Death Comes to Pemberley - P.D. James

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.

Blurb taken from Goodreads.

*

Anybody who knows me knows how much I absolutely adore Pride and Prejudice. When I was a little girl, my mum had the BBC adaptation that we used to watch over and over again, and I fell in love with the story. It didn't take me long to read the novel, and since my teenage years, it had been my favourite book of all time.

I also am a huge fan of murder mysteries, so you'd think this would be the perfect book for me to get stuck into. However, I did have reservations about these beloved characters being manipulated and altered to fit the story of Death Comes to Pemberley, and I wasn't sure what to expect. 

I did enjoy the book, and I especially appreciated how the author made an effort to keep the tone and style of writing, although modern, in keeping with Austen's original narrative. However, I think it was too much of a huge task to fit these characters into a convincing murder mystery, and I'm not sure it was entirely successful. 

Enjoyable, but definitely with its limitations.

Rating: ✫✫✫

The Story

 

I was a little reluctant to start reading Death Comes to Pemberley, because I thought the original novel was so beautiful, and I didn't want that all to be washed away by this new take on it. However, there was a lot that I really loved about the book that really respected the source material.

The way the book is written is a classic example of this. I was fully prepared for short, sharp prose, as we normally anticipate from thriller or crime fiction. Yet this kept the long, fluid, descriptive writing that is more in keeping with Austen's style, and I felt comfortable reading it. It perfectly fitted in with the characters we know and love, and I loved the way it felt modern yet traditional. 

I also think the characters were in keeping with those I know from Pride and Prejudice. This was my biggest fear, because to make even the slightest change to one of these characters would be to change the meaning of Pride and Prejudice completely. I almost didn't trust P.D. James with these beloved characters, because I couldn't be sure they would be looked after.

SPOILER ALERT

And I think this is where the problem lies for me. To change the fundamental nature of any of Austen's creations would be doing the novel a disservice, and Death Comes to Pemberley would not be viewed as a success. Therefore, in order to write a murder mystery set in this world, entirely new characters had to be invented for it to work. They had to be responsible, or it just wouldn't work. Although we know George Wickham to be manipulative and selfish, to make him capable of murder is a huge step, and I think that would have been the wrong decision. Yet to create entirely new characters to centre the murder around made the whole setting of Pemberley feel a little pointless. It was brought in very neatly, and I did like a lot of the different elements of the story, but I think this was always going to be a tough job, and I'm not sure it was successful.

That being said, I really did enjoy getting some background on what Elizabeth and Darcy had been up to in the years that followed their wedding, and I think a lot of the fabrications made in Death Comes to Pemberley were right on the money. It all made sense to me, and I think those parts were done well.

The Verdict

Overall, I have a lot of mixed feelings about Death Comes to Pemberley, and I'm not sure all of it could have been improved with changes.

On the positive side, I think the writing kept the integrity of Pride and Prejudice intact, and the use of the characters were actually very good. I loved the little details about their interactions, the background that was filled in about their lives, and just generally reading about them again. It was really quite comforting.

However, to write a murder mystery about already established characters means either making some bold decisions, or skirting around the existing boundaries, and I'm not sure either choice would ever sit entirely right with me. I'm glad P.D. James opted for the latter, but then it just felt that Jane Austen's characters weren't centre-stage which, as a reader, I really wanted them to be.

It's an awkward one, because I'm not sure there would ever be a sure-fire fix. I did enjoy it, but it definitely wasn't a complete hit for me.