A secret alliance grows when an unwanted suitor arrives at Longbourn...
When rumours of Jane Bennet’s impending betrothal to her father’s heir begin spreading at the Meryton Assembly, Elizabeth vows to save her dearest sister’s happiness from being sacrificed in marriage.
She finds an unlikely accomplice in Mr Darcy, the taciturn man whose heroics on the cricket field have managed to turn Lydia Bennet’s infatuation away from redcoats. Upon overhearing a heated exchange between Elizabeth and Mr Bennet, Darcy is stunned not only by her devotion to her sister, but also by her defiant words to her father. An inexplicable desire to help Elizabeth draws Darcy into the match-breaking scheme, despite knowing that he should want nothing to do with a family like the Bennets.
As the new allies work together, their friendship deepens into mutual admiration. But they must navigate a complicated web of sisters, parents, friends, cousins, and aunts, some of whom may be attempting their own manipulations and romantic schemes. Eavesdropping and jealousy abound, cricket balls go astray, and love blooms in spite of Mrs. Bennet’s misguided matchmaking.
Guest Post from KC Kahler
Hey there! Thanks to Ceri for hosting a blog stop for my new book A Case of Some Delicacy, and thanks to you all for checking it out!
Today I’d like to discuss our favorite fictional family, the Bennets. I’m going to use some visual aids I created. You may have seen some of these memes combining headlines from the satirical “newspaper” The Onion with stills from various Austen adaptations. They went viral a few years ago, which was very strange and fun for me.
But back to those Bennets… In A Case of Some Delicacy, I tried to fill in some of the gaps, so that by the end they seem like a real family.
I’ll start not with any character, but with the dreaded entail of Longbourn, which has a huge effect on the family dynamics. Only Mr. Bennet stands between the Bennet girls and disaster. One hopes he has a very long life.
As all Austen fans know, this precarious situation has made Mrs. Bennet rather nervous and obsessed with getting her daughters married off.
Mrs. Bennet’s nervous condition is even more pronounced in A Case of Some Delicacy because Mr. Collins comes to visit sooner. She has to entertain the heir of her home in her home. Luckily he expresses interest in marrying Jane, which would save them all from displacement and genteel poverty.
But Mr. Collins isn’t anybody’s dream husband. For this reason, Elizabeth knows she can’t let Jane sacrifice her happiness for the family’s security. She tries to interfere in his courtship of Jane, and thus endures his many irksome speeches praising Lady Catherine.
Mr. Bennet also finds his cousin annoying, so why doesn’t he intervene instead of Lizzy? Well, Mr. Bennet would rather find sanctuary in his library than deal with his cousin, wife, and daughters. He’d rather avoid conflict. But he reforms his indolent ways over the course of ACoSD.
So we’ve covered Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins, Elizabeth and Jane. But what about the remaining Bennet girls who aren’t fully fleshed out in P&P?
Lydia has her own subplot in A Case of Some Delicacy. Yes, I know: nobody likes Lydia! Of course, she starts out as a silly, selfish, stubborn, boy-crazy teenager. But in ACoSD she does some serious character growth, and you may even like her at the end!
Mary and Kitty also play smaller but crucial roles in the plot of ACoSD. Mary starts out as studious and pious, but by the end you may think there is more to her than meets the eye. Kitty is silly and boy-crazy like Lydia, but her heart’s in the right pace.
Some of my favorite scenes to write in ACoSD were scenes where all five sisters interacted with each other. They argue and bicker as all siblings do, but they also help each other.
Thank you for reading! I hope you too will feel like you know the Bennet family better after reading A Case of Some Delicacy.
KC Kahler lives in northeastern Pennsylvania and works in online education, after having dabbled in sandwich making, bug collecting, and web development. She discovered Jane Austen fan fiction in 2008 and soon began dabbling in writing her own.
KC blogs about Austen and other pop culture topics. In 2015 and 2017, her popular Austen + The Onion Headlines meme was featured in The Atlantic, Flavorwire, and AV Club. In 2017, she made the requisite pilgrimage to Jane Austen country, where she took the waters in Bath, walked the lanes of Steventon, didn’t fall off the cobb in Lyme Regis, and stood awestruck in Chawton.
KC’s first novel, Boots & Backpacks, was published in 2014. Her second, A Case of Some Delicacy, released in 2019.
KC’s social links
A Case of Some Delicacy is available to buy now in paperback, kindle and kindle unlimited - Amazon US / Amazon UK / Amazon CA
You can also add it to your Goodreads shelf.
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