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By turns hilarious and sweet, The Darcys & the Bingleys also presents an intriguing view of Miss Caroline Bingley, who has such good reasons for being the way she is that the reader can't help but hold her in charity.
More Reviews and RecommendationsMarsha Altman is an historian, and is an expert on Jane Austen sequels, having read nearly every single one that's been written. She has worked in the publishing industry with a literary agency and is writing a series continuing the story of the Darcys and the Bingleys. She lives in New York.
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August 22, 2009: If you simply can't get enough of P&P fiction, you'll have some fun with this book. The plot is very improbable but amusing. Hinting at sex more than Jane ever would but not steamy, the romantic scenes bring smiles rather than blushes. The characters are only 2-dimensional versions of the originals and there is too much drunkeness to fit the characters or overall social world that Austen created. The attempt to develop Miss Bingley's story and build a mystery into the tale falls flat. I'd call it a harmless beach read if you can borrow and not buy it.
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August 18, 2009: I read The Darcys & the Bingleys in preparation for reading The Plight of the Darcy Brothers. I very rarely will read or review a sequel without previously reading the book that came before. Call it a failing or a compulsion but I literally can't.
The Darcys & The Bingleys is one of my favorite JA sequels that I have read this year. It was hilarious. Darcy and Bingley scamper about, joke and play like two overgrown brothers. That is always something I have wanted to see in a JA sequel. The friendship between Darcy and Bingley is often neglected and I was overjoyed to see it explored in this book. This was also the best Bingley, apart from Austen's of course, that I have seen. He is an interesting character in his own right and I was delighted to see his character explored beyond his role as Darcy's friend and Jane's husband. Some of the situations that Altman had Darcy in, had my falling off my chair in hysterics. I never thought that Darcy would be a good comic character but I guess he is the prototypical "straight" man in the comic team of Darcy and Bingley. My favorite Darcy comic moment had to be him in an opiate haze. Darcy calling Mr. Bingley "Charlie Bungley" was a moment of genius that had me chortling for hours. Drunk Darcy came in a close second. The relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy was also a highlight. They laughed and joked and teased each other. It was the relationship that I always imagined them having.The other P&P characters were also treated very well by Altman. Jane was absolutely perfect. She was spunky and as witty as Elizabeth. Well maybe not as spunky as Elizabeth.you get my point.Caroline was also given new dimensions in The Darcys & The Bingleys. She gets involved with a scoundrel, falls in love with someone way below her station, and makes a truce with Elizabeth and Jane. Most of the canon characters were improved by Altman's writing and the non-canon characters fit into the P&P world perfectly.This is one of the best JA sequels I have ever picked up not because it is any truly romantic and heartwarming story (which it is at points) but because it gives each and every character a new facet. I can't wait to start reading The Plight of the Darcy Brothers.