Death Comes to Pemberley

( 182 )

Pick Up in Store

Reserve and pick up in 60 minutes at your local store

Hardcover
$17.47
BN.com price
$25.95 List Price (Save 33%)
Marketplace (New and Used)
from
$9.99
$25.95 List Price (Save 62%)
Usually ships within 1-2 business days
All (43)  
Used (19)  
New (24)  
Close
Sort by
Page 1 of 5
Showing 1 – 10 of 43 (5 pages)
$9.99
(Save 62%)
Seller since 2012

Feedback rating:

(7)

Condition:

New — never opened or used in original packaging.

Like New — packaging may have been opened. A "Like New" item is suitable to give as a gift.

Very Good — may have minor signs of wear on packaging but item works perfectly and has no damage.

Good — item is in good condition but packaging may have signs of shelf wear/aging or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Acceptable — item is in working order but may show signs of wear such as scratches or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Used — An item that has been opened and may show signs of wear. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Refurbished — A used item that has been renewed or updated and verified to be in proper working condition. Not necessarily completed by the original manufacturer.

New

Ships from: Dayton, OH

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Standard, 48 States
$10.00
(Save 61%)
Seller since 2012

Feedback rating:

(0)

Condition: New

Ships from: Port Royal, SC

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
$10.73
(Save 59%)
Seller since 2011

Feedback rating:

(28)

Condition: Good
2011 Hardcover Good Open Books is a Non-profit literacy organization and proceeds from the sale benefit literacy programs.

Ships from: Chicago, IL

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Canadian
  • International
  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
  • Express, 48 States
  • Express (AK, HI)
$11.00
(Save 58%)
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(1086)

Condition: Good
2011 Hardcover Good Retail Edition! Cover and pages may have some wear or writing. Binding is tight. We ship daily Monday-Friday.

Ships from: Powder Springs, GA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Canadian
  • International
  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
  • Express, 48 States
  • Express (AK, HI)
$11.43
(Save 56%)
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(4438)

Condition: Very Good
Dust jacket has slight shelf wear. Slight wear to the cover and pages. Pages appear unmarked. Ships the next business day, with tracking and delivery confirmation sent to your ... email. Read more Show Less

Ships from: Beaverton, OR

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
  • Express, 48 States
  • Express (AK, HI)
$11.44
(Save 56%)
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(1086)

Condition: Like New
2011 Hardcover Fine Retail Edition! May have remainder mark. We ship daily Monday-Friday.

Ships from: Powder Springs, GA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Canadian
  • International
  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
  • Express, 48 States
  • Express (AK, HI)
$11.65
(Save 55%)
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(1086)

Condition: New
2011 Hardcover New Retail Edition! We ship daily Monday-Friday.

Ships from: Powder Springs, GA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Canadian
  • International
  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
  • Express, 48 States
  • Express (AK, HI)
$12.00
(Save 54%)
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(161)

Condition: Like New
Like New, Fast Professional Shipping, Tracking for All Domestic Orders.

Ships from: Kingsport, TN

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
$12.00
(Save 54%)
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(161)

Condition: New
Brand New, Never Used, Fast Professional Shipping, Tracking for All Domestic Orders

Ships from: Kingsport, TN

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
$12.32
(Save 53%)
Seller since 2005

Feedback rating:

(422)

Condition: Very Good
2011 Hardcover Very Good in Very Good jacket Very good clean copy in very good dust jacket.

Ships from: Corvallis, OR

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Canadian
  • International
  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
  • Express, 48 States
  • Express (AK, HI)
Page 1 of 5
Showing 1 – 10 of 43 (5 pages)
Close
Sort by
NOOK Book (eBook)
$12.99
BN.com price

Available on NOOK devices and apps

  • Nook Devices
  • NOOK
  • NOOK Color
  • NOOK Tablet
  • Tablet/Phone
  • NOOK for iPad
  • NOOK for iPhone
  • NOOK for Android
  • NOOK for Android (Tablet)
  • NOOK Kids for iPad
  • PC/Mac
  • NOOK Study
  • NOOK for PC
  • NOOK for Mac

Need a NOOK? Explore Now

Overview

A rare meeting of literary genius: P. D. James, long among the most admired mystery writers of our time, draws the characters of Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice into a tale of murder and emotional mayhem.
 
It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is optimistic talk about the prospects of marriage for Darcy’s sister Georgiana. And preparations are under way for their much-anticipated annual autumn ball.
 
Then, on the eve of the ball, the patrician idyll is shattered. A coach careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, who with her husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been banned from Pemberley. She stumbles out of the carriage, hysterical, shrieking that Wickham has been murdered. With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery.
 
