Searching for Pemberley

by Mary Lydon Simonsen

Book Overview

While visiting Montclair, an 18th Century Georgian country house located in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England, Maggie Joyce, a 22-year old American living in postwar London, is told that the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1402224397
• ISBN13: 9781402224393
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
• Length: 473 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful and full of information

I just finished this book and I absolutely loved it. It reads much more like a real life story and puts Elizabeth and Darcy and the relatives into better perspective. It helped put all the other sequels I have read into perspective as well. I found the book great fun and couldn't put it down.

Better than Ever

Searching for Pemberley is a historical romance of complexity and depth, with skillfully layered characters that readers will remember for a long time. Author Mary Simonsen intricately weaves multiple timelines of British history - the Regency era and both World Wars - while exploring three different historical romances. The first is the courtship of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Narrator Maggie Joyce, a young American living in post-World War II England, visits a Regency-era home that may have been the inspiration for the stately home of Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's famous novel. Maggie's interest in the family who may have inspired Austen's timeless book Pride and Prejudice blossoms into an enduring friendship with the British couple who have kept and catalogued the family letters and diaries. Through these historical documents, readers are treated to a retelling of the P & P story, with characters and events just different enough from the Austen novel to keep things interesting. Soon, however, we become immersed in the story of the British couple themselves, Beth and Jack Crowell. Beth is a descendent of the Darcy family (here named Lacey) and Jack is the son of her family's butler. Their class-breaking romance is set against the back-drop of World War I, when a generation of young Englishmen were killed, maimed, or emotionally-scarred by the horrors of war. Add to this a burgeoning love triangle between the narrator herself and two servicemen - a dashing American flyer and a sergeant in the Royal Air Force who may be a descendant of the original Mr. Darcy - and the result is a truly wonderful romantic novel. I read the original, self-published version of this novel, Pemberley Remembered, and enjoyed it very much. This newer, enriched version, published by Sourcebooks in December 2009, is superior, however, in that it weaves multiple layers of history and romance into a compelling tale and satisfactorily wraps up a narrative that was left open-ended in the original book. Simonsen has created characters who tug at your heart and skillfully paints an emotional picture of the devastation of war. When Jack Crowell, who lost a brother and two brothers-in-law in the first war, reacts to the news that his younger son has been assigned to combat in Burma, I was reduced to tears. However, there were also plenty of joyful and truly funny moments, such as a diary entry in which "Mrs. Bennet" gives advice on the marriage bed to her daughters and a humorous retelling of eldest Crowell son facing a "privacy hole" cut into the bedcovers on his wedding night in Italy. As the focus of the book gradually shifts from the distant romance of Pride and Prejudice fame to the life-changing decisions of young Maggie Joyce, readers will find themselves swept along on a rich backdrop of history and personable, enduring characters. Dianne Salerni Reviewed for PODBRAM

Better Than Better

Searching for Pemberley is of a quality far above and beyond that of many Austenesques I have read. It is well written, fascinating, and charming. Wondering and speculating about the life experience of others - those who live in other places, or in other times than one's own, is part of today's fascination with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Many later authors have tried, with varying degrees of success, to write prequels, sequels, and spin-offs of JA's works. Beyond attempting to approximate her finely drawn characters, delicious language and humor and legendary plots, they must reach far outside of their own experience in order to create work that will resonate with the historical, political, and social realities of the times and places in Jane Austen's novels. Their success is rarely, if ever, complete. Thankfully, and to our great benefit, this author does not even go there. Or at least, barely goes there! The product description will tell you that this is a story which takes place in the first half of the 20th century -mostly in post-war England in the late 1940's. The protagonist struggles with love and life while she follows the breadcrumbs that just might lead her to the truth about the people JA wrote about in P & P. Reading Searching for Pemberley was as if I were reading the diaries of my own nearest forebears - or at least their contemporaries, during the First and Second World Wars and their aftermath. In other words, it felt intensely personal and rich with detailed information from an experiential point of view. I saw the years just preceding my own experience through the eyes of those who lived them. Occasionally these fascinating glimpses into the life and times of the characters so predominates as to somewhat eclipse the interpersonal stuff we must presume is going on. Still, the layered and overlapping love stories, Maggie's confusion and choices and those of the men in her life and the gradual revelation of P & P and its background stories, kept my romantic appetite well-pleased - if a little anxious - which is how it should be. I was very happy that although frank about her sexual experience, our protagonist did not feel the need to describe it at length. I have nothing against a good love scene. It is just that I have read far too many among the Austenesques of late! Searching for Pemberley is one of the best written and researched novels I have read among the Austenesques - indeed in any genre, in recent years. All else being said (at least for the moment); I have two unanswered or inadequately answered questions which distracted me somewhat during the reading of Searching for Pemberley. First, why would the Crowells, who have presumably experienced the curiosity of a great many people, suddenly decide to confide in Maggie? I have a hunch they are attracted to her because she is the same age their daughter would have been, had she lived, but there is not enough in the book to get us there. The other possibility is t

Great twist on the P & P story

The book is not a direct retelling of P & P but uses the book as a back drop for the love story between Maggie, Rob and Michael. It is set post WWII and follows the "real" family history that the JA novel was based upon. It is a compelling read and keeps you interested. The other reviews gave detailed descriptions of the plot that I will not recreate here, but they are accurate. I would recommend this book to anyone who wished to read JA inspired romances, rated PG. I want to know what happens to the characters and am hoping for a sequel.

The History of Pemberley

On a trip to England, after World War II, an American woman, Maggie James, sets out to investigate a rumor concerning Jane Austen's writing of literature's famous Pride and Prejudice. The history of Pemberley begins to open as she meets the residents of a beautiful stately mansion in the countryside. Was this the actual home of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy? Through reading a series of old documents, Maggie begins to unravel the history and personalities behind one of the most beloved romances in literature. The author's writing flows with ease from page to page, making it an easy, fast read. It's a story that brings new insight, meaning, and possibilities to an old favorite that is sure to fascinate Austen fans.