The Pemberley Chronicles: 1997The weddings are over. The guests - including millions of readers and viewers - wish the two happy couples health and happiness. As the music swells and the credits roll, only one things has been decided, Elizabeth and Darcy are to be the happiest couple in the world and Jane and Bingley will want for nothing.
But few people want to believe that this is the end of the story. As they drive away into one of the most dynamic periods of English social and political history, Rebecca Ann Collins follows them. She observes and chronicles their passage through the landscapes of 19th century England, noting how they cope with change, triumph and tragedy in their lives.
Their personal stories - the usual concerns of love, marriage, money and children - are woven together with the threads of social and political history.
The Women of Pemberley, 1998The Pemberley characters have captured the hearts and imaginations of readers. In The Women of Pemberley, Rebecca Ann Collins - a lifelong Austen fan, follows the lives of five women into a new era of post industrial revolution England, at the start of the Victorian Age. Vast changes are in motion, as they were throughout this dynamic century. They are woven deftly into the rich texture of the fabric of nineteenth century England, forming not just a backcloth, but the very warp and weft of the characters' lives.
The women, like many of Jane Austen's heroines are strong, intelligent individuals and the author's affection for them ensures that their stories are told with understanding and humour.
Netherfield Park Revisited, 1999Netherfield Park Revisited draws upon the background and characters of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but they are not the main event. Elizabeth, Jane, Darcy and Bingley are observers and commentators, whose values and opinions are important elements of the drama, but not the whole of it.
For it is the unfolding story of Jonathan Bingley, son of Charles and Jane Bingley, the new master of Netherfield Park. Though he is in many ways a remarkably Austenian hero, Jonathan is an original creation of Rebecca Ann Collins. Clever, handsome and more politically active than his easy-going father, Jonathan is a deeply passionate man, who faces a major crisis in his life and that of his young family. His own strength and the inner resources of several other characters are sorely tested by a series of intractable events.
He purchases Netherfield Park, once his parents' home, hoping it will solve his problems, but finds they have been exacerbated. The malign influence of an embittered Miss Bingley, only makes matters worse.
Into this situation comes Anna Faulkner - an accomplished young woman of elegance and sensibility - a target for envy and gossip in provincial Meryton. Jonathan Bingley's efforts to deal with the consequences of his and other people's actions, lie at the heart of this third book in the popular Pemberley series.
About the author: Rebecca Ann Collins (from her site)
A lifelong fan of Jane Austen, Rebecca Ann Collins first read Pride and Prejudice at the age of twelve. She claims that she fell in love with the characters and has, since then, read all of Jane Austen's works many times over and gathered a wealth of information about her and the period in which she lived and wrote. She has a rich library of material about the life and times of what she calls "the Pemberley families" as Pride and Prejudice became her favourite Austen novel.
Just five years ago, what had been a pastime became something of an obsession. Two things started her on her present career - the BBC's magnificient production of Pride and Prejudice, which brought all her favourite characters so dramatically alive in a stunning visual context and ironically, the rash of sequels that appeared soon after- some of which made Jane Austen's characters act as though they were puppets in some Regency-style soap opera!
It was in this context that Ms. Collins began work on The Pemberley Chronicles, which placed her favourite characters in their original environment- nineteenth century England. Instead of manipulating them, she lets them lead the lives that Jane Austen appeared to have plotted for them at the end of her great novel and then she observes them as they make their way through the changing context of an era of profound economic and social change, perhaps the most dynamic period of English history.
"It is unthinkable," she says, "that these intelligent, educated and cultured men and women could have frittered away their days concerned only with affairs and marriages, while all the great issues of the era, the things that Charlotte Bronte, George Elliott and Charles Dickens were writing about, swirled around them. Yet this is how they are portrayed by many writers who purport to produce sequels to the Austen novels."
Click here for the Full Story about the Pemberley Chronicles in The Shades of Pemberley Live.
The Ladies of Longbourn, order your copy at SourcebooksExploring what life was like for women in that era, Ms. Collins explores the themes of how a complex young woman’s passionless marriage forces her to find strength both within herself and her family.
Mr. Darcy's Daughter, order your copy at SourcebooksMr. Darcy’s Daughter is a remarkable story in which a strong-minded woman struggles to balance the competing demands of duty and family during the political and social changes sweeping through England in the Victorian era.
Remember, if you leave a comment about how much you like the early books in the series, you will have a GREAT chance to win Ladies of Longbourn and Mr. Darcy's Daughter in one fell swoop.
Posted by Vic, Jane Austen's World
2 comments:
I've only started the series with the first novel. I did like how she tied in a lot of history with the characters of Elizabeth and Darcy. Anything about that time period does interest me. The book was very realistic where while there was happiness and all there were also deaths and sadness. Though I did wish the lengthy novel did carry over more of Austen's language, romance and humor. I would still recommend this novel to any Austen Fan. I love Austen spin-offs, though of course not more than Austen's actual treasures.
Aranel, please send me your mailing address at janeaustensworld at gmail dot com
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