Not another Austen sequel, I hear you cry -- and well you might, as I am amazed to discover that this is the sixth one I have read since last March when I was first introduced to this sub-genre, if such it can be called, by the wonderful Diana Birchall's Mrs Darcy's Dilemma. I was also completely won over by the great recent televised Lost in Austen. Some of the sequels I have liked better than others, obviously, and one I'm afraid I found so boring that I neither finished it nor blogged about it. I think my top favorite would have to be Sibyl Brinton's Old Friends and New Fancies, a delight from start to finish, in which a number of characters from all Austen's novels meet and interact in a wonderfully witty and quirky way. That was, in fact, the first Austen sequel ever written, having been published in 1913. This one, which I've just finished, was the second, and came out in 1949 (though the Copyright page says it is a reprint of the 1913 edition -- Sourcebooks nb!). All I know of D A Bonavia-Hunt, apart from the fact that her name was Dorothy, is that she was the sister and daughter of vicars.That being the case, it is rather apt that the plot turns on the situation that has been created by the death of the aged Rector of Pemberley, which precipitates a series of most unexpected occurrences:
Who could have foretold that Dr Robinson, who had done nothing of note in all his lifetime, should by the common and natural act of dying, set in motion a train of events so strange, so startling, so far removed from probability, as to emulate the riotous fancies of a disordered mind?
Well! Who indeed? The immediate result of Dr Robinson's death is an urgent need to replace him, and several candidates present themselves. One is Mr Collins who writes to Darcy that he has managed to "lose that unqualified approbation with which your aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, was wont to distinguish me". Another is the charming young neighbour Robert Mortimer who, though much liked by the Darcys, proves to be fonder of fox-hunting than of vicar-ish duties.Darcy decides instead to make a trial of Stephen Acland, the younger brother of his old Eton friend Lord Egbury. Despite his admirable credentials, though, Acland is something of a puzzle, to say the least, seemingly more interested in music and flirtation than in performing his function in the church. His propensity for flirtation causes great anxiety to Elizabeth, as she fears he will win the heart of Georgiana Darcy, now twenty and obviously a great catch. Also staying at Pemberley is Kitty Bennett, much improved since the departure of Lydia, and clearly ready to find a husband. The development of the love lives of these two young women runs through the novel, and, without giving too much away, all resolves itself satisfactorily in the end. But of at least equal interest in the narrative is the mystery surrounding Acland -- why is he so very different from the man the Darcys were expecting? Darcy's attempt to unravel this problem takes him to London where, with the help of Lizzie's uncle Gardiner, he undertakes some delicate and secret investigations. Lizzie, meanwhile, is left to deal with the problems of Pemberley, not least among which is the fact that she gets saddled with Anne de Bourgh, who decides to stay on after her mother's departure, but starts to behave in an extremely odd and worrying fashion. I can't say that there were any huge surprises in the resolutions to these various threads, but the whole thing gallops along in an entertaining fashion and offers one quite pleasing solution to what seems to be an insatiable need among Austen lovers to find out what happened next.
Speaking for myself, I am best pleased with these sequels if they a) get the language right and b) convince me that their events really could have taken place and c) at least approximate JA's own wit and irony from time to time. Quite a tall order, really, and I would say this one does manage to do these things. But why do I, an erstwhile academic and teacher of Austen and a profound lover of her works, bother to read books that are truthfully, even at their best, never going to measure up to the greatness of the originals? I think it has to be attributed to the wonderfully vivid characters that Austen herself created -- they are so real to us that we cannot conceive of them ceasing to be just because the novelist decided to stop their story at a certain point. And it is telling, I think, that P&P is the one that gets the most sequels. I'm not sure that I really all that much want to know about Edmund and Fanny's married life, or Eleanor and Edward's, or... well you get the general idea. But somehow Lizzie and Darcy and their various sisters seem to offer endless vistas of possible outcomes and I for one will be happy to pursue some more of them.