Inspired by a lifelong passion for Austen, P. D. James masterfully re-creates the world of Pride and Prejudice, electrifying it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story, as only she can write it.

  • Death Comes to Pemberley
    Death Comes to Pemberley

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.

Historical mystery buffs and Jane Austen fans alike will welcome this homage to the author of Pride and Prejudice from MWA Grand Master James, best known for her Adam Dalgliesh detective series (The Private Patient, etc.). In the autumn of 1803, six years after the events that closed Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Darcy, the happily married mistress of Pemberley House, is preparing for Lady Anne's annual ball, "regarded by the county as the most important social event of the year." Alas, the evening before the ball, Elizabeth's sister Lydia, who married the feckless Wickham, bursts into the house to announce that Captain Denny, a militia officer, has shot her husband dead in the woodland on the estate. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam, who purists may note behaves inconsistently with Austen's original, head out in a chaise to investigate. Attentive readers will eagerly seek out clues to the delightfully complex mystery, which involves many hidden motives and dark secrets, not least of them in the august Darcy family. In contrast to Pride and Prejudice, where emotion is typically conveyed through indirect speech, characters are much more open about their feelings, giving a contemporary ring to James's pleasing and agreeable sequel. 300,000 first printing. Agent: Carol Heaton, Greene & Heaton Ltd.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Reviews
Yes, that's right: Now that she's made her farewells to Adam Dalgliesh (The Private Patient, 2008, etc.), Baroness James has turned to a Jane Austen sequel. Six years after the marriage that ended Pride and Prejudice, Fitzwilliam Darcy and his wife, the former Elizabeth Bennet, are on the eve of giving their annual Lady Anne's Ball when their preparations are complicated first by intimations that Darcy's sister Georgiana is being courted by both her cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam and rising young lawyer Henry Alveston, then by the Colonel's sudden decision to take his horse for a solitary late-night ride and finally and most disastrously by the unexpected, unwanted arrival of Lizzy's sister Lydia. Bursting from her coach, Lydia shrieks her fears that her husband, Lt. George Wickham, has been murdered by his friend Capt. Martin Denny, whom he followed into the wood when Denny abruptly insisted on abandoning the coach carrying them to Pemberley. In fact it looks very much the other way around: Denny is the one who's dead, and Wickham, bending over his body, blurts out that he killed him. Readers of Pride and Prejudice know that Wickham is a thorough scoundrel, but can he really have murdered his only friend? His averrals that he meant only that his quarrel with Denny sent him out into the wood, where he met his death at unknown hands, don't impress the jurors at the coroner's inquest or the trial that follows. Most of these developments, cloaked in a pitch-perfect likeness of Austen's prose, are ceremonious but pedestrian. The final working-out, however, shows all James' customary ingenuity. The murder story allows only flashes of Austenian wit, and Lizzy is sadly eclipsed by Darcy. But the stylistic pastiche is remarkably accomplished, and it's nice to get brief updates on certain cast members of Persuasion and Emma as a bonus.
Liesl Schillinger
[James's] innovation has been to transplant the dramatis personae from Austen into her own suspenseful universe, preserving their likenesses and life force…The greatest pleasure of this novel is its unforced, effortless, effective voice. James hasn't written in florid cod-­Regency whorls, the overblown language other mimics so often employ. Not infrequently, while reading Death Comes to Pemberley, one succumbs to the impression that it is Austen herself at the keyboard.
—The New York Times Book Review
Michael Dirda
While many writers have composed sequels to the various Austen masterpieces, James manages to preserve the flavor of Pride and Prejudice while also creating a fairly good whodunit…This is a novel one reads for its charm, for the chance to revisit some favorite characters, for the ingenious way James reworks—or resolves—old elements from Austen…It is a solidly entertaining period mystery and a major treat for any fan of Jane Austen.
—The Washington Post

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780307959850
  • Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 12/6/2011
  • Pages: 304
  • Sales rank: 147
  • Product dimensions: 6.60 (w) x 9.72 (h) x 1.21 (d)

Meet the Author

P. D. James
P. D. James
With morality-conscious mysteries that do not linger on gore, P. D. James is a sort of anti-Lecter. Her tales are told in the whodunit tradition that prizes character, restraint and the slow unraveling of both a mystery and a social niche.

Biography

Few writers have left so indelible an impression on crime fiction as P. D. (Phyllis Dorothy) James, an author whose elegant, bestselling novels have found an appreciative audience among readers and critics alike. James's intricately plotted books are filled with macabre events and shocking twists and turns, yet they are so beautifully written and morally complex that they cannot be dismissed as mere murder mysteries...although, in James's view, there's nothing "mere" about mysteries!

