Mr Darcy Takes a Wife
by Linda Berdoll[i]Review by Hu ZhongzhouI've never been to the plain district of England. But the novelist Linda Berdoll made me feel as if I had been there, that genial and moist spring morning of the 18th century, when Elizabeth woke up but found it was not in her own small room and the man beside her was not her dear sister Jane but her Mr. Darcy for the 1st time in her life. The story of Mr and Mrs Darcy's marriage life was narrated by the author, who made an issue of their exciting marriage life after the wedding instead of the sentimental process of falling head over heels in love with each other.
Elizabeth is the reason why I love this book. Her lively, independent, brave or even bold character never fails to attract me. Lizzy, as the heroine of the story has such a pair of clear and delicate eyes, which not only makes me see what she sees, but also feel what she feels. There are so many skeletons in Pemberley's closet. Lizzy will tell you everything.
A woman died sadly owing to a murder in her shabby rent. Rumors about her affairs with Mr. Darcy, who was the junior master of Pemberley where the woman has worked flies faster than birds. If they were true, doesn't it just probably mean that the child she left is Mr. Darcy's? The kid ran to Pemberley and accidentally became a stable boy there. Lizzy started to recognize the similarities between her husband and the kid. The mystery of the birth of the kid is only one of the reasons you want to keep turning the pages to find out what happens in this book.
Lydia and her unfaithful husband Wickham are still causing problems for the newly married couple. Even Elizabeth can't tolerate Lydia, who is as vulgar as before, she can't do nothing. Lydia envies her sister for her happy marriage and wealth so much that she tires all ways to break it. Wickham even tries to seduce Lizzy. The knight, who is a brother and a good friend of Darcy feels a crush for Lizzy, too. Not only the daughters and their husbands have complex affairs, even Mrs. Bannet came across a fake duke who claims to love her. The weather in Britain's winter is so terrible that a storm get all the related people stuck in Pemberley for 3 days, the end of which also marks the end of Mr. Darcy takes a wife.
The theme of the book is happy and exciting marriage life. To most Pride and Prejudice junkies it's a little bit intolerant. Some readers say that Elizabeth is more a lechery mistress than an elegant lady, while Mr. Darcy acts more like a macho man found of woman than a proud gentleman. Yes, I have to say, the most brilliant and shining point of the book is that it's different from the original work, no matter in terms of theme, plots, main character and tone,etc. Actually, though the background of the book is set in England during the end of the 18th century, you can smell the sense of the U.S.A continuously. Look at this line from the book: This is almost the 1st time, as she can recall, that the day has ended without their sex. Sounds familiar? This is extremely like the scene in Sex and City when Kelly leans against the Mr. Big and says: “This is the first time. We sleep together but we don't have sex.” Being American and modern isn't a fault, yet the author is still the target of people saying it's totally nonsense.
Jane Austen, born as a daughter of the priest, led a cordial and peaceful life. And she is a 18th century lady who has never been married and accordingly never taste the passion of marriage life. Surely she can write such natural and pure work focused on innocent love like Pride and Prejudice and ignore the annoying problems like doubts, distrust, quarrellings,etc. that marriage life might encounter. People has been enjoying her work since it came out. But truth is that at the age of Jane Austen, books like Pride and Prejudice were against the main stream. Now people say it's classic because of its fresh and bright style with almost no hardcore description. I did do searching work and surprisingly found that even Jane Austen was criticized for her work being too obscure and lacking ups and downs by some critics or writers like Charlotte Bronte. Since then, why can't we just take this sequel as an innovative work. It might become another classic. And just because it's a 21st century work and based on the American ideology, I find it closer to the real world and more helpful.
If being modern and American is the 1st reason I love this book, then the 2nd reason must be that it's more than a romantic story, which exactly what the original work is. Sometimes you find it's a love story, sometimes you feel it's a detective fiction, and owing to the introduce of the War of Napoleon, sometimes you may mistake it as a historical work. Provided with more diversified characters and multi-stream clues, readers can appreciate the work from different level and angle. Conflict between love and extraction disparity is no longer the main emphasis of the work, but one of the tiny episodes of the book.
It's not the best book I have ever read, but one of the nice books I enjoy all the time. With half classic British half modern American style and exciting content, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife will definitely surprise you.
[i] Linda Berdoll is a self-described Texas farm wife whose underground smash-hit Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and the follow-up, Darcy & Elizabeth have over 250,000 copies in print and still counting. She lives on her pecan farm in Texas, with her husband.
