Pride & Prejudice - the next chapter....

There are so many offshoots/continuations of Pride and Prejudice. I was in the bookstore the other day and completely overwhelmed!

Please tell me, Dear Jane Austin Fans, which book continues their story best?

I haven't read any of them yet. I just 'discovered' they existed two or three weeks ago, and mooched one from someone on BookMooch.

I'm hugely conservative when it comes to Jane Austen, so my suggestion would be to just burn the atrocities.

I'm with desideo. The best use of sequels to the works of the incomparable Jane Austen is kindling.

Carrie Bebris's "Mr and Mrs Darcy Mysteries" series is fun, but of course not to be taken seriously. I did read Old Friends and New Fancies recently, which was one of the better sequels -- it was written in 1913 so it hews more closely to the original sensibilities of the novels (i.e. no love scenes, etc.).

Although not sequels to any of Miss Austen's novels, Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries are also good fun.

You may already have an answer to this as I have just joined this group, but if you go to www.pemberley.com, they have a place where they rate and talk about the different sequels to all of Jane Austen's works.

I also just read "Old Friends and New Fancies" recently and of all the sequels this is the most fun. The author is intimately acquainted with all the books and had also clearly read all the available biographical material as she cleverly weaves in quotes from Austen's surviving letters as dialog or commentary. The other sequels I've read range from dismal to atrocious...the sad part of the mystery series is that so many people will feel as if they have read Austen when they haven't a clue...just the continuation of the dumbing down of literary culture

Not really a sequel, but I enjoyed Pamela Aidan's novels. An Assembly Such As This Duty and Desire & These Three Remain. Basically it's Pride and Prejudice told from Darcy's point of view.

I know this book has been slammed on LT, but I actually liked it a lot. It's very racy for Darcy and Elizabeth, you'll either hate it or love it, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife. It reads like a romance novel, but it was one of the first sequels I ever read - basically it's fanfiction. There is tons of P&P fanfiction on the net, some of it is very, very good, much better than a lot of published works, and some of it is awful! (beware of some of the newer stuff that's been posted since the 2005 movie) If you Google Pride and Prejudice Fanfiction, you'll come up with the sites, some of the better ones are Republic of Pemberley, (the best are by Lou and Ann2), The Derbyshire Writer's Guild (Nacie has a good one and Pam Aiden originally posted her books here on this site), Mrs. Darcy (Jan H is very good), Firthness (Kerry and Rebecca E are very good) and Hyacinth Gardens. There's also the Jane Austen Fanfiction Index, and you can search it just for sequels. You'll need a password, you can get if from Mrs. Darcy's site here . It's a huge comprehensive index, I highly recommend it. Good luck in your search!

Olen lukenut Ylpeys ja ennakkoluulo kirjan monta kertaa.
Ylpeys ja ennakkoluulo on parhaita Jane Austenin kirjoja.

I just started Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James, and so far, I do like it better than any other sequel I've read. Has anyone else read this?

>11 kac522:..unfortunately. I have read it..and I thought it was terrible..but that's just me..

I didn't like Death Comes to Pemberly either and I am a big P. D. James fan. I understand she was trying to write in the style of Jane Austen, but I found it flat.

If it were a P. D. James book without trying to use Austen's characters, it would probably have been reasonable. But I agree -- the Pride and Prejudice aspects really didn't quite work. And the efforts to link the plot to those of Jane Austen's novels was entirely forced.

I tried to read Death Comes to Pemberley and couldn't get past about page 30. I really wanted to like it, and just didn't, though I may give it another try. I agree with AnnaClaire--perhaps if it hadn't been using Austen's characters and settings, it would have been more palatable.

I'm with those who say the offshoots/continuations are not fun for Austenites. I've tried Bebris, Aidan and Berdoll, because I'd dearly love to continue the Austen experience, but they fall so far short it just ends up being sad as far as I'm concerned.

Takeoffs have been more fun for me - e.g. Shannon Hale's Austenland books, and the Lost in Austen dvd, where there is no attempt at character/story continuation.

I've read and enjoyed lots of P.D. James mysteries, and was looking forward to Death Comes to Pemberley for that reason, but it sounds like another disappointment, unfortunately.

It depends though.

I don't have any issues with continuation of the stories of favorite authors... but I never expect them to sound the same or to have the same feeling. Yes - they will be the same characters and the same situation, yes - more often than not they will try to sound as the original -- but not expecting it actually to happen makes it easier to read and like such works (and I may be back with a changed opinion after reading James's novel but... I doubt it).

It does depend, you're right, which is a reason I kept trying. Crazymamie put it well for me when talking about the newest Berdoll - you probably won't have fun with them if you're a major Austen fan, but if you're not, you can have a good time with them.

I didn't expect any of them to have the same feeling, but I hoped to enjoy them. For me they missed the key ingredients, especially the wit.

Now that I'm about half-way through Death Comes to Pemberley I can see how others feel about it. I am enjoying it more than any other "sequel" I've read, but it does lack the Austen wit, or actually any humor at all. I just ordered Old Friends and New Fancies, and am looking forward to it.

>18 jnwelch:

But that's the point - it cannot be the same. I read a lot of SF and Fantasy and there is a lot of sequels and continuances there from different authors. I think that this gave me a little better view on what to expect in such cases.

For example I cannot even read the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the similar concoctions. I tried and something just did not work. Sequels and continuations? They are just that.

I personally have a hard time reading continuations/sequels for Jane Austen's novels. I usually try to steer clear of them. Something about reading another book and taking the characters to new levels where Jane Austen didn't intend them to go puts me off big time. I will have to say that I love the Austenland series just because it was Jane enough but not a continuation per se. I also watched Lost in Austen on the dvd and loved that too. The Jane Austen mystery series by Stephanie Barron is another favorite of mine. I tend to read a lot about Jane Austen, but not directly related to her writings, if that makes sense. I love Jane as a character, biographical figure and really don't like other author's continuations because I feel they don't really stay true to Jane Austen's vision. Now I am not saying that all continuations suck, because I am sure that there are some good ones, I just prefer to keep to the original stories that Jane Austen wrote.