Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman
by Pamela AidanSign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
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avg 3.35
Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
Gothic romance fans
Wow. This book was so off the mark compared to the first in the series! Really, if you want to enjoy this series...read the first and the third book, but conveniently forget there was ever a second book!
Aside from Darcy's inability to forget Elizabeth, and his treasuring of a bookmark Elizabeth had left in a novel she's been reading during her stay at Netherfield, there is not much to recommend this second installment of the trilogy. Darcy and his valet are more like Batman and Robin...so...more
Aside from Darcy's inability to forget Elizabeth, and his treasuring of a bookmark Elizabeth had left in a novel she's been reading during her stay at Netherfield, there is not much to recommend this second installment of the trilogy. Darcy and his valet are more like Batman and Robin...so...more
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A teaser quote selected from this book by the publishers is this: "There was little danger of encountering the Bennet sisters ever again." And, I must say, there is absolutely NO danger of encountering any of the Bennet sisters in the pages of this novel. Because they're not in this novel. Not at all.
Yes, I admit, I read this trashy trilogy of Austen spin-offs Pamela Aiden. But, after the first book I expected to encounter some of the characters or at least some of the situtat...more
Yes, I admit, I read this trashy trilogy of Austen spin-offs Pamela Aiden. But, after the first book I expected to encounter some of the characters or at least some of the situtat...more
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Read in April, 2008
This is the second book in the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman series by Pamela Aidan. I have read other reviews on this website where people said to just skip this second book altogether and just read the third book. The complaint is that this book has really nothing to do with Pride & Prejudice. It takes place during the "silent time" in P&P while Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are apart; after he goes off to London with Bingley and before they meet up again at Rosings in the...more
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Read in September, 2008
As much as I loved the first book in the series, this one was a big disappointment. The story picks up where Mr. Darcy leaves Netherfield and he and Elizabeth do not meet again for some time. This author's account of where he went and what he did strays very far from the tone and style of Austin's story. Mr. Darcy leaves to try and find a more suitable wife. He believes once he does, he will forget Elizabeth. Fair enough, I liked that idea; but where he goes and who he meets just gets strange. H...more
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The middle book and probally my favorite. This encompassed the time when Mr. Darcy left with Mr. Bingley for more social opportunities. This is a completly new story of his time trying to get over Elizabeth and I absolutly loved it.
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Read in October, 2008
Second in the "Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" series. Aidan says in the back that this novel is in part a tribute to Austen's gothic romance "Northanger Abbey" and that's kind of fun, but all in all, I didn't love this book. First, if I remember correctly, there is not one interaction between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy in this entire book, and, well--what in the world does one read "Pride & Prejudice" for?
In this book we get to learn more about Georgiana and Ri...more
In this book we get to learn more about Georgiana and Ri...more
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Read in October, 2008
This book was okay but not for the reasons I had orginially thought it would be only "ok." The author did continue to use a lot of names, places, events, titles that were lost on me because I am not a history scholar from that time period but what really made the book only ok was the plot of the story from the middle to the end.
Mr. Darcy finds himself at a castle in the middle of a dark soap opera where his life and others are in danger, there is sacrficing of kittens, pigs and ...more
Mr. Darcy finds himself at a castle in the middle of a dark soap opera where his life and others are in danger, there is sacrficing of kittens, pigs and ...more
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My reading of this second book was very different from my reading of the first. I had a pretty good bond going with Darcy in An Assembly Such as This, but had great difficulty warming up to him in the follow-up and had to force myself to keep reading. I missed Miss Elizabeth Bennet sorely, and wished Aidan had not condemned us to an entire book without an encounter between the two personalities.
My other problem is that the storyline at Norwycke Castle seemed out of place. I absolutely agre...more
My other problem is that the storyline at Norwycke Castle seemed out of place. I absolutely agre...more
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Duty and Desire by Pamela Aidan is the second of three in the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy. The first is An Assembly Such As This.
I have to be a little complainy first and give a disclaimer. Everybody has a different Darcy. Her Darcy is very different from my Darcy. I also get tired of Darcy 'flicking' his eyes everywhere, his never ending ablutions, 'curt' nods, how 'perfect' and 'expert' all his servants are all the time, even his horses. I get it, I don't need 280 pages of it...more
I have to be a little complainy first and give a disclaimer. Everybody has a different Darcy. Her Darcy is very different from my Darcy. I also get tired of Darcy 'flicking' his eyes everywhere, his never ending ablutions, 'curt' nods, how 'perfect' and 'expert' all his servants are all the time, even his horses. I get it, I don't need 280 pages of it...more
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Read in May, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in March, 2008
This book covers the "silent time" in P&P when all the characters go their separate ways and write each other lots of letters.
