Can You Improve Upon Perfection?

Jane Austen is my favorite author. I don’t think all her novels are perfect, but Pride and Prejudice comes close. It has romance, humor and wry, insightful commentary on family relationships and the world.

I write Pride and Prejudice Variations, which means that I take the basic story and characters of P&P and change them – slightly, sometimes not so slightly – and see what happens. I’ve actually been doing this sort of thing for years – analysing and re-imagining favorite books and movies in my mind (Like what if Juliet got the letter or if Scarlett actually spoke to Rhett when their daughter died?) – but I’ve only recently started actually writing them down.

In my current story Accepting Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth learns that her father is dying and her formerly prosperous uncle in London is having financial problems. Given the realities of 1812, Elizabeth knows she has to marry a wealthy man if she is going to help her family survive. Being a governess or seamstress isn’t going to make enough money. I found this idea interesting because I often wonder what I would do if I were a young woman in Regency Era England. I’d like to think I’d be a brilliant writer, but Jane Austen never made much money, Mary Wollstonecraft was poor, too. Would I have married money?

The story is also interesting to me because Darcy gets engaged, thinking Elizabeth loves him. He doesn’t find out the truth until after the wedding ceremony. How would this proud man react? And how can these two imperfect people eventually reach their happily ever after?

These types of questions keep me up at night and make writing very fun.

Now, to return to the title of this blog piece. Do I think my writings are an improvement upon Jane Austen? Absolutely not. Instead, they are merely my tribute to her. I love Darcy and Elizabeth in multiple variations. And just as I love the 1980, 1995, 2005 and even the 1940 film versions of Pride and Prejudice, I am always interested in a new twist.

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