[REVIEW] P&P rewritten
One Thread Pulled: The Dance with Mr. Darcy by Diana J. Oaks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I got this from the Kindle store because it was free and because of the smashing reviews most have written about it.
At the start: It was pretty good. I've read the original "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen and didn't quite like how Lizzie and Mr. Darcy met because of their differences and how it took so long for them to realize their love for each other because of their pride and prejudice (haha). This book takes away those 2 elements and offers a different possibility of how the story could've went if they'd done things a bit differently.
In this book, we were given the PoV of Mr. Darcy and we could see how his love for Lizzie grew day-by-day and how heart-wrenching it is for him to convince himself that he can't love her because of their status-differences (glad this isn't present in the 21st century anymore). We are given a glimpse on how Mr. Darcy is a truly caring person albeit shy being.
Lizzie here is less presumptive over everyone, and seems to be a more amicable being than the original P&P. I really liked her here, which made genuinely enjoy this version of P&P a lot better.
(view spoiler)[What else that changed: Mr. Darcy's cousin appears here, as Colonel Fitzwilliam Darcy and is pretty much a cooler guy than Mr. Darcy. (I would still go for the original Mr. Darcy though)
Caroline Bingley was a major antagonist - even having hallucinations and claimed to have been instructed to make Lizzie OD on medicine (which she didn't drink, most fortunately).
And the most surprising change, Mr. Wickham (le seducer) was killed. This also meant that Lydia did not marry. The accused was Mr. Darcy himself. The part where Mr. Darcy and his cousin were in London investigating his death was incredibly boring and unnecessary. In the end, there was no twist on how he died (it was a very normal death - he had just racked up too many enemies in his life).
Mr. Collins did marry Charlotte Lucas though (or proposed to her, that is). However, Mr. Bennet consulted their solicitor and it turned out, Longbourn will not go to Mr. Collins once Mr. Bennet croaks as Mr. Collins is not even a blood-relative. So Longbourn will go to the remaining Bennet girls once Mr. Bennet dies, and that is cool.
Also - Lizzie and Mr. Darcy were not allowed to immediately marry unlike in P&P. Mr. Bennet requested that Lizzie spend 6 months in the social circles in London (preferably Mr. Darcy's) so that she could have a better overview on Mr. Darcy's life and how her life would change in general once she marries him. Mr. Darcy was dismayed, of course, citing the fact that Lizzie will spend most of her time in Pemberley anyway. However, who knows what will happen once people do find out about Lizzie? I would say that this part is really realistic (tbh, P&P never considered the long-term implications of Lizzie and Mr. Darcy's union in that kind of society), and am not surprised that it happened because tbh, who would immediately marry once they pronounced their love for each other? (that fairytale just doesn't work anymore)
Because of that, I can imagine a sequel coming soon because by the end of the book, Mr. Darcy and Lizzie were still unmarried (no timeskip unfortunately) so a lot can happen and change within those 6 months (I'm hoping that there will be a contender of Lizzie's affections - although we all know that she will still be Mr. Darcy's one-and-only). (hide spoiler)]
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