Aidan does a good job in the first half of her book, taking Darcy to Pemberley to spend Christmas with Georgiana and Colonel Fitzwilliam. The picture that emerges is of a man who is outwardly stern and reserved, but whose mind is constantly humming with disorderly thoughts and feelings.
My favorite detail of the story is a bookmark Darcy makes from s...more
Aidan does a good job in the first half of her book, taking Darcy to Pemberley to spend Christmas with Georgiana and Colonel Fitzwilliam. The picture that emerges is of a man who is outwardly stern and reserved, but whose mind is constantly humming with disorderly thoughts and feelings.
My favorite detail of the story is a bookmark Darcy makes from s...more
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Read in January, 2006
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Yes
This is by far my favorite retelling of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's side.
1) Because I think she had a good sense of who Darcy was as a whole person, how he thought, what drove him to do the things he did, the type of brother and friend he was. So many others just steal all of the conversations from Austen and then add in the thoughts they think were going through Colin Firth's head as he played Darcy.
2)It's not actually in the Austen style of writing which makes it lighter and eas...more
1) Because I think she had a good sense of who Darcy was as a whole person, how he thought, what drove him to do the things he did, the type of brother and friend he was. So many others just steal all of the conversations from Austen and then add in the thoughts they think were going through Colin Firth's head as he played Darcy.
2)It's not actually in the Austen style of writing which makes it lighter and eas...more
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Read in March, 2008
In my theme of Jane-Austen-all-the-time that I've been having lately, I'm tearing through these...not sequels, really, but re-tellings of P&P from Darcy's point of view. I very much enjoyed the first one (and i'm halfway through the middle of the 3rd one, after the first proposal, which has caused me to watch AGAIN each of the proposal scenes in the BBC miniseries and the movie. And then I cry. It's really quite pathetic), but this is the "dead time" when Darcy leaves Netherfiel...more
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Read in April, 2008
I normally abhor any type of sequel or rewrite, especially when it comes to Pride and Prejudice. I have, however, loved this series. I'm skipping over all the other books sitting in my basket so I can read number 3. Duty and Desire covers the silent part of Pride and Prejudice: the part between Darcy leaving Hertfordshire and then showing up at Rosings Park with Colonel Fitzwilliam. As a warning, there is nothing in this book that is part or parcel of the Pride and Prejudice we all know and...more
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Read in January, 2006
As a gothic romance, this book was okay. As a story of the months during Pride and Prejudice when Darcy & Elizabeth don't interact, it was awful. Ms. Aiden was obviously attempting to give a motivation for why Darcy changed his mind about marrying Elizabeth, but what she came up with (while admittedly being something that would drive any man into sane Elizabeth Bennett's arms) is just not a situation that I see Darcy getting himself into. And if he did happen to find himself in that situatio...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
eh...
First of all, this book really has nothing at all to do with Pride and Prejudice. It supposedly covers the "silent period" of Jane Austen's novel, when we don't know what Darcy is up to, but really it's just an excuse to take the character of Darcy and plop him into a bizarre Gothic romance more akin to Jane Eyre (which I strongly disliked!) than Pride and Prejudice.
Aidan is simply not a strong storyteller. She certainly has a playful imagination, but her writ...more
Aidan is simply not a strong storyteller. She certainly has a playful imagination, but her writ...more
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Read in October, 2008
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
Austen fans
I am a total sucker for good books written in Jane Austen's settings. I picked this one up while at the bookstore with a friend; didn't realize that it was the second book of a series until I'd gotten it home.
I love these kinds of books because they give some insight on a character by seeing how the character views life from his or her own eyes. Usually when I pick up a book of this style, I expect it to be a parade of characters I know well already from Austen's novels, and I'm always stran...more
I love these kinds of books because they give some insight on a character by seeing how the character views life from his or her own eyes. Usually when I pick up a book of this style, I expect it to be a parade of characters I know well already from Austen's novels, and I'm always stran...more
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Read in March, 2008
I didn't love this one as much as the first book in the series. This book covers the time when Darcy and Elizabeth are living their separate lives: E- clueless that a man of such consequence is in love with her and desperately trying to get over it; D- desperately trying to get over it. The author has to stretch the material a lot and there are some truly bizarre twists as Darcy tries to find distractions from his attraction to Miss Bennett. I'm reading it purely to re-live the original P&...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.35 (958 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.36 (938 ratings) number of reviews: 240
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"'Your move should be determined by your strengths, not your opponent's expectations.' Darcy's smile deepened as he warmed to her allusion to fencing. 'Always move to your advantage.'"
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