Who is Fitzwilliam Darcy?
This is book 3 of a series of three that tell the story of P&P from Darcy's perspective.
His marriage proposal and his 'changing' for the better.

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman I and II and the fred in the Forum

Aus William Shakespeares A Midsummer Night's Dream [I, 1]:
LYSANDER
Ah me! for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth:
But either it was different in blood,—
HERMIA
O cross! Too high to be enthrall'd to low!
LYSANDER
Or else misgraffed in respect of years;—
HERMIA
O spite! Too old to be engag'd to young!
LYSANDER
Or else it stood upon the choice of friends:
HERMIA
O hell! to choose love by another's eye!
LYSANDER
Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it,
Making it momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;

The [BookRing] looks like this now:

1. Leseschaf (NRW)
2. Annieselan (Hessen)
3. MrBennet (Hessen)
4. elhamisabel (Hessen)
5. tourvel (NRW)
6. J-sama (Sachsen)
7. greeneyemoony (NRW)
8. Tiikeri (Schleswig-Holstein)
9. DA-Cameron (Baden-Württemberg)
10. dschinny (Hamburg)
11. Rochester74 (Hessen)
12. Stella-del-Nord (Niedersachsen)
13. BerlinBookworm (Berlin)
14. erinacea (Berlin)
15. nach Hause

Return to P & P - I hope to read this third book soon. I already finished watching the P&P tv serie from 1995 after reading the first book of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman ;-)

Loved to return do P&P, to Kent and Pemberley and the known story. So there are some parts of the story not told by Austen which remind me of other literary figures (any resemblances from Dy to ...?)Thanks for sharing the books, urfin.

10.9.: travelling again (at last - sorry for the delay)

Oh what a wonderful day - Mr. Darcy returns for the third time and I´m looking forward to read more about him & Lizzy. It´s not that I don`t know what will happen but I´m really excited to experience his point of view!

This was the volume, I was so looking for to read but I must admit, I wasn´t perfectly happy with it. I still can´t imagine Darcy as such a lovesick creature, who starts crying. I sometimes found his reactions even laughable. And I don´t believe, he would ever share his pain about Lizzie´s rejection with Georgiana. She is his younger sister and he tries to be like her father.

And there´s something else which makes me wonder: didn´t Lizzie & Darcy meet again at Lady Catherines dinner? I must grab my volume of P&P and read this part again.
Sorry for criticizing so much, but I was a bit disappointed. But only a bit, I really liked to read the three books which told P&P again from Darcy´s point of view. Thank you for letting me share these bookrings, urfin! I had a great time reading them.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

The book is on it´s journey to MrBennet!

The book came running up the stairs today - thanks for sending, Annieselan, and thanks to urfin for sharing this three-part ring! I'll start reading at once, for I just finished my last read yesterday :o)

Update 10.10.08:
I liked this 3rd volume much better than the second. Indeed, the author seems in need of the original story to lean on, then it's not too bad (whereas the ideas of a story she developed before were not at all convincing).

I also did not find Darcy foolish in his lovesickness - though Ms Aidan becomes rather repetitive at times. He had to accomplish his fundamental change in character somehow, and I find this concept quite cute. Dy's story however is bullshit, just as some other parts of the story (like how Darcy manages to find Lydia).

Well - all in all quite an entertaining read.

Next week, I'll take the book to the Frankfurt MeetUp and hand it on to elhamisabel.

Thanks MrBennet for giving this to me tonight.
I've skipped part 2, I've only heard negative things about it anyway.
Let's see how bad this one is.

Positive: I just had to spent 85 cents on this piece of shit.

Negative: Urgh! (JE #11) - this is no different to that first one. I was so annoyed about the blatant mistakes and awful wording after the first 10 pages, that I gave up. I'm not wasting my precious time on this shit.

Already contacted tourvel for the address.

Buch ist angekommen.

8.11.2008

Ich habe das Buch eben beendet. Auch ich finde den dritten Band wieder besser, aber ich finde auch, dass Darcy zuviel in Elisabeth-Gedanken schwelgt. Diese Teile fand ich irgendwann etwas nervig. Wenn ich so etwas lesen möchte lese ich meine Barbara Cartlands *g*
Ich schließe mich den anderen auch insofern an, dass ich mir Darcy nicht wirklich so vorstellen kann wie er beschrieben wird; dass Darcy alles seiner Schwester erzählt; dass diese Agenten-Geschichte passt; diese Sylvanie-Geschichte *urks*...
Ich habe mich nicht durch das Buch gequält, aber ich finde nicht, dass Aidan dem Darcy-Part gerecht wird. Ich habe das Buch ähnlich konsumiert, wie eins von diesen Cartlands und hatte insofern schon ein gewisses Vergnügen :-)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Macht sich endlich auf dem Weg zu J-Sama.

In Begleitung von Teil Zwei wohlbehalten eingetroffen. Wenn ich gewusst hätte, dass Teil Drei soviel dicker ist als Teil eins - aber naja.
May take a while to read - so don't worry

Finally finished. The first part of the book was unbelievably boring (in comparison to the other parts). The constant pondering and bemoaning regarding Elizabeths behaviour is certainly a nice thing if it happens once or twice but the constant repetition of how he is down and questioning himself is rather lengthy.
Its getting better though. From their meeting at Rosings the story is getting some flow. Well you know how the story turns out but still you feel with them. The end was rather rushed in my opinion. My feeling was, that the pages too much at the beginning were missing in the end. An epilogue to give a view into there life after the marriage would have been interesting. But well, you can't have everything. Thank you for the ring an the patience.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Today, the third part finally continues its journey.
Thank you for the ring

Arrived today. Will start reading it next weekend.