In James's native Britain (home of Wilkie Collins, Graham Greene, and the redoubtable Agatha Christie), the mystery is a time-honored form that has never been considered inferior. James explained her feelings in a 1998 interview with Salon.com: "It isn't easy to make this division and say: That's genre fiction and it's useless, and this is the so-called straight novel and we take it seriously. Novels are either good novels or they're not good novels, and that is the dividing line for me."

Although she always wanted to be a novelist, James came to writing relatively late in life. Her formal schooling ended at 16, when she went to work to help out her cash-strapped parents. In 1941 she married a doctor assigned to the Royal Army Medical Corps. He returned from WWII with a severe mental illness that lasted until his death in 1964, necessitating that James become the family breadwinner. She worked in hospital administration and then in various departments of the British Civil Service until her retirement in 1979. (Her experience navigating the labyrinthine corridors of government bureaucracies has provided a believable backdrop for many of her books.)

James's first novel, Cover Her Face, was published in 1962. An immediate success, it introduced the first of her two longtime series protagonists -- Adam Dalgleish, a police inspector in Scotland Yard and a published poet. Her second recurring character, a young private detective named Cordelia Gray, debuted in 1972's An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. Both Dalgliesh and Cordelia went on to star in a string of international bestsellers.

James has only occasionally departed from her series, most notably for the standalone mystery Innocent Blood (1980) and the dystopian sci-fi classic Children of Men (1992), which was turned into an Oscar-nominated film. In 2000, she published a slender "fragment of autobiography" called A Time to Be Earnest, described by The New York Time Book Review as " deeply moving, and all too short."

Good To Know

  • In television mini-series that have aired in the U.S. on PBS, British actors Roy Marsden and Martin Shaw have portrayed Adam Dalgliesh and Helen Baxendale has starred as Cordelia Gray.

  • James explained the essence of a murder mystery in a 2004 essay for Britain's Guardian: "E. M. Forster has written, 'The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died and the queen died of grief is a plot. The queen died and no one knew why until they discovered it was of grief is a mystery, a form capable of high development.' To that I would add: the queen died and everyone thought it was of grief until they discovered the puncture wound in her throat. That is a murder mystery and, in my view, it too is capable of high development. "

  • In 1983, James was awarded the OBE. In 1991 she was made a Life Peer (Baroness James of Holland Park).

      1. Also Known As:
        Phyllis Dorothy James White (full name)
      2. Hometown:
        London, England
      1. Date of Birth:
        August 3, 1920
      2. Place of Birth:
        Oxford, England
      1. Education:
        Attended the Cambridge High School for Girls from 1931 to 1937 and later took evening classes in hospital administration

    Read an Excerpt

    AUTHOR'S NOTE

    I owe an apology to the shade of Jane Austen for involving her beloved Elizabeth in the trauma of a murder investigation, especially as in the fi nal chapter of Mansfield Park Miss Austen made her views plain: “Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fault themselves to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest.” No doubt she would have replied to my apology by saying that, had she wished to dwell on such odious subjects, she would have written this story herself, and done it better.

    P. D. James, 2011

    PROLOGUE

    The Bennets of Longbourn

    It was generally agreed by the female residents of Meryton that Mr. and Mrs. Bennet of Longbourn had been fortunate in the disposal in marriage of four of their fi ve daughters. Meryton, a small market town in Hertfordshire, is not on the route of any tours of pleasure, having neither beauty of setting nor a distinguished history, while its only great house, Netherfi eld Park, although impressive, is not mentioned in books about the county’s notable architecture. The town has an assembly room where dances are regularly held but no theatre, and the chief entertainment takes place in private houses where the boredom of dinner parties and whist tables, always with the same company, is relieved by gossip.

    A family of five unmarried daughters is sure of attracting the sympathetic concern of all their neighbours, particularly where other diversions are few, and the situation of the Bennets was especially unfortunate. In the absence of a male heir, Mr. Bennet’s estate was entailed on his nephew, the Reverend William Collins, who, as Mrs. Bennet was fond of loudly lamenting, could turn her and her daughters out of the house before her husband was cold in his grave. Admittedly, Mr. Collins had attempted to make such redress as lay in his power. At some inconvenience to himself, but with the approval of his formidable patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh, he had left his parish at Hunsford in Kent to visit the Bennets with the charitable intention of selecting a bride from the fi ve daughters. This intention was received by Mrs. Bennet with enthusiastic approval but she warned him that Miss Bennet, the eldest, was likely to be shortly engaged. His choice of Elizabeth, the second in seniority and beauty, had met with a resolute rejection and he had been obliged to seek a more sympathetic response to his pleading from Elizabeth’s friend Miss Charlotte Lucas. Miss Lucas had accepted his proposal with gratifying alacrity and the future which Mrs. Bennet and her daughters could expect was settled, not altogether to the general regret of their neighbours. On Mr. Bennet’s death, Mr. Collins would install them in one of the larger cottages on the estate where they would receive spiritual comfort from his administrations and bodily sustenance from the leftovers from Mrs. Collins’s kitchen augmented by the occasional gift of game or a side of bacon.

