The Shades of Pemberley

by notsodelicious

I couldn't just give two genres to this story: you'll get Romance, you'll get Humor and Drama, as well as Mystery. This story is a 'canon' sequel to our beloved Pride and Prejudice, the one the only, by Jane Austen. Set in her world, by my humble hand. An exploration of Mr. Darcy and Lizzy's first year of marriage.

1. Introduction

Hello to all of you who decided to stop by this story for a while, I am happy to welcome you to the introductory page of my first take on a Jane Austen novel (aka. the giant of early 19th century literature - no pressure). I've always loved P&P over all her other novels, there's just something about Darcy and Elizabeth, their story and its environment that always called to me and enchanted me.

I neglected it for a long while after reading the novel for the first time, two years ago I believe, but after reading P.D. James' Death Comes to Pemberley, I had to plunge back into this corner of the web and offer you a bit of my take on a sequel. Now, I am neither Jane Austen nor P.D. James, however much I'd like to have the spirit of one and the brain of the other (not mutually excluding, I'm pretty sure Jane Austen had a brain, thank you very much), I... do not.

This story is set in the first year of Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage, with snippets of our favorite Bingleys, our favorite Bennets and not so favorite Whickams, as well as other OCs of my creation with whom I am going to have a wee bit of fun.

My own style of writing tends towards the descriptive, as I am not very good with dialogues; it's something I'm working on. I will of course insert dialogues but let me tell you, 19th century talking was nowhere near ours, so bear with me. I have decide that, whilst I will remain formal-ish, it will not be as 'pompous' as we might now say (wrongly, but hey, we need to name the facts), as you might fear.

The version of on-screen P&P that I prefer has to be the 2005 movie by Joe Wright: I absolutely swoon over MacFadyen's Darcy (his. voice.) and I've always thought Keira Knightley to be an outstanding actress, so as you can imagine it was a cocktail bound to please me. I'm not a fan of any other version, but since I saw the 2005 one first, and knowing that I tend to be partial to what I read/see first to base my head canons on, it's no big surprise to me.

As such, my Darcy will be more of a MacFadyen's Darcy and my Elizabeth, a Knightley's Lizzy. But I also have my now style and imagination, so we shall see what kind of a cocktail that will give us.

This story as a whole is kind of a try-out for me, so please, constructive criticism is more than welcome, and even just a 'hello, I like your story' is nice, so don't hesitate to say hi.

That's all folks.

Enjoy.