The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy

Delightful to read the different developments of the Darcy characters...well written, very interesting plot and a happy ending....

Elizabeth Aston's first novel, Mr. Darcy's Daughters was a little disappointing, being an inferior copy of Pride and Predjudice. However, I really enjoyed this new novel. Aston breaks off from trying to copy Jane Austen and explores themes that are more mature and relevant today with Althea's abusive husband. This is NOT another Jane Austen copy, which may be disappointing if that's what you are looking for, but I think it's much better.

While "The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy" was an enjoyable yet sobering read, I wouldn't recommend it as a must-read for everyone. If you're a die-hard Jane Austenite, and you abhor all those pastiches that play havoc with the great author's work, you'd really want to steer clear of all three (so far) of Elizabeth Aston's work. Ms Aston is a wonderfully compelling writer and she really does know how to spin a yarn and keep a reader happily engrossed. However, even while I was enjoying this novel, I couldn't help wishing that the author had chosen to write this absorbing tale without using/alluding to any of the characters that Jane Austen had created. "The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy" focuses on the youngest of Darcy's and Elizabeth's daughters, Alethea, and opens with a very unhappily married Alethea making a reckless dash for freedom. Previously, Alethea had fallen in love quite passionately with a young gentleman who ended up marrying someone else in the end. But because of the marked attentions that he had paid her, and the obvious pleasure she had taken at being in his company, Alethea suddenly found herself at the center of some rather unwelcome speculation. Her heart bruised and her pride wounded, Alethea decided (going against the advice of those wiser than she) to marry another in order to silence the gossips. Unfortunately, her husband turned out to be a brute, determined to break her spirit and to control her completely. Fortunately, Alethea is not a Darcy for nothing, and daringly, with her faithful maid, Figgins, in tow, runs away from England, determined to seek sanctuary with her married sister, Camilla, in Venice. I enjoyed this novel enormously but a few things did give me pause: 1) I thought that the romance angle involving Alethea and the gentleman she ends with could have been better developed. For most of the novel, Alethea doesn't seem to spend much time thinking about this character even though she does interact with him quite a bit, and yet quite suddenly in the last quarter of the book, her feelings seemed to have gone from irritation to love. Not incredibly convincing, I thought (and on another note, her more recent novel, "The True Darcy Spirit" had the same "problem" too); and 2) the entire subplot involving Alethea's husband in the last quarter of the book was incredibly rushed as well and not very satisfactorily resolved. On the plus side however was the fact that this was a very well written and intelligent novel, that dealt with serious issues like spousal abuse. "The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy" was not a frills-and-fluff novel and would have pleased many of the women who wrote in the 18th & 19th centuries with the seriousness of it's tone. It was wonderful to watch Alethea grow up and become more resolute, mature and clear-minded over the course of the novel. In my opinion however, the best thing about this novel was not the relationship and romance that dev

Ok, no one can equal Austen with her own characters, and one of the beauties of this book is that Elizabeth Aston doesn't really try. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. What is more pleasing in a light read, after all, than a dilemma, a daring young woman defying convention, implications of breaking those tiresome conventions discussed in some terrifying detail, a journey of some discomfort and danger, death, opera, romance and rescue? I would think that most Jane Austen fans would enjoy this novel, and I abhor most sequels to the beloved Pride and Prejudice. They try too hard and put words in Elizabeth Bennett Darcy's mouth, and Aston does not presume to do this. She creates the world of Elizabeth's children in a way that is both a tribute to the original, and uniquely her own.

... but she does a fantastic job of bringing Austen's characters to life. This book is a sequel to Mr. Darcy's Daughters, and follows, as the title suggests, the adventures of Alethea Darcy, the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Darcy. In Mr. Darcy's Daughrters, Alethea was merely a teenager who played a peripheral role in the love story between her older sister, Camilla, and Alexander Wytton. Having made an imprudent marriage, Alethea Darcy runs away from home, disguised as a boy. She runs to Paris, and then Venice, to escape her irate husband, Mr. Napier, and to enlist the help of her sister Camilla Wytton. Alethea encounters several Englismen-and-women, including George Warren, stepson to Caroline Bingley, a Titus Manningtree, and even a brief appearance from Mr. Collins, who, although promoted to the rank of bishop, is just as insufferable as ever. While in Venice, Alethea poses as a castrati in order to sing the part of Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, a part for which her singing voice is especially suited. Soon, however, she is discovered by Titus Manningtree; and it is from there that their relationship develops. In all, this is a good sequel to Mr. Darcy's Daughters; but I think Aston needs to begin writing fiction which depends less upon the characters created by other authors.