This book was the one I liked least of all three. I think it was too much Rosings and not enough Wickham and grew a little boring. The end was very nice though.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Zu Tiikeri weitergeschickt

Arrived here some days ago and will be read as soon as I'm through with volume 2 (which unfortunately will take some time).

Unlike most of the former readers I liked this one better than the two volumes before. I think Darcy's transformation is described well and this time I could sometimes actually imagine him to be Austen's Darcy.

I also liked Dy as a character but all this stuff about treason and spying was as ridicilous as the Sylvanie-part of the story.

Altogether it was a pleasant read and I thank you very much, Urfin, for sharing the books. This one will be on its way to DA-Cameron soon.

The book arrived today. Thanks. .-)

3. 6. 2009:
This is - in my opinion - the best book of the series. Georgiana bore more resemblance to her counterpart in P&P, Darcy's behaviour was quite believable. So was Bingley's development (albeit not quite authentic). And Dy - he's wonderful!
I could have done without Sylvaine, but at least she had a minor role here.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

The book is on it's way to the next reader. :-)

Arrived yesterday. Thanks!

6.6.09 Finished. I think of all three books I liked the first one best, then this one and the second part last. Darcy was way too romantic and I kept wondering how it would have been if the book had been written by a man. A seperate book about Dy would be interesting, I really liked him. Will send it on asap.

The book arrived safely today. Thank you.

This is surely the best of the three books. Still, it is not the story of my Mr. Darcy, but it was a lot of fun to read. I would like to read more about Dy and his adventures.
My advice: read the first book, get a good summery of the second book and finally read the third book.

This book will be send to Stella-del-Nord together with the second one next week.

Ist zusammen mit Band 2 bei mir angekommen. Leider fehlt Band 1 noch, daher wird es mit dem Lesen noch ein wenig dauern....

Nachtrag:

Nachdem ich Band 1 verschlungen und Band 2 mehr oder weniger ausgelassen habe, war ich sehr gespannt auf Band 3 und das Wiedersehen unserer beiden Protagonisten. Ich wurde nicht enttäuscht und bekam eine sehr bewegende Liebesgeschichte zu lesen.
Ob allerdings Darcys Wandlung vom Saulus zum Paulus tatsächlich sooo schnell erfolgt ist und er monatelang als liebeskranker Romeo unterwegs war, kann ich mir nicht wirklich vorstellen. Trotzdem absolut lesenswert.

Das Buch reist zusammen mit Band 2 weiter zu BerlinBookworm. Viel Spaß bei der Lektüre!

The books have returned to Berlin and I'm excited to read them (although a bit worried when reading the previous JEs). I just loved "Letters from Pemberley" and hope that the Darcy-books go in the same direction.

Alright, in this third book we get back to business - some nice Darcy and Elisabeth action. The book is still way too long - all these ponderings and descriptions ... Leave that to the pros, I'd say (to Pamela Aidan). In case you're wondering why Pamela Aidan needs three books for a story that Jane Austen beautifully did in one - well, there you have it. Unnecessary blathering that doesn't contribute to the plot (you will notice that if you skip a couple of pages once in a while).
I still enjoyed reading those parts where Darcy and Elisabeth interact. I will also check out the other spin-off novels that were written on Darcy.

Fetched from the post office today, and I'm very much looking forward to reading it. :)

I loved it. Contrary to some previous opinions, I think this is the best book of the series. Although this one contains considerably more direct quotes than either of the other two books, surprisingly enough this is the part where, finally, the story starts to stand on its own. This is mostly due to the fact that there is this huge gap in P&P where Darcy's character does a complete turn-around which Elizabeth naturally is not there to witness.

I got the vague feeling that this story's Darcy doesn't quite match Austen's hero, but to me it didn't really matter. What's fanfic for, if not to play around with the characters? :p
I found it hilarious to watch Darcy squirm under his cousin's scrutiny, and I had ever so much fun playacting the drunken confession to Dy (sometimes I was giggling so hard I couldn't get a word out) or Lady Catherine's final confrontation.

Aidan's explanation for the colonel's behaviour at Rosings cleared up a few questions of mine, and though I thought Darcy's interpretations of some of Elizabeth's comments a bit far-fetched, it's not entirely unreasable considering he's wildly in love at that point and likely to hear what he hopes and expects to hear.

I loved how Georgiana, Dy and Bingley each played their different parts in Darcy's self-reformation. Actually, I considered the whole thing exceedingly well executed. Other than P&P, I think this is not so much a romantic tale than a story of loyalty and redemption. It's simply that the main focus is a different one.

Though I didn't much care for Darcy's friend Dy in parts 1 or 2, I somehow grew to like him in this book, long before he unmasked himself. I even came to regret the fact that Aidan didn't stick to writing a snarky Victorian spy novel instead. From what's there in these three books, it would have been awesome! :D

To add some criticism, I felt that Wickham and all the thoughts, conversations and dealings regarding him somehow didn't fit into the story. It's not only that I didn't like him, for obvious reasons, but that he was rather clumsily dealt with and treated like a cardboard character that was only included because he was in the original novel.

This is a book I just might be tempted to buy at some time (ignoring the two previous parts, of course).

@Urfin: Thanks for letting me participate in the ring! I'll be handing it back to you at next week's meet-up.

Thanks, erinacea, for returning this to me.
And thank you all for your (different:) JEs :o)