    But from these benefi ts the Bennet family had a fortunate escape. By the end of 1799 Mrs. Bennet could congratulate herself on being the mother of four married daughters. Admittedly the marriage of Lydia, the youngest, aged only sixteen, was not propitious. She had eloped with Lieutenant George Wickham, an offi cer in the militia which had been stationed at Meryton, an escapade which was confidently expected to end, as all such adventures deserve, in her desertion by Wickham, banishment from her home, rejection from society and the fi nal degradation which decency forbade the ladies to mention. The marriage had, however, taken place, the first news being brought by a neighbour, William Goulding, when he rode past the Longbourn coach and the newly married Mrs. Wickham placed her hand on the open window so that he could see the ring. Mrs. Bennet’s sister, Mrs. Philips, was assiduous in circulating her version of the elopement, that the couple had been on their way to Gretna Green but had made a short stop in London to enable Wickham to inform a godmother of his forthcoming nuptials, and, on the arrival of Mr. Bennet in search of his daughter, the couple had accepted the family’s suggestion that the intended marriage could more conveniently take place in London. No one believed this fabrication, but it was acknowledged that Mrs. Philips’s ingenuity in devising it deserved at least a show of credulity. George Wickham, of course, could never be accepted in Meryton again to rob the female servants of their virtue and the shopkeepers of their profit, but it was agreed that, should his wife come among them, Mrs. Wickham should be afforded the tolerant forbearance previously accorded to Miss Lydia Bennet.

    There was much speculation about how the belated marriage had been achieved. Mr. Bennet’s estate was hardly worth two thousand pounds a year, and it was commonly felt that Mr. Wickham would have held out for at least fi ve hundred and all his Meryton and other bills being paid before consenting to the marriage. Mrs. Bennet’s brother, Mr. Gardiner, must have come up with the money. He was known to be a warm man, but he had a family and no doubt would expect repayment from Mr. Bennet. There was considerable anxiety in Lucas Lodge that their son- in- law’s inheritance might be much diminished by this necessity, but when no trees were felled, no land sold, no servants put off and the butcher showed no disinclination to provide Mrs. Bennet with her customary weekly order, it was assumed that Mr. Collins and dear Charlotte had nothing to fear and that, as soon as Mr. Bennet was decently buried, Mr. Collins could take possession of the Longbourn estate with every confidence that it had remained intact.

    But the engagement which followed shortly after Lydia’s marriage, that of Miss Bennet and Mr. Bingley of Netherfi eld Park, was received with approbation. It was hardly unexpected; Mr. Bingley’s admiration for Jane had been apparent from their fi rst meeting at an assembly ball. Miss Bennet’s beauty, gentleness and the naive optimism about human nature which inclined her never to speak ill of anyone made her a general favourite. But within days of the engagement of her eldest to Mr. Bingley being announced, an even greater triumph for Mrs. Bennet was noised abroad and was at first received with incredulity. Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the second daughter, was to marry Mr. Darcy, the owner of Pemberley, one of the greatest houses in Derbyshire and, it was rumoured, with an income of ten thousand pounds a year.

    It was common knowledge in Meryton that Miss Lizzy hated Mr. Darcy, an emotion in general held by those ladies and gentlemen who had attended the first assembly ball at which Mr. Darcy had been present with Mr. Bingley and his two sisters, and at which he had given adequate evidence of his pride and arrogant disdain of the company, making it clear, despite the prompting of his friend Mr. Bingley, that no woman present was worthy to be his partner. Indeed, when Sir William Lucas had introduced Elizabeth to him,
    Mr. Darcy had declined to dance with her, later telling Mr. Bingley that she was not pretty enough to tempt him. It was taken for granted that no woman could be happy as Mrs. Darcy for, as Maria Lucas pointed out, “Who would want to have that disagreeable face opposite you at the breakfast table for the rest of your life?”

