Janet Aylmer

The subtitle of Darcy's Story is "Pride and Prejudice told from a whole new perspective." As it says on the back cover, Mr Darcy is an "intriguing enigma," and promised to tell the story from his point of view. Sounds fun to me. Except, no. Aylmer quotes long passages directly from Pride and Prejudice and in a clunky manner, attempts to make it Darcy's story. Except she doesn't add anything that a close reader of P&P wouldn't figure out on their own. Further clunkiness ensues when she writes things like Darcy explaining to his cousin Col. Fitzwilliam that Lady Catherine is their aunt. Ugh ugh ugh.

Steadfastly, Aylmer does not waiver from the canonical version of P&P. In a few places, the story demands that she fills in gaps and is forced to make something up, but she then justifies it in the lengthy author notes at the end.

I'll give her a nod for writing in response to the novel and not one of the film versions. At least she did that. However, this is a poorly written shuffle of the original words from P&P and it adds absolutely no new insights into the characters or the story.

Janet Aylmer is the author's pseudonym. I wouldn't let my name anywhere near this dreck either.

Recommended for: I imagine that she kept those readers in mind who freak out at the smallest liberty taken in an Austen rewrite (those who always claim in their reviews that "Jane Austen is spinning in her grave."). Not sure this would even appeal to that crowd though, because I think they'd agree with me that this is entirely pointless. Those readers who want to have fun with their Austen pastiches, and don't mind liberties taken, can safely skip this.… (mehr)