These Three Remain: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman

Great Ending to the Trilogy

These Three Remain is the third book in the Fitzwilliam Darcy Trilogy, written by Pamela Aiden. The trilogy tells the story of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's eyes, filling in the gaps of what Pride and Prejudice left out. ?These Three Remain, the story of Fitzwilliam Darcy, gentleman, continues with Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam arriving for their annual visit to Rosings Park. Darcy's mind is still completely fascinated by Elizabeth Bennet but is beginning to realize that he will most likely never come in contact with her again. He vows that he will begin to try to forget her and try to move on with his life. To his surprise he comes to find Elizabeth Bennet staying at the parsonage near Rosings. The two are thrust into each others company, much to Darcy's pleasure/displeasure. Pleasure because he is hopelessly in love with her and displeasure because it's not right for a man of his social standing to even think about marrying a woman of Elizabeth's class. After much soul-searching Darcy decides to buck the social conformities and begin courting her. He meets Elizabeth for walks, visits the parsonage, and tries to engage her in conversation while at Rosings. He has absolutely no idea of Elizabeth's true dislike of him, and even begins to think that she is enjoying his company. Darcy, unable to contain his feelings any longer, proposes to Elizabeth, only to be shockingly rejected. Hurt, angry, confused, and humbled he writes Elizabeth a letter, gives it to her the following day, and then leaves Rosings to return to London. He realizes that almost all of the things Elizabeth confronted him with were truths about his personality. He understands that what he believed to be pride in his family name and social standing was indeed arrogance and conceit and that he did in fact look down his nose upon those not in his class. Darcy vows to begin making changes in himself, and in his life. "Any idea of her love as his reward must be put aside. Even where they to meet, it must be as indifferent acquaintances. But no matter! He would honor this woman who had scorned his station and state to her own hurt and brought him to see himself. He would do it, he swore, by striving hour by hour, unseen and unremarked, toward a conduct of his life that would have gained Elizabeth Bennet's approval." Months later, as fate would have it, he arrives at Pemberley a day earlier than expected, to find Elizabeth Bennet and her aunt and uncle wandering the grounds. He puts much effort into showing Elizabeth that he is a changed man and the two begin anew. My two favorite parts about These Three Remain were more about the characters of Darcy's Shakespeare-quoting valet Fletcher and his good friend Dy Brougham. These two characters really added a lot to the story. They acted as the voices of reason for Darcy. If he was doubting himself or Elizabeth and questioning what to do/say next, they always would appear, ripe with advice. I would definitely recommend the series. I would however tell you to skip the 2nd book Duty and Desire. The storyline was so different with witchcraft, killings, stolen babies, dead baby pigs, suicides - it was just a random bunch of mish-mosh. I skimmed through most of it because the plot was just ridiculous and I still made it through These Three Remain unconfused. These Three Remain is a great novel for Austen enthusiasts that like reading things that stay true to Austen. Kimberly (Reflections of a Book Addict)

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Easily surpasses the label of "fan fiction"

I was truly, truly impressed by this novel. Out of the number of other fan-fiction books I have read, and even out of the other books in this series, "These Three Remain" is an accomplishment of its genre. While all generally good books on their own, the first of the trilogy focused a bit too much on Darcy's own brooding introspection, and the second, while entertaining, stuck out like a sore thumb. But somehow, the third book draws them together so artfully that it justifies these flaws. For instance: Aidan uses her own very well-crafted characters from the preceding books to advance the storyline that Jane Austen gave us. How cool is that? In "These Three Remain", Aidan combines Austen's world with her own vision of Darcy's world that is seamless, beautifully written, and ultimately very satisfying.

But what impressed me most about this book was the way character development was presented. I have never read any other P&P spin-off that truly went in depth in a way that would likely have gratified even Jane Austen, as well as her legions of loving fans such as myself. I found the relationships between Darcy and the secondary characters to be especially engaging, presenting an opportunity for us to watch such characters as Bingley, his best friend Lord Brougham, and even Anne de Bourgh evolve and change as Darcy does himself. In particular, the relationship between Darcy and Georgiana is likely my favorite in the book, even more so than that between Darcy and Elizabeth.

This is where, surprisingly, These Three Remain finds some weakness: Elizabeth is a bit like a virtuous angel of grace, a paragon of perfection in Darcy's eyes towards which he strives to become a better man. While I suppose this makes sense -he is, after all, in love with her-this makes the reader want to step back a little and recall the very human Lizzy of Pride and Prejudice. In other words, this isn't really the Elizabeth we've come to know through Austen, but the Elizabeth that Darcy knows, and the treatment of her is a bit too flowery in my opinion. And on a side note, the ending is somewhat anticlimactic; you'd think that after enduring three books' worth of emotional suppression Darcy would have some trouble expressing the depths of his feelings and keeping his hands off his true love, but this ending was unexpectedly composed and very.proper. Perhaps this is just my overly girlish notions of romance getting in the way, but I wanted a bit more chemistry and sexiness between our lovers, and not so much the reverence of a pilgrim kissing the hem of a saint.

