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Death Comes To Pemberley (2011)

by P.D. James(Favorite Author)

3.08 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0571283578 (ISBN13: 9780571283576)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Faber & Faber

review 1: I started reading this in the middle of the night when I couldn't get to sleep so perhaps that coloured my view, but I didn't take to this at all. Of course some re-hashing of Pride and Prejudice was necessary, so that those who hadn't read P&P had the back story, but it was just so relentlessly without humour or wit that I couldn't continue. Humour and wit is the ESSENCE of P&P. Plus, she made Colonel Fitzwilliam an asshole, which I simply could not abide. I posted a grumpy Facebook post to this effect and then P D James died a few days later, so I felt terrible. I am sure they are not connected, but still. I guess it hasn't stopped me from writing this, though, has it? I did quite enjoy the TV version, my feelings regarding poor old Colonel F notwithstanding.My copy: pur... morechased from the sale table at Readings.
review 2: I wanted to like this book, and it started out promisingly enough. James writes Darcy and Elizabeth both with more vulnerability than Austen did, but the plot spends all of its steam before you reach the halfway point of the novel. The last half of the book is less a mystery than a Regency legal drama, and the eventual resolution is reached with so little effort from the main protagonists that it feels simultaneously sudden, unmerited, and overly convenient. Also, it really seems that James was so eager to include favorite characters from Pride and Prejudice (Lady Catherine being a prime example) that they are shoehorned in without having much to do. This is a shame, as Georgiana and Lydia are already wandering around with naught to do, so that base seems heavily covered.But for all of the characters with nothing to do, we must contrast their indolence with Colonel FItzwilliam (who has much work to do in acting suspicious and turning into a first class Viscount Jerk) and Mrs. Younge (who is lurking on the periphery, having a mysterious past revealed, and engaging in generally dramatic sorts of gestures). I was not sold on either role - especially the origins of the Wickham/Younge connection.There is imagination to spare within these pages, but just not enough mystery and plot to form a first rate narrative. less

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