.Elizabeth must help to run the Bennet household and raise her younger siblings. Gentlemen come calling, but much to Elizabeth’s surprise, it’s Darcy who steals her heart. With responsibilities to estates and families, can they find happiness together?
Skirmish and Scandal
C.P. Odom - 2021
More than one wealthy or noble family of seemingly sterling reputation is torn apart and sometimes all but exterminated by savage intra-family feuds.That situation unexpectedly confronts Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in Skirmish and Scandal when Darcy’s interest in Elizabeth as a future mistress of Pemberley becomes known to Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her noble Matlock relations. Determined to prevent an affront to the reputation of their aristocratic clan, the most prominent members of the family gather with Lady Catherine to confront Darcy and force him to choose a more suitable wife. Th e resulting conflict and its aftermath involve furious arguments, abduction, pursuit, and personal clashes that narrowly avert meetings on the field of honour.How can such emotionally intense and seemingly insurmountable personal conflicts between thecouple result in an amorouos resolution?
The Reintroduction of Fitzwilliam Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation
Christine Combe - 2021
Though cautioned not to spend more time in his company than she ought, Elizabeth finds she cannot stay away from him.Fitzwilliam Darcy’s father lost half the family fortune to a pair of swindlers and the rest to gaming and investments that gave no returns. He knows he is no good for the daughter of a baronet, but he falls for the lively Elizabeth in spite of every reason he should not.When the two determine their mutual attraction cannot be denied, Darcy decides to accept the challenge of re-entering society more for the sake of Elizabeth’s reputation than his own. Because both know it won’t be easy for him to regain the good opinion of the ton, Darcy goes to his noble relations to seek their assistance and Elizabeth joins him in London to support his efforts.Of course, the expectation of whispers and snobbery is scant preparation for facing down the harshest critic of them all: one’s own family.
Pride Under Good Regulation : A Pride and Prejudice Variation
Eselle Teays - 2020
Both the grandfather and father of the master, Mr. Thomas Bennet, married blue-stocking wives from the Continent. These circumstances had a profound effect on Mrs. Bennet and her five daughters. Because of this broader worldview, the Bennet family was more aware of, and affected by some historical events of the period far outside the twenty-four families around Meryton than what one would expect of minor gentry in the backwater.Elizabeth Bennet had a superior mind and the self-assurance of a modern young woman; Mr. Darcy, the too proud master of Pemberley, Derbyshire was properly humbled by Mrs. Bennet during their first meeting. How would the courtship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy go under these different scenarios? How would Mr. Darcy behave when his pride was under good regulation?If you stripped away the changed circumstances, the characters would behave fairly similarly as in canon. If you are looking for extra angst or extra thrills, you will be disappointed. Pride and Prejudice has been classified as a comedy of manners. It is of course a huge challenge for even a seasoned writer to have anywhere close to the genius of Jane Austen to dissect and depict Regency manners with such a sharp insight. The ‘manners’ part of the Regency era was particularly difficult for a twenty-first century first-time fiction writer to emulate. In fact, the reader may detect some modern sensibilities in the Elizabeth in this story: self-assurance, resourcefulness, independence, etc. Hopefully, this story offers some amusing bits to make it a fun read.All verifiable historical characters, buildings and events appearing in this story are borrowed purely as vehicles in a work of fiction, but as much respect as possible is paid to the historical accuracy (as obtained through brief internet searches and well-researched references) in the description of these entities. Chapter notes are provided where appropriate for those who are interested.As of May/June 2021, the whole story has been revised - errors largely corrected, the length slightly shortened to improve the flow of the story, and a few extra chapter notes added.
