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A review by toggle_fow
The Longbourn Unexpected Trilogy: Three beloved stories in one volume! by Elaine Owen
5.0
I LOVED this.
This compilation is three stories in one:
1. Darcy and Elizabeth. This starts off with the ill-fated Hunsford proposal, but gives both Darcy and Elizabeth the grace of making slightly less overtly insulting choices with their words to each other. Darcy is still offensive and Elizabeth still decided in her refusal, but they don't flare up at each other as hotly as they do in canon.
From there, Darcy realizes that he has truly blundered in his conduct and sets about trying to amend matters and persuade Elizabeth to agree to a courtship. Eventually, a plan is concocted between Darcy, the Gardiners, and Mr. Bennet to invite Elizabeth and the Gardiners to Pemberley for the duration of their Derbyshire trip. From there, events blossom in the direction we all expect.
I really liked this story. What stands out to me is how FUNNY it is. Most P&P fanfictions are either more solemn and heartfelt or saccharine and gooey than Pride and Prejudice itself. This is one of the few stories I've read that I think nails Elizabeth and Mr. Bennet's personalities and senses of humor without watering them down or making them out of character and vulgar. The scene where Darcy speaks to Mr. Bennet about Elizabeth was SO funny to me.
2. Lydia and her husband. This is a story told in epistolary format, in letters and diary entries by Lydia and her husband, and it's a MASTERPIECE. Lydia, instead of marrying Wickham, was given in marriage (along with a sizeable financial inducement) to a former soldier turned gentleman farmer, Jonathon Frett. She, as one can imagine, was not happy about this.
What follows is a highly entertaining tale of chicanery and character growth. Her new husband is a good, kind person - so why would he marry an irrational teenager ruined by another man? Will the rest of Lydia's life be cooking, laundering, and working with her hands in a tiny cottage? Mr. Frett handles Lydia with a mixture of kindness, firmness, and duplicitous strategy and I loved watching her grow, change, and fall in love with her husband through her own diary entries.
3. Mr. Bennet. This is the least inspired installment of the three, but I still highly enjoyed it as I had come to be deeply invested in the whole Bennet family's happy endings at this point. After Mrs. Bennet's early death, this story follows Mr. Bennet as he lives with each of his married daughters in turn, struggling with continued dissatisfaction with his life. He makes many missteps and hurts feelings along the way, but eventually finds his path to feeling that he once again belongs somewhere. The ending of this one stretched my suspension of disbelief. Would that marriage really have been allowed to happen? Maybe so, but I definitely was raising my eyebrows.
This compilation is three stories in one:
1. Darcy and Elizabeth. This starts off with the ill-fated Hunsford proposal, but gives both Darcy and Elizabeth the grace of making slightly less overtly insulting choices with their words to each other. Darcy is still offensive and Elizabeth still decided in her refusal, but they don't flare up at each other as hotly as they do in canon.
From there, Darcy realizes that he has truly blundered in his conduct and sets about trying to amend matters and persuade Elizabeth to agree to a courtship. Eventually, a plan is concocted between Darcy, the Gardiners, and Mr. Bennet to invite Elizabeth and the Gardiners to Pemberley for the duration of their Derbyshire trip. From there, events blossom in the direction we all expect.
I really liked this story. What stands out to me is how FUNNY it is. Most P&P fanfictions are either more solemn and heartfelt or saccharine and gooey than Pride and Prejudice itself. This is one of the few stories I've read that I think nails Elizabeth and Mr. Bennet's personalities and senses of humor without watering them down or making them out of character and vulgar. The scene where Darcy speaks to Mr. Bennet about Elizabeth was SO funny to me.
2. Lydia and her husband. This is a story told in epistolary format, in letters and diary entries by Lydia and her husband, and it's a MASTERPIECE. Lydia, instead of marrying Wickham, was given in marriage (along with a sizeable financial inducement) to a former soldier turned gentleman farmer, Jonathon Frett. She, as one can imagine, was not happy about this.
What follows is a highly entertaining tale of chicanery and character growth. Her new husband is a good, kind person - so why would he marry an irrational teenager ruined by another man? Will the rest of Lydia's life be cooking, laundering, and working with her hands in a tiny cottage? Mr. Frett handles Lydia with a mixture of kindness, firmness, and duplicitous strategy and I loved watching her grow, change, and fall in love with her husband through her own diary entries.
3. Mr. Bennet. This is the least inspired installment of the three, but I still highly enjoyed it as I had come to be deeply invested in the whole Bennet family's happy endings at this point. After Mrs. Bennet's early death, this story follows Mr. Bennet as he lives with each of his married daughters in turn, struggling with continued dissatisfaction with his life. He makes many missteps and hurts feelings along the way, but eventually finds his path to feeling that he once again belongs somewhere. The ending of this one stretched my suspension of disbelief. Would that marriage really have been allowed to happen? Maybe so, but I definitely was raising my eyebrows.