Janet Aylmer: Darcy’s Story

“It is the thought of Mr. Collins and you...of him having the right to...No, it does not bear thinking about!”

Elizabeth’s response to this was first to blush deeply, as she understood the meaning of his words. Then, after a short pause, she came forward and took his hands in hers.

It was several minutes before Darcy said, “Where can your father be? Georgiana must be a very eloquent guide to the library, for they have been gone at least a half hour!”

“I had not noticed...,” she paused, and coloured again as she said, “shall we go to them now?”

“In a moment,” Darcy said, “but first there is something you should see upstairs,” and he led the way to a sitting-room on the first floor overlooking the square. The furnishings were pleasant, if faded.

“This was my mother’s, and is as she left it.”

Elizabeth looked around her. “It must have many memories for you,” she said, looking at him keenly.

“Yes. But happy ones. I would like you to use it, if you will, and change the furnishings to your taste.”

“You were very fond of your mother?”

“Yes. She was,” he smiled, “a strong character, but a less dominating person than her elder sister, Lady Catherine. I wish that she had known you.”

“And I her. I will be very happy to have her room.”

The legal agreements having been settled, the marriages between Bingley and Miss Jane Bennet, and between Darcy and his dearest Elizabeth, took place as planned and, within a few days, Mr. and Mrs. Darcy were in Derbyshire.

The weather was fine for the time of year, and Darcy took great pleasure in showing Elizabeth the house, and the many walks and drives round the estate. The path alongside the stream that they had taken with her uncle and aunt a few months earlier had special memories for both. Darcy was also able to take his bride on the drive together in the curricle around the park that they had been denied by Lydia Bennet’s elopement.

He could not remember a happier time for him at Pemberley, and told Elizabeth so.

Shortly before Christmas, they were joined by Georgiana, and by Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner together with their children, and the festive season was celebrated with a pleasant informality and much laughter. Darcy caused Elizabeth to blush in front of the family by teasing her that, soon, the childish voices in the house might not be only those of welcome guests. She replied quietly but with a lively smile that she admitted that could be a possibility, should that be his preference.

Darcy took pleasure in seeing the ease with which his bride began to settle to the ways of running Pemberley. The preparations were already under way for the ball to be held on the eve of the New Year, and Georgiana delighted in showing her new sister all the corners of the house. Together, she and Elizabeth oversaw the details of the repast to be prepared. The day before the ball, Bingley and Jane arrived from Hertfordshire and, with Darcy’s cousin Fitzwilliam, joined the family already assembled.

It was with great pleasure on the eve of the New Year that Darcy welcomed his neighbours and introduced them to Elizabeth. When the time came, they took to the floor together to open the dancing.

As the music began, she turned to him in surprise, and said, “Is this not the same tune as was played at the ball at Netherfield last year? And, the same dance as we took together?”

“But of course!” said Darcy, smiling at her. “There was nothing the matter with either, all that was needed was for us to come to a proper understanding.”

And thus it was that, surrounded by their friends from Derbyshire and the relatives most dear to them, Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy began their life together, in the comfort and elegance of their family party at Pemberley.

Since Pride and Prejudice was first published nearly 200 years ago, it has become one of the best-loved novels in the English Language. Like many other people, I first read the book whilst I was at school, as did my children, and have enjoyed reading the novel again many times since then.

Modern media—radio, the cinema and television—have introduced Pride and Prejudice to many new audiences all around the world in recent years. It was after watching the BBC television serial in 1995, and discussing it with one of my daughters, that my curiosity was re-awakened about Mr. Darcy, and I decided to write this book for her. That led to the idea that other people might also enjoy reading Darcy’s Story.

I have been surprised and delighted to discover that my need to know more about Jane Austen’s hero is shared by people all over the world. At the time of writing, the book has been sold to readers not only in Great Britain, but in 37 other countries around the world via the Internet. Over 20,000 copies of the book have now been sold. The publishers have received many letters and emails expressing the enjoyment that so many people have found in reading Darcy’s Story . It seems that complementing Pride and Prejudice by writing this book has satisfied a long-felt need for many readers.

Everyone who has ever read Jane Austen’s novel will have their own idea of Mr. Darcy’s side of the story, and this book could be described as looking through the mirror of Pride and Prejudice (1940) from the other side. I am delighted that a story written nearly 200 years ago can still give pleasure in a very different era. I have also been glad to learn that people much more knowledgeable than I am about Jane Austen and her work have also liked the book.

I saw the cinema film of “Pride and Prejudice” some years ago and can remember being very disappointed that the story was changed at the end. That seemed to me to distort the story as told by Jane Austen. So I started by making a conscious that the book must be totally faithful to Pride and Prejudice and not change that story at all. Jane Austen wrote her novel very much from the point of view of the heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, and her family, and tells us very little about his side of the story. We learn a great deal about Elizabeth Bennet, her four sisters, and their family life.

I looked very carefully at what the chronological sequence of events was in Pride and Prejudice and, almost as important, what Darcy would not have known about the story as told by Jane Austen. Her novel covers a period lasting from the autumn of the first year to the winter of the second.

Wickham’s attempt to elope with Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, had taken place before he met Elizabeth Bennet, although in Pride and Prejudice Darcy tells her about it in the letter after his proposal at the following Easter. So, in Darcy’s Story , Wickham’s visit to Ramsgate to persuade Georgiana to elope with him comes near the beginning of the book.

Mr. Darcy is only “present” in Pride and Prejudice for a few weeks at Netherfield (his friend Bingley’s house) in the first autumn; for two to three weeks at his aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s house in Kent the following Easter; for a few days in Derbyshire in the summer; and then at the end of the story when he meets Elizabeth Bennet again in Hertfordshire. So Darcy’s Story has to explain what happened before he went to Netherfield, whether it was just chance that he met Elizabeth Bennet again in Kent, and at last in Hertfordshire, and what happened in between.

He did not visit Longbourn, the Bennets’ home, until close to the end of Pride and Prejudice . He knew nothing of the proposal of marriage made by the curate Mr. Collins to his cousin Elizabeth shortly after the Netherfield ball, which she had rejected with her father’s support, but against her mother’s wishes.