Austenfans - The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy

The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy

by: Mary Street

Confession Of Fitzwilliam Darcy by Mary Street

Review by Linda Waldemar, September 11, 1999
First we had Darcy's Story (which I liked), then The Diary of Henry Fitzwilliam Darcy (which I did not like), now we get another author endeavoring to tell the story of Pride and Prejudice from Mr Darcy's point of view. This one, I think, is closer to the mark than the other two. The author does not include unaltered chunks of Austen's novel as did Janet Aylmer. Neither does she change characters nor add gratuitous thoughts unnecessarily as did Marjorie Fasman.
This novel takes place over the exact same time frame as P&P. The story is told by Darcy in the first person. Of course, we have different scenes because we follow Darcy instead of Elizabeth. Throughout, she follows Austen's story very closely. Her descriptions of Darcy's feelings are very plausible. There are only a couple of small instances near the end where I think that Mary Street contradicts Jane Austen. However, I concede that a case can be made that even these points are in line with the original.

I think that she does a very good job of telling this story. I would venture to say that it is almost as good as some of the stories at Bits of Ivory.

I love her ending, though I will not tell you what it is as I recommend that you read it for yourself.

Written by Vania (March 23, 2004 )
May I ask what makes The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy so successful for you (if you can remember the details)?
Personal taste, I think
1. Language - straight-forward, Mary Street didn't try too hard to sound like JA.
2. Plot - followed JA, the fillers for the time Darcy was away were very plausible
3. Darcy himself - firm, reserved, honorable, intelligent, decisive, but still flawed; his demeanor, the tone, reasoning of his thoughts were JA's Darcy, IMHO
4. Quality of the book itself - hardbound and unlike most books in this category, I only detected one typo (small cheer =)
5. A 'real' parallel story - The only new characters that I remember were Col. Fitzwilliam's brother (the Viscount) and his family who probably did exist in P&P and they weren't major players here either.
6. My favorite line, Darcy to Lady Catherine:
'No lady bearing the name of Mrs. Darcy will be censured, or slighted or despised, madam. Certainly not at your instigation. You are not so high you can browbeat me.' Gentleman to the rescue!
It's not the stuff of brilliance, but among the Darcy POV's it's still my favorite. You actually made me think of why I like it. 'An Assembly..' has the advantage in its details, however.

Written by Sharondio (5/21/2004 10:28a.m.)
"The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy" was a quietly delightful read. It stayed true to the events in the books and it endeavors most successfully to explain some of the actions of Mr. Darcy which have kept us occupied speculating about for some time.
That said, it was not nearly as entertaining as "An Assembly Such As This", which infused more personality into Mr. Darcy and let him indulge in other escapades amidst his introspections. Still, in some ways the gentle wit displayed by Ms. Street is more suited to a P&P sequel and more true to JA's own gentle handling of the topic.

I fully admit that I'm addicted to hearing more of Mr. Darcy's possible and probable emotions and reasoning for his actions. It is so fascinating to see what others suppose and their supporting logic.

Written by LynneRobson (5/21/2004 5:36 p.m.)
I loved this book as well, I thought it was a lot better than Darcy's Story and The Diary of Henry Fitzwilliam Darcy. To me the other two either lent too much on Pride and Prejudice passages and especially the diary was very childish as he never seemed to grow up in the book. He still seemed much of a child, a spoilt one at that, all through the book until the end.
I loved the author's wit in this book but was disappointed in the end where she did not take it through to the marriage and afterwards. I liked the bit in it about the Georgiana episode where he mentioned that she would have been a widow as soon as she had become a wife as he would have killed him and swung for it. Even the Lady Catherine episode is good as he well and truly puts her in her place.

Written by Sophie (4/10/2007 6:47 a.m.)
Yes, the ending is very cute. I have finished Mary Street's book, and I think that it's not bad (it did manage to keep my attention on the airplane, and I am extremely nervous and distracted on airplanes). I still prefer Pamela Aidan's trilogy because it is so detailed, but Mary Street's Darcy is different and interesting too.

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