Synopsis:

My Cousin Caroline builds on two well liked characters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Colonel Fitzwilliam, cousin to Fitzwilliam Darcy, who had been portrayed as an agreeable and attractive gentleman who only lacked wealth to be considered an eligible bachelor discovers, woos and marries Caroline Gardiner, cousin to Elizabeth Bennett Darcy.

In Pride and Prejudice, the Gardiners stood out as a sensible and refined middle class family, the family that Elizabeth enjoyed visiting and trusted to help when her sister Lydia eloped. Caroline carries on these sensibilities - she is educated, sensitive, generous, and interested in the world around her. My Cousin Caroline covers Caroline's life from a young girl to her growth through the years. We learn of her reformist tendencies, her support of her husband's political aspirations, and involvement in the suffrage movement, the difficulties that she faced raising her children, her involvement in her father's trading business, and her constant love and friendship of the Darcys.

Review:

My Cousin Caroline is an enjoyable extension of the adventures of the characters from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. We glimpse enough of Elizabeth and Darcy to know that they are a central part of the action but Caroline and her husband remain the lead characters in the novel. This allows Rebecca Ann Collins to develop a fresh new story altogether while retaining the flavor of Pride and Prejudice. My Cousin Caroline covers a much longer period and brings a sense of the sort of life the Colonel and Caroline as well as Darcy and Elizabeth might have had as they became grandparents surrounded by large and loving families.

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (September 1, 2009), 352 pages.
Courtesy of the publisher and author. ( )