Where Bingley Loses His Damn Mind

Mistaken by Jessie Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Pride and Prejudice variation. I listened to it as an audiobook.

This novel is well done, and I enjoyed it a great deal. It's the first audiobook I've listened to in about 30 years (for random reasons), and it's definitely a different experience having someone narrate and dramatize the story. For one, it's more engrossing and entertaining than when I read silently; and two, it's much slower. The narrator, Arthur Rowan, was very good, and once I got into the rhythm of a narrated book I thought it was great and was happy to find little blocks of time when I could put it on.

Diverging from the original Pride and Prejudice just after Darcy's first proposal, this version veers credibly into a different plot altogether. It includes a number of additional complications and difficulties as well as some new laugh-out-loud scenes--but nothing forced. One of the complications is

SPOILER
[Bingley grows to like Elizabeth too much, and when he returns to court Jane a second time (as in the original) he almost decides to propose to Elizabeth instead of Jane. His coolness toward Jane and then jealousy of Darcy drives most of the novel.]

I liked this story a lot, and I recommend it, although I have one caution:

SPOILER
[Bingley and Jane become quite unsympathetic. Jane has a falling-out with Elizabeth over Bingley, and Bingley abandons Jane. I didn't love that about this variation, though I still mostly enjoyed it. But some people may have trouble seeing Bingley as practically a villain, and if that's the case this story may not suit you.]

There is a kind of HEA for everybody, though Bingley and Darcy remain estranged at the end. However, Elizabeth and Darcy, IMO, are well drawn and remain entirely faithful to the original.

I won this in a drawing, which was unusually fortunate for me, and I enjoyed it. Recommended for most Austen fans.

View all my reviews