    But there was no cause to blame Miss Elizabeth Bennet for taking a more prudent and optimistic view. One cannot have everything in life and any young lady in Meryton would have endured more than a disagreeable face at the breakfast table to marry ten thousand a year and to be mistress of Pemberley. The ladies of Meryton, as in duty bound, were happy to sympathise with the afflicted and to congratulate the fortunate but there should be moderation in all things, and Miss Elizabeth’s triumph was on much too grand a scale. Although they conceded that she was pretty enough and had fine eyes, she had nothing else to recommend her to a man with ten thousand a year and it was not long before a coterie of the most influential gossips concocted an explanation: Miss Lizzy had been determined to capture Mr. Darcy from the moment of their first meeting. And when the extent of her strategy had become apparent it was agreed that she had played her cards skilfully from the very beginning. Although Mr. Darcy had declined to dance with her at the assembly ball, his eyes had been frequently on her and her friend Charlotte who, after years of husband-seeking, was extremely adroit at identifying any sign of a possible attachment, and had warned Elizabeth against allowing her obvious partiality for the attractive and popular Lieutenant George Wickham to cause her to offend a man of ten times his consequence.

    And then there was the incident of Miss Bennet’s dinner engagement at Netherfield when, due to her mother’s insistence on her riding rather than taking the family coach, Jane had caught a very convenient cold and, as Mrs. Bennet had planned, was forced to stay for several nights at Netherfi eld. Elizabeth, of course, had set out on foot to visit her, and Miss Bingley’s good manners had impelled her to offer hospitality to the unwelcome visitor until Miss Bennet recovered. Nearly a week spent in the company of Mr. Darcy must have enhanced Elizabeth’s hopes of success and she would have made the best of this enforced intimacy.

    Subsequently, at the urging of the youngest Bennet girls, Mr. Bingley had himself held a ball at Netherfi eld, and on this occasion Mr. Darcy had indeed danced with Elizabeth. The chaperones, ranged in their chairs against the wall, had raised their lorgnettes and, like the rest of the company, studied the pair carefully as they made their way down the line. Certainly there had been little conversation between them but the very fact that Mr. Darcy had actually asked Miss Elizabeth to dance and had not been refused was a matter for interest and speculation.

    The next stage in Elizabeth’s campaign was her visit, with Sir William Lucas and his daughter Maria, to Mr. and Mrs. Collins at Hunsford Parsonage. Normally this was surely an invitation which Miss Lizzy should have refused. What possible pleasure could any rational woman take in six weeks of Mr. Collins’s company? It was generally known that, before his acceptance by Miss Lucas, Miss Lizzy had been his fi rst choice of bride. Delicacy, apart from any other consideration, should have kept her away from Hunsford. But she had, of course, been aware that Lady Catherine de Bourgh was Mr. Collins’s neighbour and patroness, and that her nephew, Mr. Darcy, would almost certainly be at Rosings while the visitors were at the parsonage. Charlotte, who kept her mother informed of every detail of her married life, including the health of her cows, poultry and husband, had written subsequently to say that Mr. Darcy and his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, who was also visiting Rosings, had called at the parsonage frequently during Elizabeth’s stay and that Mr. Darcy on one occasion had visited without his cousin when Elizabeth had been on her own. Mrs. Collins was certain that this distinction must confirm that he was falling in love and wrote that, in her opinion, her friend would have taken either gentleman with alacrity had an offer been made; Miss Lizzy had however returned home with nothing settled.

    But at last all had come right when Mrs. Gardiner and her husband, who was Mrs. Bennet’s brother, had invited Elizabeth to accompany them on a summer tour of pleasure. It was to have been as far as the Lakes, but Mr. Gardiner’s business responsibilities had apparently dictated a more limited scheme and they would go no further north than Derbyshire. It was Kitty, the fourth Bennet daughter, who had conveyed this news, but no one in Meryton believed the excuse. A wealthy family who could afford to travel from London to Derbyshire could clearly extend the tour to the Lakes had they wished. It was obvious that Mrs. Gardiner, a partner in her favourite niece’s matrimonial scheme, had chosen Derbyshire because Mr. Darcy would be at Pemberley, and indeed the Gardiners and Elizabeth, who had no doubt enquired at the inn when the master of Pemberley would be at home, were actually visiting the house when Mr. Darcy returned. Naturally, as a matter of courtesy, the Gardiners were introduced and the party invited to dine at Pemberley, and if Miss Elizabeth had entertained any doubts about the wisdom of her scheme to secure Mr. Darcy, the first sight of Pemberley had confirmed her determination to fall in love with him at the first convenient moment. Subsequently he and his friend Mr. Bingley had returned to Netherfi eld Park and had lost no time in calling at Longbourn where the happiness of Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth was finally and triumphantly secured. The engagement, despite its brilliance, gave less pleasure than had Jane’s. Elizabeth had never been popular, indeed the more perceptive of the Meryton ladies occasionally suspected that Miss Lizzy was privately laughing at them. They also accused her of being sardonic, and although there was uncertainty about the meaning of the word, they knew that it was not a desirable quality in a woman, being one which gentlemen particularly disliked. Neighbours whose jealousy of such a triumph exceeded any satisfaction in the prospect of the union were able to console themselves by averring that Mr. Darcy’s pride and arrogance and his wife’s caustic wit would ensure that they lived together in the utmost misery for which even Pemberley and ten thousand a year could offer no consolation.

