Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy merely wanted to help his friend, Charles Bingley, as the latter is now a man of property, having recently
rented Netherfield Park. But their journey to Hertfordshire, where Netherfield Park is located, brought something else that caught the friends by surprise. While Bingley eagerly entertains his surprise in the person of Ms. Bennet, Mr. Darcy is reluctant to entertain his in the person of Elizabeth Bennet. His reluctance, misinterpreted as pride on his part, is fighting a losing battle as he finds himself dazzled by the wit and beauty of Elizabeth, a country miss who seems unaffected by the dictates of society yet shines with a grace of her own. Determined to start anew his relations with Elizabeth, Darcy struggles to bring himself to good light but is thwarted with the arrival of Mr. Wickham, a person from Darcy's not-so-pleasant past. On his next meeting with Elizabeth, Darcy is dumbfounded to have been treated with coolness by her. Could Wickham have said something to change Elizabeth's already dwindling opinion of Darcy?
As with the country folks' crude manners, Ms. Bennet's seeming superficial attraction to Bingley, and his 'quarrel' with Elizabeth, Darcy seeks the comfort of his London home, with the intention of forgetting Elizabeth and keeping Bingley from ever returning to Netherfield Park.
Thos who have read and loved Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice will delight in this first instalment of Pamela Aidan's
A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman. The silence surrounding this enigmatic character of Jane Austen is finally given a voice in Aidan's work. And what a wonderful voice it is. Here, we are given an inside, and you could very well say exclusive, look into the mind of Darcy - from his opinion of the country to his internal struggle with Elizabeth.
What's even more delightful with this book is that it did not deviate one bit from the style that we have loved of Austen: wit and depth. This is not to say that Aidan does not have a style of her own; she has, and this we can see from the humor extant in the verbal swordplay between Darcy and his valet, Fletcher, which exchange I will most sincerely like to see in the next two instalments.