I haven't actually been neglecting my blog - it's just that this is the first book I've finished since September! I heard PD James on BBC Radio 4 talking about her attempt to write a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, and for some reason my heart didn't sink - well, not too far. I absolutely love P&P. I re-read it at least once a year, and like lots of Jane Austen's die-hard fans I resent any attempt to write in her style or interfere with her characters. I haven't even got to the end of any other Austen sequel I've tried before, and yet, for some reason, even though I've never read a PD James book before, I thought this one might be worth a try. At least it was written by an established and respected author, and the idea of setting a crime novel at Pemberley was intriguing.
So did I enjoy it? Well, yes. It was very well written (miles and miles better than any Austen sequel I've previously attempted to read), with some beautiful descriptions of the landscape around Pemberley. The setting was convincingly 19th Century without feeling like a pastiche and the story was, if not gripping, fairly absorbing.
That said, was it a good sequel? Well, not really. PD James did everything Jane Austen's fans would have wanted, up to a point - she satisfied our hunger to know what happened to our favourite characters and she put them into interesting situations without taking liberties with the characters. But, in trying not to meddle too much with Austen's creations, she sucked the life out of them. Elizabeth lost all her wit, and the humour and lively conversation that made Pride and Prejudice so readable was completely lacking. I did like James' style - it just didn't feel like an Austen sequel.
It is interesting that although James seems to have struggled to bring Austen's characters to life, she succeeded brilliantly with her settings. She has created a wonderful back-story for Pemberley and the Darcy family, including a really poignant little story about Mr Darcy's great-grandfather, which goes a long way to explaining Darcy's pride and his obsession with duty to his family. In many ways, Pemberley feels more like the hero of the book than Mr Darcy.
And as for the crime part, I'm probably not the best judge. With the exception of Agatha Christie I don't read much crime at all. I liked the concept of a murder bringing potential scandal to Pemberley, and it was inevitable that Wickham would be caught up in it somehow. Maybe because I haven't read much crime fiction I really couldn't guess who the murderer was. However, I was very disappointed with the eventual solution, which felt incredible contrived and utterly unconvincing. The writing style made me want to read more PD James, but the plotting has put me off rather. I did, however, love some ironic references to the present-day legal system (Mr Darcy and his friends regard it as inconceivable that a foreign court could ever try English cases) and to modern forensic science.
In the end, I'm glad I read Death Comes to Pemberley. I did enjoy most of it, and loved parts. It just didn't feel quite right, and that's not really PD James' fault. Only Jane Austen could write Jane Austen novels, so her fans shouldn't really be disappointed that no one else, even an author as respected as PD James, can match her style. As a Jane Austen fan I was happy to read this very respectable attempt to continue the story of Darcy and Elizabeth; however if you’ve never read Pride and Prejudice I don’t think you’d find that the book stands up well on its own.