Lord Harpenden's Daughter : Pride and Prejudice variation
Elin Eriksen - 2021
It was the talk of the town; not even Mr Darcy could avoid hearing about it, with his best friend's loquacious sister in tow.The sisters, dressed in their mourning garb, do not quite meet the expectations of the fastidious Mr Darcy, who soon finds himself in the unenviable position of trying to rectify a poor first impression. But then a dramatic event forces them to unite against a common enemy—a master of deception—to save their sisters.A chaste Pride and Prejudice variation of approximately 63 000 words, appropriate for adults due to graphic descriptions of nonsexual violence. A forced marriage scenario with no compromise.*Henry and Emma, a poem by Matthew Prior (1664-1721)
Elizabeth Bennet: Heiress
Don H. Miller - 2021
Mr. Bennet receives news that Mr. Collins has died, and, there being no other living male descendants of the grandparent who created the fee tail on Longbourn, Mr. Bennet may will Longbourn to the daughter of his choice. He chooses Elizabeth, with the full agreement of Jane, her elder sister. Thus, although the family fortune is not affected, Elizabeth’s personal standing is raised because she is now the heiress of a desirable estate. This story explores the effects this may have on Elizabeth’s life and her somewhat contentious relationship with Darcy.
Refusing Mr. Collins: A Pride and Prejudice Possibility
Carrie Mollenkopf - 2019
This may be especially so when the man in question not only possesses the rightful inheritance of said ladies, but is also of a most odious disposition and less than agreeable in appearance. Such was the lot of five young women near the town of Meryton. Not only had they no fortune, their own father, an absentee parent at best, had not the foresight to put aside a single pound should they not have the opportunity marry. For this sole reason, their overbearing mother deemed it necessary for one of her daughters to marry this impossible man. However, a mother’s best laid plans cannot come to pass if the gentleman in question is not only repulsive, but also very, very dead. Desperate times often call for desperate measures. There is a myriad of ways to dispose of an unwanted suitor, all of which may be deemed accidental, for who would ever accuse a young lady of good family? The answer is simple… no one. However, some persons are as extremely difficult to be rid as they are to tolerate in life. The Reverend Mr. Collins, despite his obvious deficiencies when it came to appearance and personality, has an uncanny knack for staying alive but, where there is a will, there is always a way…
Fine Eyes, Wild Temper: A Pride and Prejudice Variation
JT Hunt - 2019
Darcy to know each other better and amend their harsh first impression. Miss Bennet’s unguarded behaviour, outspoken and obstinate nature, headstrong opinions and unladylike inclinations for solitary walks do not meet with Mr. Darcy’s image of an accomplished lady. But a pair of fine eyes on a pretty face, a loyal heart, a witty mind and a teasing smile will soon defeat his resistance and overcome his opposition, inducing him to pursue Elizabeth's friendship and then her love. The first lesson he will learn in the process is that taming a wild temper is not an easy task. “Fine Eyes, Wild Temper” is a sweet, novella-length story of approximately 20.000 words, clean and low angst, recommended to those who love Elizabeth, Darcy and pets.
Mr. Darcy's Twelfth Night: A Steamy Pride and Prejudice Sequel
Elizabeth Ann West - 2021
For the first time, Elizabeth is thrown head-first into the world of Mayfair shopping, dinners, and balls. You can take the headstrong woman out of the country, but London's highest society isn't ready for Mrs. Darcy's fearless ways.Warned by his uncle that marriage changes a man, Fitzwilliam Darcy confronts expectations not only from his peers, but also his household and even his wife! Absolved of joint decisions when they were with the Bingleys in Hertfordshire, residing in London even for a few weeks places a strain on the new Darcy marriage. Old insecurities and parlor privateers demand a price to be paid and it's the first time Mr. Darcy's wealth may not be enough.One thing is certain, with those fiery tempers come fiery passions. The love shared between Mr. Darcy and his Elizabeth helps smooth over their struggles in communication. If only people would stop knocking on the door! When the Matlocks' Twelfth Night Ball becomes the can't be missed event of the Ton, Darcy and Elizabeth have a big decision to make. Will they remain in London answering to the whims and antics of the fast set close to the Prince Regent? Or will they carry the topsy-turvy night beyond dawn and run away to Pemberley?Mr. Darcy's Twelfth Night is a steamy Regency romance novel for fans of If Mr. Darcy Dared.