Janet Aylmer - Darcy’s Story

He could not remember a happier time for him at Pemberley, and told Elizabeth so.

Shortly before Christmas, they were joined by Georgiana, and by Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner together with their children, and the festive season was celebrated with a pleasant informality and much laughter. Darcy caused Elizabeth to blush in front of the family by teasing her that, soon, the childish voices in the house might not be only those of welcome guests. She replied quietly but with a lively smile that she admitted that could be a possibility, should that be his preference.

Darcy took pleasure in seeing the ease with which his bride began to settle to the ways of running Pemberley. The preparations were already under way for the ball to be held on the eve of the New Year, and Georgiana delighted in showing her new sister all the corners of the house. Together, she and Elizabeth oversaw the details of the repast to be prepared. The day before the ball, Bingley and Jane arrived from Hertfordshire and, with Darcy’s cousin Fitzwilliam, joined the family already assembled.

It was with great pleasure on the eve of the New Year that Darcy welcomed his neighbours and introduced them to Elizabeth. When the time came, they took to the floor together to open the dancing.

As the music began, she turned to him in surprise, and said, “Is this not the same tune as was played at the ball at Netherfield last year? And, the same dance as we took together?”

“But of course!” said Darcy, smiling at her. “There was nothing the matter with either, all that was needed was for us to come to a proper understanding.”

And thus it was that, surrounded by their friends from Derbyshire and the relatives most dear to them, Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy began their life together, in the comfort and elegance of their family party at Pemberley.

Since Pride and Prejudice was first published nearly 200 years ago, it has become one of the best-loved novels in the English Language. Like many other people, I first read the book whilst I was at school, as did my children, and have enjoyed reading the novel again many times since then.

Modern media—radio, the cinema and television—have introduced Pride and Prejudice to many new audiences all around the world in recent years. It was after watching the BBC television serial in 1995, and discussing it with one of my daughters, that my curiosity was re-awakened about Mr. Darcy, and I decided to write this book for her. That led to the idea that other people might also enjoy reading Darcy’s Story.

I have been surprised and delighted to discover that my need to know more about Jane Austen’s hero is shared by people all over the world. At the time of writing, the book has been sold to readers not only in Great Britain, but in 37 other countries around the world via the Internet. Over 20,000 copies of the book have now been sold. The publishers have received many letters and emails expressing the enjoyment that so many people have found in reading Darcy’s Story. It seems that complementing Pride and Prejudice by writing this book has satisfied a long-felt need for many readers.

Everyone who has ever read Jane Austen’s novel will have their own idea of Mr. Darcy’s side of the story, and this book could be described as looking through the mirror of Pride and Prejudice (1940) from the other side. I am delighted that a story written nearly 200 years ago can still give pleasure in a very different era. I have also been glad to learn that people much more knowledgeable than I am about Jane Austen and her work have also liked the book.

I saw the cinema film of “Pride and Prejudice” some years ago and can remember being very disappointed that the story was changed at the end. That seemed to me to distort the story as told by Jane Austen. So I started by making a conscious that the book must be totally faithful to Pride and Prejudice and not change that story at all. Jane Austen wrote her novel very much from the point of view of the heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, and her family, and tells us very little about his side of the story. We learn a great deal about Elizabeth Bennet, her four sisters, and their family life.

I looked very carefully at what the chronological sequence of events was in Pride and Prejudice and, almost as important, what Darcy would not have known about the story as told by Jane Austen. Her novel covers a period lasting from the autumn of the first year to the winter of the second.

Wickham’s attempt to elope with Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, had taken place before he met Elizabeth Bennet, although in Pride and Prejudice Darcy tells her about it in the letter after his proposal at the following Easter. So, in Darcy’s Story, Wickham’s visit to Ramsgate to persuade Georgiana to elope with him comes near the beginning of the book.

Mr. Darcy is only “present” in Pride and Prejudice for a few weeks at Netherfield (his friend Bingley’s house) in the first autumn; for two to three weeks at his aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s house in Kent the following Easter; for a few days in Derbyshire in the summer; and then at the end of the story when he meets Elizabeth Bennet again in Hertfordshire. So Darcy’s Story has to explain what happened before he went to Netherfield, whether it was just chance that he met Elizabeth Bennet again in Kent, and at last in Hertfordshire, and what happened in between.

He did not visit Longbourn, the Bennets’ home, until close to the end of Pride and Prejudice. He knew nothing of the proposal of marriage made by the curate Mr. Collins to his cousin Elizabeth shortly after the Netherfield ball, which she had rejected with her father’s support, but against her mother’s wishes.

Although he had a poor opinion of some other members of her family, Darcy respected Jane Bennet, and was aware of the close bond between Elizabeth and her elder sister.

His actions in Pride and Prejudice confirmed that he was a very fond and protective brother to his own sister Georgiana. Darcy seemed to me to be someone who was still brooding over the early death of his mother, of whom he had been very fond. Having suffered the early deaths of both his own parents, it may be that he envied Elizabeth having the close family that he himself had lost.

A major decision was how much of Jane Austen’s conversation between Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet to use. She wrote much of Pride and Prejudice in a lively and ironic style, which suited Elizabeth’s character and was appropriate, as that story is told from the heroine’s point of view.

Either Jane Austen’s dialogue had to be changed into description only, or there needed to be some form of commentary to show that Darcy had a very different view of the situations and their conversations when he and Elizabeth were both present. I decided that the story would be more enjoyable if I used the second approach, even though that meant repeating some lengthy sections of dialogue which Jane wrote. What I could not do was use different words between them for the conversations which Jane Austen herself had “reported!”

Jane Austen made it clear that Elizabeth’s parents were not well matched, and Mr. Bennet confirms this when he seeks to dissuade her from marrying Darcy if she cannot respect her “partner in life.”

Darcy was a very different character from Elizabeth, more sombre and reserved, perhaps because he had become used to keeping his own counsel, and not sharing his emotions. It therefore seemed wrong to use the much lighter style writing employed to such brilliant effect in Pride and Prejudice.

I am sure that everyone who has read and enjoyed Jane Austen’s novel has their own particular favourite passages in the book, and I used many of mine in Darcy’s Story. As her novel was first published in several “parts,” I also used quotations from Pride and Prejudice to introduce each of the seven parts in my book.

Having Darcy recall past conversations was one way to show the more serious and reflective aspects of his character, and emphasise passages from Jane Austen’s novel which are especially relevant to Darcy’s Story.

Jane Austen described her hero at the beginning of Pride and Prejudice as being a wealthy but proud young man who moved only in the most elevated circles. Wealth and an emphasis on social class had been paramount in his upbringing.

As he said in Pride and Prejudice, “As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit....I was spoilt by my parents, who . . . allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing, to care for none beyond my own family circle, to think meanly of all the rest of the world, to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own.”

Although Darcy came from a grander and wealthier background than Elizabeth Bennet, she was more able to cope with, and was more confident in, new social situations than he was. I saw Darcy as someone who could only enjoy life with someone very different from the superior and overconfident females, such as Caroline Bingley, whom he finds intimidating and superficial.

The Bingley sisters were fixed in their views, with a critical and derogatory approach to anyone who did not move in their own “circle.” Only Darcy’s friend, their brother Charles, took people as he found them, perhaps remembering how his family’s fortune had been made in trade.