    Allowing for such formalities without which grand nuptials could hardly be valid, the taking of likenesses, the busyness of lawyers, the buying of new carriages and wedding clothes, the marriage of Miss Bennet to Mr. Bingley and Miss Elizabeth to Mr. Darcy took place on the same day at Longbourn church with surprisingly little delay. It would have been the happiest day of Mrs. Bennet’s life had she not been seized with palpitations during the service, brought on by fear that Mr. Darcy’s formidable aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, might appear in the church door to forbid the marriage, and it was not until after the final blessing that she could feel secure in her triumph.

    It is doubtful whether Mrs. Bennet missed the company of her second daughter, but her husband certainly did. Elizabeth had always been his favourite child. She had inherited his intelligence, something of his sharp wit, and his pleasure in the foibles and inconsistencies of their neighbours, and Longbourn House was a lonelier and less rational place without her company. Mr. Bennet was a clever and reading man whose library was both a refuge and the source of his happiest hours. He and Darcy rapidly came to the conclusion that they liked each other and thereafter, as is common with friends, accepted their different quirks of character as evidence of the other’s superior intellect. Mr. Bennet’s visits to Pemberley, frequently made when he was least expected, were chiefly spent in the library, one of the fi nest in private hands, from which it was difficult to extract him, even for meals. He visited the Bingleys at Highmarten less frequently since, apart from Jane’s excessive preoccupation with the comfort and well- being of her husband and children, which occasionally Mr. Bennet found irksome, there were few new books and periodicals to tempt him. Mr. Bingley’s money had originally come from trade. He had inherited no family library and had only thought of setting one up after his purchase of Highmarten House. In this project both Darcy and Mr. Bennet were very ready to assist. There are few activities so agreeable as spending a friend’s money to your own satisfaction and his benefit, and if the buyers were periodically tempted to extravagance, they comforted themselves with the thought that Bingley could afford it. Although the library shelves, designed to Darcy’s specification and approved by Mr. Bennet, were as yet by no means full, Bingley was able to take pride in the elegant arrangement of the volumes and the gleaming leather of the bindings, and occasionally even opened a book and was seen reading it when the season or the weather was unpropitious for hunting, fishing or shooting.

    Mrs. Bennet had only accompanied her husband to Pemberley on two occasions. She had been received by Mr. Darcy with kindness and forbearance but was too much in awe of her son by marriage to wish to repeat the experience. Indeed, Elizabeth suspected that her mother had greater pleasure in regaling her neighbours with the wonders of Pemberley, the size and beauty of the gardens, the grandeur of the house, the number of servants and the splendour of the dining table than she had in experiencing them. Neither Mr. Bennet nor his wife were frequent visitors of their grandchildren. Five daughters born in quick succession had left them with a lively memory of broken nights, screaming babies, a head nurse who complained constantly, and recalcitrant nursery maids. A preliminary inspection shortly after the birth of each grandchild confirmed the parents’ assertion that the child was remarkably handsome and already exhibiting a formidable intelligence, after which they were content to receive regular progress reports.

    Mrs. Bennet, greatly to her two elder daughters’ discomfort, had loudly proclaimed at the Netherfield ball that she expected Jane’s marriage to Mr. Bingley to throw her younger daughters in the way of other wealthy men, and to general surprise it was Mary who dutifully fulfilled this very natural maternal prophecy. No one expected Mary to marry. She was a compulsive reader but without discrimination or understanding, an assiduous practiser at the pianoforte but devoid of talent, and a frequent deliverer of platitudes which had neither wisdom nor wit. Certainly she never displayed any interest in the male sex. An assembly ball was a penance to be endured only because it offered an opportunity for her to take centre stage at the pianoforte and, by the judicious use of the sustaining pedal, to stun the audience into submission. But within two years of Jane’s marriage, Mary was the wife of the Reverend Theodore Hopkins, the rector of the parish adjacent to Highmarten.

    The Highmarten vicar had been indisposed and Mr. Hopkins had for three Sundays taken the services. He was a thin, melancholy bachelor, aged thirty-five, given to preaching sermons of inordinate length and complicated theology, and had therefore naturally acquired the reputation of being a very clever man, and although he could hardly be described as rich, he enjoyed a more than adequate private income in addition to his stipend. Mary, a guest at Highmarten on one of the Sundays on which he preached, was introduced to him by Jane at the church door after the service and immediately impressed him by her compliments on his discourse, her endorsement of the interpretation he had taken of the text, and such frequent references to the relevance of Fordyce’s sermons that Jane, anxious for her husband and herself to get away to their Sunday luncheon of cold meats and salad, invited him to dinner on the following day. Further invitations followed and within three months Mary became Mrs. Theodore Hopkins with as little public interest in the marriage as there had been display at the ceremony.

