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Last year, on the Austen Variations website, a serial story
was posted, with the authors taking turns in posting chapters. At the end of
the chapter there was a poll which gave the readers a choice in the direction
of the story. This must have been such a challenge for the authors involved,
picking up the threads of the story where somebody else has left it, and having
to follow the readers’ choice of direction rather than the writer’s own muse. I
read most of the challenge as it was being posted and was therefore really
interested to see this published version of ‘The Darcy Brothers’ by Monica
Fairview, Maria Grace, Cassandra Grafton, Susan Mason-Milks and Abigail
Reynolds.
This is a variation on ‘Pride & Prejudice’ where the
variation is a change to Darcy’s family. Here, he has a brother two years
younger than himself, Mr Theophilus Darcy. The Darcy brothers unfortunately do
not have the closest of brotherly bonds, and Theo has become Darcy’s scapegoat
for a number of events including Georgiana’s failed elopement with Wickham, as
Theo accompanied her to Ramsgate and was very close to Wickham. Darcy is paying
his annual visit to Lady Catherine and has decided to take his brother with
him, to keep him out of trouble. Darcy and Theo have a very unhealthy
relationship at the start of this story. Theo craves his brother’s approval,
but also derives great enjoyment from needling and annoying him, and a perverse
pleasure in proving all his brother’s worst suspicions correct. At the
beginning of the book I really didn’t like the side in each other that the
brothers provoked (because anybody with siblings will know that they can bring
out the absolute worst in you!); Darcy was more humourless, intolerant and unpleasant
than I am used to, and Theo, while being amenable to others, was quite childish
in his provoking manner. I found his childishness towards Lady Catherine much
more amusing though:
‘Dipping a quill in
ink, he began a sketch of his aunt with fangs and bat wings, then neatly
labelled it ‘The Old Bat’.’
Theo has very keen powers of observation and is quite sure
that something is wrong with his brother, who has, unbeknown to Theo, travelled
to Kent under the spectre of dread that Caroline Bingley has put into his head
that Elizabeth may have married Mr Collins. Being a person with an enquiring
mind, and having nothing else to do in the country, Theo has decided to try and
puzzle out what is preying on his brother’s mind:
‘A plan began to take
shape in his head. True, it would mean undertaking several of his least
favourite things – awakening early in the morning, attempting to be polite to
his aunt and avoiding annoying his brother – but sometimes sacrifices must be
made.’
Once Theo is on the case, it doesn’t take long for him to
come to some quite accurate conclusions regarding his brother’s feelings, but
unfortunately Darcy isn’t blessed with the same level of success in determining
people’s feelings and he isn’t sure if Theo also has feelings of admiration
towards Elizabeth. Elizabeth has even less reason to think well of Darcy in
this variation, as she sees him add mistreatment of his brother to his list of
crimes, not realising that Theo is extremely provoking to his sibling. With so
much pushing them apart, is there a way towards happiness for Darcy and
Elizabeth? And can the Darcy brothers ever bridge the gap between them and be
brothers in more than name?
I thought this was an interesting idea for a variation
because on the face of it, Darcy having a brother shouldn’t make much
difference to his relationship with Elizabeth unless he directly interferes,
but of course, having a different family dynamic would make Darcy a different
person, and he is a sorely-tried man with a brother like Theo. The root cause
of this isn’t Theo’s fault, he has been blamed unfairly by Darcy for a number
of events, but he has perversely exacerbated the problem as much as possible,
because, like his brother, he is a proud man, and will not admit that he wants
his brother’s respect and love so their relationship has evolved into a bit of
a vicious circle.
While at Rosings we see a very different side to Anne de
Bourgh. I really enjoyed Anne’s character, and have never seen one quite like
it in my Austenesque reading. Having been so secluded from society, Anne hasn’t
learned the boundaries required for polite society, and is extremely outspoken
and headstrong (I wonder where she gets that from?!), which I found very
entertaining. She also wants to ‘help’ Darcy’s courtship of Miss Bennet, for
her own reasons. I also liked the new character of Theo’s good friend, the
genial man-mountain Sir Montgomery Preston.
Through the trials and tribulations they face, we see the
Darcy brothers draw closer together and overcome the obstacles to true
brotherhood that they’ve placed between them; it’s lovely to see them becoming
closer and as they do, you can see Darcy changing to become more like the
character that we know and love, and as Darcy changed I enjoyed the story more
and more. This is a less romantic variation than some as the focus is more on
the brothers, particularly Theo, but it was entertaining and interesting. There
was a really interesting section relating to how wounds were dealt with which
was fascinating to compare to medicine today.
I was also interested to see whether having this many authors would lead
to changes in style throughout the book, but reading the published version I
don’t think I’d have realised that there were so many authors involved in
creating the story if I hadn’t have known the fact.
I don’t know whether it’s intended for this story to have a
sequel but I think there is definite scope for it, and I’d love to read it if
one is written. I would like to see what happens to Theo after the close of our
tale! I’d recommend this to Austenesque readers, and I’d rate it as a 4½ star
read.
*I was provided with a
copy of this book to review for Leatherbound Reviews.