But this is a minor shortcoming in an overall excellent book, where the treatment of the plot and the characters is as good as any I've seen and could even perhaps stand on its own without the other novels or even (dare I say it?) Jane Austen's beloved book. To put it very briefly: Definitely worth a read!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Amazingly acurate to the original

This is a great book! i totally recomend it to all those ladys who adore Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice. It is the first book in a series, i recommend reading them all.This book is completely faithful to the original, but it adds its own twist to it, a side that pride and prejudice canot see

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

The conclusion of a timeless love story!

I loved this book. It was delightful to read the emotions that Darcy went through over Miss Elizabeth. I enjoyed the other books in this series, but this was by far my favorite.
What was a nice surprise was how engaging I found the new characters Ms. Aidan added to the story. Lord Dyfed Brougham was by far my favorite. I read somewhere that the author plans to continue the story Georgina's coming out and I look forward to more of Dy. His honesty with Darcy was refreshing and humorous. I also liked getting to know Georgina better.
I would recommend this series to others. The other two books were good, but the last was the best. The first two books really set up the conclusion to the story in the last book. Very enjoyable!

Absolutely Enchanting!

This book was absolutely wonderful! The best of the trilogy! I love how it portrayed Darcy's bettering himself and overcoming his pride. It was wonderfully romantic and exciting! The plot was wonderful, the writing style was correct for the time, and the new characters were great! I nearly cried while I was reading it! Especially, when Mr. Darcy realizes his undying love for Elizabeth! This trilogy is a wonderful read for any Pride and Prejudice fan, and I can't wait to see what's next!

entertaining!!!!

I am so glad that I read this book...Finally I found a book I was able to enjoy as much I enjoy reading Pride and Prejudice. I could not put the book down. I really recommend the trilogy to all fans of Pride and Prejudice. And I can't wait for her next book.

Mr Darcy

i thought the 3rd book was a little to long. It was 3 times the length of the first two books

Insults Jane Austen

This book was alright to begin with up until around chaper four, when finally you can't tolerate the inacuracies. The author changed characters and seemed to like turning the weak characters from P&P into strong ones. She reconstructs the main characters and has them behaving in ways that are very uncharacteristic and unbelieveable. It's also obvious she likes the new characters she created and plays them up as 'better' characters than the original ones (wiser etc). I guess the characters in this novel suffered by only knowing as much about regency society as the author.

If you want to continue to like Jane Austen's Mr Darcy don't read this book and ruin him for you.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

An Unworthy Waste of My Time

I read this book from the first word to the last word, but I regret ever reading it. I would have preferred my imagined version of Mr. Darcy's story than this one. I found it unbelievable and uninteresting. However, I would recommend 'An Assembly Such as This' and 'Duty and Desire' as good reads!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Loved It!!!!!!

I loved this book and all of the other ones. The end is amazing and very sweet. I LOVED IT!!!!!!

A reviewer

This is a very satisfying conclusion to Pamela Aidan's trilogy of Pride and Prejudice books. Better than the second one, because once again we're with Darcy and Elizabeth most of the time, it finishes the story in Ms Aidan's style, which fits well with Austen's style whilst filling out more details of Regency life. If you haven't started the books yet, make sure you start with the first, An Assembly Such as This

Billiant storytelling

Fitzwilliam Darcy remains confused by his deep regard for Elizabeth Bennet. He tries to move on, but is not successful as Elizabeth has captured his heart. However, while visiting his aunt, he clumsily proposes marriage, but to his chagrin Elizabeth says no.----------------- Heartbroken and feeling the world ended, he returns to London to reflect on his failure and after a few depressing weeks, he begins to see a positive spin to her rejection, as he will prove to his beloved that he has become a good kind gentleman. Several months later Fitzwilliam by chance meets up with Elizabeth he sees fate assisting him as he begins his campaign to win her over by proving he has changed. However, his enemy and rival George Wickham devastates Fitzwilliam¿s simple plan.------------- The story line is fast-paced though it stays true while paying homage to Pride and Prejudice. Fans of Jane Austen will appreciate this strong finish while newcomers will seek out the previous two tales (see DUTY AND DESIRE and AN ASSEMBLY SUCH AS THIS) though the middle book is pure Pamela Aidan's imagination filling in the time gaps from the nineteenth century masterpiece. Staying true to the original personalities THESE THREE REMAIN is a fitting final tribute to the great Ms. Austen.------------- Harriet Klausner

Warning: You won't sleep until you get through this book!

Aiden did very nice job of writing from Darcy's perspective in this book, at a time when the story of Elizabeth and Darcy becomes most intriguing. If you're looking at this book series for the first time, skip the middle book and buy the other two. The first and third are more true to Austen's vision of Darcy.

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