    One advantage to the parish was that the food at the vicarage notably improved. Mrs. Bennet had brought up her daughters to appreciate the importance of a good table in promoting domestic harmony and attracting male guests. Congregations hoped that the vicar’s wish to return promptly to conjugal felicity might shorten the services, but although his girth increased, the length of his sermons remained the same. The two settled down in perfect accord, except initially for Mary’s demand that she should have a book room of her own in which she could read in peace. This was acquired by converting the one good spare bedroom for her sole use, with the advantage of promoting domestic amity while making it impossible for them to invite their relations to stay.

    By the autumn of 1803, in which year Mrs. Bingley and Mrs. Darcy were celebrating six years of happy marriage, Mrs. Bennet had only one daughter, Kitty, for whom no husband had been found. Neither Mrs. Bennet nor Kitty was much concerned at the matrimonial failure. Kitty enjoyed the prestige and indulgence of being the only daughter at home, and with her regular visits to Jane, where she was a great favourite with the children, was enjoying a life that had never before been so satisfactory. The visits of Wickham and Lydia were hardly an advertisement for matrimony. They would arrive in boisterous good humour to be welcomed effusively by Mrs. Bennet, who always rejoiced to see her favourite daughter. But this initial goodwill soon degenerated into quarrels, recriminations and peevish complaints on the part of the visitors about their poverty and the stinginess of Elizabeth’s and Jane’s fi nancial support, so that Mrs. Bennet was as glad to see them leave as she was to welcome them back on their next visit. But she needed a daughter at home and Kitty, much improved in amiability and usefulness since Lydia’s departure, did very well. By 1803, therefore, Mrs. Bennet could be regarded as a happy woman so far as her nature allowed and had even been known to sit through a four-course dinner in the presence of Sir William and Lady Lucas without once referring to the iniquity of the entail.

    Customer Reviews
    Average Rating 3.5
    ( 182 )

    Rating Distribution

    If you've bought this product, tell the world how you liked it.
    Write a Review
    See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 183 Customer Reviews
    • Posted December 11, 2011

      James and Auten: You can't go wrong

      This was a terrific sequal and tells us what James thinks happened next. Add a mystery and you have a winner! I'm read most of James and all of Austen. In fact, have reread much of both. James captured the spirit of Austen with a Jamesian plot. One of the few books I have read cover to cover is almost one sitting.

      16 out of 17 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Posted December 7, 2011

      I Also Recommend:

      recommended.

      I've read many British mystery books by Phillis.James, so naturally had to get the next book. It did not disappoint!

      12 out of 15 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Posted December 21, 2011

      more from this reviewer

      Riddled With Errors

      It is a truth universally acknowledged that the writer of a sequel should carefully read the original. From the first paragraphs through the entire work, James gets her references to the events and especially the timeline of "Pride and Prejudice" wrong as often as right. She even managed to work a glaring error into a reference to "Emma"! It's disappointing that an author of James' caliber and stature would so carelessly and disrespectfully mangle another author's work.

      Without the constant irritation of these easily avoided errors, this mystery would have been a fairly amusing, if shallow, confection. As it stands, I can't recommend it to anyone who knows and loves their Austen.

      7 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Posted December 24, 2011

      Do not waste your time

      I love Austen. I bought this book because of a USA Today recommendation. I was very disappointed. I never liked James' mysteries, but I thought this might be ok. Wrong. There was no mystery to it...she came up with a villain out of the blue at the end ...no person could have "solved" this mystery.

      There is no passion and you would not want to get to know any of these characters.

      6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Posted December 20, 2011

      Disappointed.

      Honestly, I am very disappointed in this novel. This is my first time reading anything by PD James but I am unhappy. I LOVE Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favorite novels. I feel like Austen's novel was tainted. "Death comes to Pemberley" was confusing, dull, and tedious. The only positive thing I can say was of the storyline. The plot was interesting but it didn't materialize properly and was undeveloped. Also, Elizabeth, the main character in Pride and Prejudice barely existed in James's novel. The tone and manner of the novel was dull and hard to understand (I am an avid reader). It was disheartening to say the least! No wonder Austen didn't want anyone using her novels in any way for use after her passing.

      6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted December 2, 2011

      Cant wait!

