Five Pride and Prejudice Variations: A Collection of Short Stories

by Renata McMann

THIS BOOK CONTAINS FIVE SHORT STORIES THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS EBOOKS. HEIRESS TO LONGBOURN After Mr. Collins’ death, Mr. Bennet decides to make his daughter Elizabeth his sole heir. She finds what it is like to be courted for her wealth. ANNE DE BOUGH MANAGES After Darcy’s disastrous proposal to Elizabeth, Elizabeth saves Anne de Bourgh’s life. In the process of doing something for Elizabeth, Anne makes decisions about her own life. THREE DAUGHTERS MARRIED After Anne de Bourgh’s unexpected death, Lady Catherine de Bourgh talks herself into believing that Darcy should marry Elizabeth Bennet. THE INCONSISTENCY OF CAROLINE BINGLEY What if Darcy did not find out about Wickham’s and Lydia’s elopement until Lydia returned home in disgrace? Elizabeth is shaken by the scandal, and Caroline Bingley is as determined as ever to keep Darcy and Elizabeth apart. PEMBERLEY WEDDINGS What if Colonel Fitzwilliam told Mr. Darcy that Elizabeth was upset about Darcy separating Mr. Bingley and Jane Bennet? If Mr. Darcy realized Elizabeth didn’t like him, but he still wanted to marry her, what would happen?

184 pages, Paperback

First published May 27, 2014

Reviews

[Carole (in Canada)]

The premise for each of the short stories (Pemberley Weddings, Anne Manages, The Inconsistencies of Miss Bingley, Three Daughters Married and Heiress to Longbourn) were interesting and unique. I wont go into what each one is about as the book description and other reviewers have done that. For me, each story felt a bit stilted and abrupt, but I did finish each one to see where it would lead. I think each story could have used a bit more polish to allow them to shine. I did like that each had a type of epilogue at the end.

[Katherine]

I realize it's a series of short stories but it still moved too fast paced. Elizabeth and Darcy can't resolve things within one paragraph Lol. "Inconsistent Caroline" had potential for a longer version... Darcy does not stop Lydia from being ruined and hence her entire family is ruined. Bingley marries Jane despite the scandal in her family and Elizabeth lives with them but retreats into herself and Darcy is determined to bring his real Elizabeth back. I love how he intends to right the wrong and how he proposes but the scene with Caroline and Wickham lacked a bit of depth but had good potential. The last story 'Longbourns Heiress' was equally as good. Elizabeth becomes an heiress when Longbourn becomes hers following the death of Mr Collins. When she is pursued by many men the sensible thing is to marry Darcy who loved her before she had anything and we see their pursuit to try to help Lydia but the scheming John Lucas will get more than he bargained for. The Lucas part of the story puts a damper on things in this version...I wished the focus was on Elizabeth realizing she loved Darcy versus trying to help Lydia become a better girl. The other stories seemed too far fetched and lacked depth hence my low rating of this novel overall.

[C]

Very fun to read! I would have given it five stars, but the poor editing affected comprehensibility sometimes.

[Marsha]

Sweet cute lovable and funny

Each story brings something different. All were excellent written stories. I enjoyed the difference of each story, but enjoyed how each was sweet, cute, lovable, and funny

[Terri Conley]

A really nice set of stories nun of which I had read before which was great.I usually have read one or two. Great fun.

[Chelsea]

Pemberley Weddings 🌟🌟🌟🌟
This was a really interesting story and had a good plot with a decent amount going on considering how short it was. I enjoyed reading about some of the scenes from Darcy's perspective as well as seeing how all the different couples ended up getting together to be married at Pemberley

Anne de Bourgh Manages 🌟🌟🌟🌟
This was a very interesting story and I really enjoyed seeing Anne come out of her shell and begin to take control of her life and become the person she wanted to be. This story isn't very long but has a lot take place and I enjoyed seeing all the twists as the story unfolded.

The Inconsistency of Caroline Bingley 🌟🌟🌟🌟
This was another really fun P&P Variation by Renata McMann. I really liked how Lydia's part of the story worked out and how her character evolved. The Darcy and Elizabeth story was enjoyable as well and I liked the character for Lydia's husband and the character Mack as well. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

Three Daughters Married

Heiress to Longbourn: A Pride & Prejudice Variation Short Story 🌟🌟🌟🌟
This was another enjoyable Pride and Prejudice Variation by Renata McMann with an interesting twist. I enjoyed seeing how Darcy tried to improve Elizabeth's opinion of him at the Assembly by dancing every dance even though he didn't think he had a chance of her forgiving him for their past. I also enjoyed seeing how they interacted at Pemberley after they became engaged. The epilogue at the end was good at giving readers a glimpse of how everything turned out for several of the characters.

[Michelle David]

Lovely

A lovely collection of variations of author Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice. They veer rather widely from canon but are enjoyable