MR DARCY'S LITTLE SISTER by C. ALLYN PIERSON -A REVIEW

In this witty sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy's Little Sister, Georgiana Darcy takes centre stage. Her excessive timidity complicates her life; her self-confidence, mined by her misadventure with Mr Wickham, hasn't healed yet. She grows up in pursuit of true love and happiness but doesn't dare open her heart , neither to her beloved sister-in-law, Elizabeth Bennet, who now lives with her and Darcy. She wants to find a love that is every bit as true as Elizabeth and Darcy's.  Georgiana is quite disappointed by the fact that everybody around her goes on seeing and treating her as a little girl, especially her guardian and cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam. She's 17 and is going to debut in society.

 However, the key moment in her personal story is her kidnapping by a rejected suitor. During her captivity, she discovers that love is closer than she thinks,  that she has the strength and skills to face life. Once she's free and back home she only has to convince the man she loves that she is no longer a fearful child but a passionate woman.

The Darcys

Apart from Georgiana's growin-up and formation, what I liked in this novel was the analysis of how high society reacted to Darcy's marriage to Elizabeth. The social ostracism Ms Pierson describes and which the lovely couple bravely face is something I had never thought about. 

Elizabeth as Mrs Darcy gives wry and insightful advice to Georgiana revealing herself less impulsive and more mature. Darcy is an amiable character, a loving brother and husband. I'd have loved to have him more under the spotlight in this story.

Lord Byron

 Lord Byron as a character was a pleasant surprise.

Elizabeth: " He is a talented poet, but he would be very uncomfortable to be around much. Those glimlet eyes of hisare quite disconcerting. I was rather surprised at how smallhe is - I somehow expected a reputed roué such as him to have a more impressive figure".  (p. 96)

G.G. Byron, sixth Baron Byron, was one of the major poets of the Romantic period, which included the years of the Regency. In spite of his slight stature and a limp, he was notorious for his dissolute lifestyle and numerous affairs. After their breakup, Lady Caroline Lamb defined him as "mad, bad dangerous to know".

C. Allyn Pierson picks up the story in Pride and Prejudice as the  two elder Bennet sisters , Jane and Elizabeth, prepare for their marriages to Bingley and Darcy but the plot develops through letters, diary pages and 3rd-person narration around Georgiana's fighting to find her place in the world. 

Ms Pierson has a deft understanding of Austen literary style, Regency history and social customs and has already sold more than 1,500 copies of the 1st version of this novel titled "And This is Our Life".

C. Allyn Pierson is the nom-de-plume of a physician who has combinedher many years of interest in the works of Jane  Austen and Regency englandinto his delightfulsequel published by Sourcebooks Landmark, the leading publisher of Austen-related literature.

Read my interview with C. Allyn Pierson ( Part I & Part II)

This is one of my tasks for The Jane Austen is My Homegirl Reading Challenge