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From the Bookshelf of Austen Variations…

The Recovery of Fitzwilliam Darcy

Lucy Marin

Start date: April 6, 2021

Finish date: April 6, 2021

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May 05, 2021 Dawn rated it really liked it

Shelves: dawn-s-2021-austen

3.5 rounded up. I feel like I had a love/hate relationship with this book. It started off well and I enjoyed the original idea of Darcy being raised in circumstances that were much more humble than the Darcy from canon. In this pairing, “William Lucas” isn’t the best match for Elizabeth, but since they have been life long sweethearts, it was accepted and sanctioned by both families and their forthcoming marriage was looked forward to with great anticipation. I thought their relationship was so s 3.5 rounded up. I feel like I had a love/hate relationship with this book. It started off well and I enjoyed the original idea of Darcy being raised in circumstances that were much more humble than the Darcy from canon. In this pairing, “William Lucas” isn’t the best match for Elizabeth, but since they have been life long sweethearts, it was accepted and sanctioned by both families and their forthcoming marriage was looked forward to with great anticipation. I thought their relationship was so sweet and heartwarming! Of course, the path of true love never runs smooth for ODC, so along comes Frederick Darcy and BAM, the lives of William/Fitzwilliam and Lizzy are turned upside down, inside out and every other uncomfortable and angsty direction.

William Lucas becomes Fitzwilliam Darcy and here is where my frustration begins. Of course, the shock and confusion and wide array of emotions one can only imagine, but it’s so hard for me to understand that the minute he is suspected of being Fitzwilliam Darcy, he is shoved into a carriage and carted off to Pemberley immediately without even seeing or saying goodbye to anyone, not even the woman he has had an understanding with for years. Here, while we can all appreciate the difficulty of such a circumstance, it seems the new Fitzwilliam loses not only his previous identity as William Lucas, but he also loses his character, his personality and seemingly his brain. Of course there would be some confusion and mixed emotions, but this Darcy just becomes a passive zombie like person who seems content for the most part to be led around by the nose without thinking for himself, speaking for himself, or sticking up for himself or anyone else. It got soooooo frustrating. For a father and son who have discovered one another after so long a separation, they sure didn’t seem to communicate or try to build a substantive relationship to make up for lost time. Darcy acted nothing like Darcy for way too long. I wanted to scream at the stupidity of this supposedly intelligent person! Okay, rant over!

When the lights finally come on for Fitzwilliam Darcy and he remembers that he actually does have his own brain and can make a few of his own decisions, the book improves dramatically and once I started recognizing Darcy as Darcy again, it became much more enjoyable. Of course he had some explaining and groveling to do, but things do finally start to come together and work themselves out.

Overall, I did like this book. The beginning and the end were very sweet, it’s just the middle was beyond frustrating and that part was dragged out for a very long time. While I expected it, I felt like it robbed Darcy too much of his essentials and that was difficult to endure for so long. I loved the originality of the book and would give it another chance in the future because it is a good story. ...more

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