To help us understand the people they become later in the book, we begin with a multi part prologue which describes the influences which cause the characters of some of the principal protagonists and antagonists to form in the way they do.
After the extended prologue, there is a time jump to Rosings Park and Hunsford.
The reader can safely assume that up to that point the events in Jane Austen’s brilliant Pride & Prejudice have occurred as they did in canon, with all of the attendant pride and prejudice intact.
Darcy eventually makes his horrendous proposal and Lizzy rejects him soundly with an indignant and angry tongue-lashing. That is where the tale deviates from canon.
There are some things mentioned by Lizzy not in the original response to Darcy’s proposal. Of course, Darcy writes and delivers his letter.
Within the missive, there are some differences from the original.
Lady Catherine has genuine concerns for Anne de Bourgh as she is not long for the world.
The concerns are driven by an entail on Rosings Park (not to heirs male) which does not allow one who has no de Bourgh blood to own it.
Our mistress of Rosings Park faces an uncertain future because as far as she knows there are no de Bourghs of her late husband’s line left in the world.
Hence, she attempts to hide the truth of Anne’s failing health from her relatives to protect her position.
After reading the letter, Elizabeth still thinks that Mr Darcy is a proud, arrogant man who hurt her most beloved sister, but she at least knows he is honourable and did not do any of the things George Wickham accused him of.
The question is what will she do with the information?
After being unequivocally rejected, Darcy requests that his Fitzwilliam aunt and uncle keep Georgiana with them and makes for the one place in the world he feels most at peace: Pemberley.
Try as he may, he cannot expel Miss Elizabeth Bennet from his head or heart.
One day he is in the study, wishing that his parents were still alive to advise him about how he had gone so wrong in his life. In his frustration he hits the panelling on one wall in the study.
From the title and the cover you know what he discovers.
Who are the missives from? What do they tell him? How does he react to information which shocks him?
To answer all of these questions, and many more, read on dear reader. Read less