      6 out of 24 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Posted December 25, 2011

      more from this reviewer

      EXCELLENT NARRATION

      With a dulcet mannerly voice Rosalyn Landor is the perfect actress to bring the writing of Jane Austen and P. D. James to life. Many will remember her for her television appearances in Rumpole of the Bailey and Sherlock Holmes in which she also so memorably captured the British sound. Her voice control is superb as she segues easily in conversations between Elizabeth and Jane - listeners have no doubt which sister is speaking. This is an extraordinary listening experience - do believe Jane Austen herself would approve.

      The story begins some time after the ending of Pride and Prejudice - long enough for Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet to become engaged, marry, have two children and seemingly have settled happily into life at Darcy¿s magnificent estate, Pemberley. The year is 1803, the eve of the grand Lady Anne¿s ball, and the Bingley¿s have come.

      Elizabeth is, of course, delighted to see her beloved sister, Jane, and the two are happily looking after final preparations for the ball when an unexpected visitor arrives - a carriage careens up the driveway carrying a woman who is screaming hysterically - none other than Lydia Bennet Wickham. She married a handsome rogue who was well paid to make a respectable woman of her. Now, her husband is soon discovered deep in the woodland, covered with blood, bending over the dead body of his dear friend, Captain Denny. Quite obviously, Denny has been viciously murdered (although we¿re treated to explanations from local medical experts), and Wickham is charged with the crime.

      There are many hidden secrets at Pemberley, including the life of Darcy¿s grandfather who built a cottage for himself in the woodland where he lived and died accompanied only by his faithful dog. Now, the only residents of the woodland are the Bidwell¿s, a family headed by a man who has served Pemberley with pride for many years.

      I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of Rosalyn Landor¿s narration.

      - Gail Cooke

      5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted December 23, 2011

      Not impressed!

      It was very difficult to finish this novel. I seriously doubt Jane Austen would of written Death comes to Pemberly as a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. I also found it disturbing that the author briefly linked Jane Austen's Persusion to this novel. I certainly hope this novel isn't made into a movie. It would be an insult to her literary fame.

      4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted January 22, 2012

      Pleasantly Surprised!

      Being a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice I was not expecting this to be as good as it was. It was a little predictable, but still entertaining. I only cringed once or twice when I felt like the author had misinterpreted the original.

      3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted February 5, 2012

      disappointing

      I typically avoid the many pride and prejudice inspired novels but gave this a try becausr I have liked other books by James. This was exremely disappointing. The author spends way too much time recapping the original novel and it continues throuh to the end, even in the epilogue. The plot is uninteresting and slow without any compelling mystery. Not worth a read.

      2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted January 18, 2012

      Complete waste of good reading time

      This book was extremely disappointing. 3/4 of this book is an overview of Pride and Prejudice without any substance of its own.
      It is a complete waste of good reading time!

      2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted December 27, 2011

      Loved

      I know the reviews have been so so......I can't say it was much of a mystery, but PD James writing style didn't disappoint and had me reading non stop.

      2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted December 11, 2011

      Jane Austin and P. D. James

      Since I am an avid Jane Autin fan, I had to have this book. It was delightful and had a good blend of Austin and James. Fun to read. James captured all the Pride and Prejudice characters. I think Jane Autin would be pleased. No apology needed by Ms. James.

      2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted February 14, 2012

      A Great Read! ~ But Beware...not a Romance!!!

      I am a reader of all things Austen and I truly enjoyed this novel. But beware - it's not nor was it intended to be a romance novel. Darcy and Elizabeth are a bit flat with each other, but this is about a murder mystery/trial NOT mushy stuff. It's sort of Sherlock Holmes meets Jane Austen. If that sounds good to you then you'll enjoy it!!! Want a good romance - Check out Echoes of Pemberley! Recommended below!

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted December 31, 2011

      Enjoyable L'homage to Austen

      --and a good mystery!

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Posted February 22, 2012

      Entertaining!

      I have read both good & bad reviews for this book.... but I have to say that once the story got going....I found it enjoyable!

      A good murder mystery, some courtroom drama and the final explanation was all finished completely. There was no wonder as to loose ends or forgotten explanations. Some reviewers thought that the murderer was pulled out of nowhere but I have to disagree. PD James tells you who the murderer was, why the murder happened and gives you much more that wraps up the storyline.

      I think this book was very well written. PD James is a wonderful author!

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted February 20, 2012

      Read this

      I never rwad this.....

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted February 19, 2012

      This is an ok book. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't felt like this was the type of book I would have been forced to ead in school.

      0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted February 16, 2012

      It was alright.

      Not the best, not the worst. Mediocre read.

      0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    • Anonymous

      Posted February 16, 2012

      Disappointing sequel

      Too much summary and little action. Very tedious detail. What happens to the child is the only creative success of the novel.

      Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
    See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 183 Customer Reviews

    If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
    Why is this product inappropriate?
    Comments (optional)
    500 character limit