Yes, there is another sequel to Pride & Prejudice, but not one of the most straightforward kind. Firstly it is written by the revered P.D. James and secondly it is not foremost concerned with what happened after Lydia, Elizabeth and Jane finally got married. Despite its subject, the death of Captain Denny who also featured in the original, it keeps an odd balance between Austen’s world and characters and the investigation of the murder in its timeframe.
As P.D. James is herself a fan of Austen, she has written her sequel with much respect for the three things that define a good Austen read: style, knowledge of the times and a world that is always smaller than one thinks at first sight. Although Death comes to Pemberley is a spin-off from P&P, other Austen characters feature as well: Mrs Reynolds happens to know Mrs Goddard, Harriet Martin’s (née Smith) ex headmistress and Mr and Mrs Knightley of Donwell Abbey (do we need to say, Emma), Mr Wickham once worked briefly for Mr Elliot whose daughter made an advantageous match with a sea captain who has now become a famous admiral (do we need to mention that this is Persuasion?). Maybe it is to be concluded that these happen to be P.D. James’s favourite Austen novels?
After a brief filling in about the past six years pretty much in an Austen tone of voice, in which Jane and Bingley have had three children (a boy and twin girls), bought an estate far away from Mrs Bennet and closer to the Darcys; in which Elizabeth and Darcy have had two boys; in which Lydia and Wickham still none; in which Mary Bennet made a divine match with a very boring curate who happened to find himself preaching boring long sermons to the congregation of Bingley’s estate of Highmarten; and in which Georgiana Darcy is, as it turns out, now being pursued by two suitors: Colonel Fitzwilliam on the one side and a Mr Alveston (a successful lawyer-and-impoverished-baronet friend to the Bingleys) on the other whom she clearly prefers; on the stormy night of the 14th of October 1803, the night before Lady Anne’s ball, the social occasion for Derbyshire, a chase comes riding down the road to Permberley at frightening speed so much so that Darcy cannot help asking what the hell the coachman is doing. The family run out to see what is up and who should get out but Lydia who screams they killed her husband? Of course indisposed, they take her upstairs, but a search party is organised by Darcy (who else?). Colonel Fitzwilliam briefly incriminates himself by having gone for a ride in the dark and returning shortly after the chase has arrived. Deep in the woodland they find Denny’s body and Wickham with a face smeared with blood saying that he killed his friend, his only friend and that it was his fault… To be sure, Wickham is a nasty creature, but is he really capable of murder? None of them believe so, but in the absence of a murder weapon and any other more plausible murderer, Wickham is the one, must be the killer.
Although James’s style does turn factual, it is not a surprise. A murder mystery is factual and it should remain so, but from time to time James seems to fondly return to an Austen tone. Governesses and nursery maids commenting on children’s progress and the Bingley sisters who let the Darcys stay with them because they want themselves to be seen with them is a quintessential Austen point of view. James did not abandon her own writing style and in that at least did not try to imitate to her own detriment.
She displays a good knowledge of the timeframe she is writing about. About servants and their feelings, discipline and ways, forms of address. When she mentions small details like Elizabeth walking along the corridor early in the morning and thinking that, even if she were to meet a maid, the latter would flatten herself against the wall and smile, she displays great knowledge that is to be respected. It is equally a funny detail that Stoughton, I believe, is cheesed off about using such good wax candles (the best) for examining Denny’s body in the gunroom. Indeed, candles were an expensive commodity and should the best bees’ wax candles really be used for such business rather than the ball?
But, what all Austen fans want to know is, ‘How did she do with all the characters?’ I am delighted to say, pretty well. James does admit that she has read and re-read this novel, but there are enough of such people who still cannot seem to understand the characters no matter how many times they read their favourite novel. James, however, makes a good stab at it. Only Elizabeth, I found, was a little lacking, although maybe we could not picture her as the natural, respectable and at ease mistress of a large house like Pemberley. Jane and Bingley regretfully did not make much of an appearance, but of course Elizabeth did and in the six years she has been married, she has calmed down quite a lot. Probably not surprising though, if we acknowledge that she was ‘not one-and-twenty’ when she was at Rosings and she should now be about 26 and mother to two boys, SPOILER ALERT and may we say about to bring a third Darcy into the world SPOILER OVER. People change a lot in those few years and certainly becoming a parent changes a woman profoundly, even if she is only 26. Lydia, on the other hand, forasmuch as she made an appearance still seems to be the very same…
Darcy has a remarkable inner life in this novel. Indeed, it is he and not his wife who has to deal with the business of the murder in his woodland and as such he has to face his demons: what happened to Georgiana and why he does not wish to talk about it. How he needs to confront himself with Wickham, someone who is never received at Pemberley and whom he would prefer to keep out of his life and mind forever. But as he is rich, he is compelled to help him, just as Bingley and Mr Gardiner: Wickham he is their brother or nephew and they have money. If they do not help him to escape the noose and the disgrace, then who will? With this, of course, Darcy can finally accept the past and deal with it. But the past is not only Wickham, it is also the heavy burden of duty. Reminiscent of the shock king Edward VIII’s abdication caused the English royal family, Darcy’s great grandfather forsook his duty and had a cottage built in the woodland which will prove essential to the plot. He went to live there alone with his dog, not even taking a servant to cook. When the dog got old and ill, he shot it and himself, asking to be buried with the dog. The estate has not crumbled, but Darcy is raised with that legend in mind and it hovers over his existence permanently and at some point explains why he does not regret marrying Elizabeth, but still thinks it was in spite of…
Mr Bennet also makes a brief appearance as well as Lady Catherine de Bourgh through a letter. They are both very faithful renderings of their originals and it is a shame Mr Bennet could not stay longer, with even Mrs Reynolds commenting that he is like a friendly ghost whom you never see but you miss when he is gone…
But now for criticism. I think James missed a chance. Since I finished the book I have been pondering over a possible part for Darcy or at least a possible incrimination for him. He could easily have had a motive to kill Wickham, he could easily have mistaken Denny for him in the dark, and it would have been great to try that, but it was not to be. Maybe James justly felt that a person like Darcy, or Colonel Fitzwilliam for that matter as well, would never be put on trial in the first place, whatever or whatever not their alibi. Fitzwilliam was briefly incriminated as he was suspiciously out on a night ride despite the storm, but that course of thought was quickly abandoned a few days later. However, I suppose Darcy could have challenged Wickham to a duel years before if he felt that was necessary… On the other hand we all know Darcy is not a killer, by no means, I can’t even see him shooting birds out of the sky (now that was missing in the novel ), but maybe James could have cast some doubt. Possibly she found that too obvious, though.
Be the aforementioned as it may, Death comes to Pemberley was worthy of Austen and her characters and, indeed, to be sure, upon my word, I daresay, and all that, it was by no means a novel sold because it is a sequel of P&P alone.