BOOKS: Darcy's Story

"Finally, after 200 years...his side of the story!"

Darcy's Story
by Janet Aylmer
(Harper, 2006)

Trade Paperback, 269 pages, $13.95 U.S.

It seems lately that everything old is new again -- movies, music, and books, too. However, the refreshing twist to this trend in literature is to consider the "same old story" from a different perspective. It is an interesting phenomenon, and it has been done, generally to positive acclaim:

• A revisionist account of the classic Little Women, the novel March by Geraldine Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year.
• A new version of The Wizard of Oz, Wicked by Gregory Maguire, not only became a best-selling novel, it's now a hit Broadway musical, too.

Other examples include:

• Ahab's Wife - Moby Dick from the wife's perspective.
• The Wind Done Gone - Pansy's Gone With The Wind (not without controversy).
• The True Story of The Three Little Pigs - from the wolf's POV, of course.

Darcy's Story is Jane Austen's romantic literary masterpiece, Pride & Prejudice, retold from the guy's point of view. This is certainly an ambitious project, given Pride & Prejudice was first published in 1813, almost two centuries ago, and is probably one of the most well-read and beloved books in the world.

The brave author of Darcy's Story, Janet Aylmer ("the pen name of an English Jane Austen enthusaist"), did a masterful job of re-working Pride & Prejudice from Fitzwilliam Darcy's perspective, staying true to the timeline and events, the social customs and rules of society, from the original book and developing Darcy's side of the story, filling in his time and life when out of the scene in Pride & Prejudice with conversations and characters parallel to, and sometimes intersecting the original work.

I enjoyed Darcy's Story, but felt I should have brushed up on Jane Austen's work to fully appreciate Janet Aylmer's effort. After reading Darcy's Story, I watched (Keira Knightley's) Pride & Prejudice on DVD. It's such a contrast to popular culture and modern-day reality. I'm not sure I could read Pride & Prejudice for pure entertainment value. (Let's face it, it's kind of s-l-o-w.)(Oh Lord, there I've done it.)

I appreciated the author's note at the beginning of Darcy's Story, in which she explains her method and approach to this work. It is interesting to note:

"Everyone who has ever read Jane Austen's novel will have their own idea of Mr. Darcy's side of the story...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."

If you enjoyed Pride & Prejudice, and you are not a strict Jane Austen purist (maybe, even so), I think you'll enjoy Darcy's Story -- finally, after 200 years, his side of the story!