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2.96 AVERAGE
2.96 AVERAGE
What a disappointment--somebody at Knopf should give up their job, as they clearly don't want to do it. I asked for Death Comes to Pemberly as a Christmas gift because I have long enjoyed both James and Austen. It's so poorly edited that I wanted to throw it across the room. The backstory was so clumsily inserted. The characters say things no one (not just not Darcy and Elizabeth)would ever say. The servants deliver pedantic lectures to all and sundry. I'm not great at solving whodunits, but with so many of the clues written in neon, I got within inches of the right answer within the first 60 pages. Save yourself some frustration and read an old PD James mystery instead.
I wish I could say I loved this book. I am a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice so this book really interested me. Then, I started reading it.
The first few chapters are all rehashes of what happened in Pride and Prejudice. A complete yawner since it stripped it all down to "this happened and then this person did this" which took the fun out of the book at the beginning. If you read this and haven't read P&P then too bad. Why the rehash of that book when obviously the fans will be reading this book? It made little sense since it stripped the story of P&P of any interest in the rehash.
The second thing I hated was it stripped all the wit out of the characters. They were boring and cardboard in personality. They did a lot of talking about things and wondering about things but little real interacting or being who they were. If you are going to draw on literary characters that already exist do not take their personalities and strip them down to cutouts. It makes them boring.
The murder mystery in itself was bland. I really didn't care who killed the character in the book and kept wishing they would just get on with the story and get that over with since the characters were so dull.
I definitely had a struggle getting through this book and felt like I got little joy from reading it.
The first few chapters are all rehashes of what happened in Pride and Prejudice. A complete yawner since it stripped it all down to "this happened and then this person did this" which took the fun out of the book at the beginning. If you read this and haven't read P&P then too bad. Why the rehash of that book when obviously the fans will be reading this book? It made little sense since it stripped the story of P&P of any interest in the rehash.
The second thing I hated was it stripped all the wit out of the characters. They were boring and cardboard in personality. They did a lot of talking about things and wondering about things but little real interacting or being who they were. If you are going to draw on literary characters that already exist do not take their personalities and strip them down to cutouts. It makes them boring.
The murder mystery in itself was bland. I really didn't care who killed the character in the book and kept wishing they would just get on with the story and get that over with since the characters were so dull.
I definitely had a struggle getting through this book and felt like I got little joy from reading it.
What could be more fun than P.D. James and Jane Austin? This is the best attempt to write a sequel to Pride and Prejudice that I have read. A treat!
Death Comes to Pemberley was a clever idea that was thoroughly satisfactory in execution. P.D. James successfully picks up the story strands of Pride and Prejudice, and brings the reader up to date with the doings of Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, the Bingleys, and the dastardly Wickham.
A fun read, but will only hold the attention of the most ardent Austen fans.
A fun read, but will only hold the attention of the most ardent Austen fans.
I have read better fanfictions and they respected the original work way more.
Elizabeth is just a woman named Elizabeth, who loves her husband and her sister. She is a shadow of her original character. She is not witty nor bold. Okay she grew 6 years older but she is just bland. And it applies to all characters. Some even did a 180, they just changed so much, you would not recognise them. They did not deserve that, even Mrs Younge, the "personification of evil" according to Mr Darcy.
Apart from the main intrigue (Denny's murder), the main conflicts are all from the original Pride and Prejudice, events that should have happened more than 6 years ago if we follow the timeline. It's like time stopped for 6 years (except that they all have kids and that Colonel Fitzwilliam's older brother conveniently died).
Elizabeth is just a woman named Elizabeth, who loves her husband and her sister. She is a shadow of her original character. She is not witty nor bold. Okay she grew 6 years older but she is just bland. And it applies to all characters. Some even did a 180, they just changed so much, you would not recognise them. They did not deserve that, even Mrs Younge, the "personification of evil" according to Mr Darcy.
Apart from the main intrigue (Denny's murder), the main conflicts are all from the original Pride and Prejudice, events that should have happened more than 6 years ago if we follow the timeline. It's like time stopped for 6 years (except that they all have kids and that Colonel Fitzwilliam's older brother conveniently died).
Big fat "EH!" I love the original Pride and Prejudice and, while not a fan of PD James mysteries, I was intrigued. And bored. No depth of character, terrible explanation of the mystery. And in my heart of hearts, I'm still waiting for a horse to run over Lydia.
Having recently watched the BBC and the 2005 versions of Pride and Prejudice before reading the original by Jane Austen, I was rather looking forward to this book. Reading about it in various magazines and newspapers and constantly seeing it everywhere made me even more incline to purchase it, but upon finishing it, the only remark I can make is that it was particularly insipid.
The mystery in itself is perfectly tasteless, with no sense of suspense or, indeed, mystery. There is no wonder about what happened and how it happened, no clues left behind for the reader to try and put together, it is all too detached from the final explanation that will only be found in the last part of the book, therefore making for a very boring read.
The original characters were somewhat dampened by James’ fondness of them, and it isn’t rare to have to put up with the author’s often unwelcome or particularly obvious take on the original manuscript. I was disappointed to see so much reliance on and reference to Austen’s work only for P.D. James to try and voice her views on the events that took place in the original work – opinions that are often unwanted and disruptive, merely exposing James’ feelings about Pride and Prejudice rather than improving her own story.
While I enjoyed the first part of the book, the description made and the reminders of the context, it soon became tedious, especially as the mystery unfolds particularly slowly and unefficiently. It was a pain to have to put up with so much of a book for the sole satisfaction of reading the explanation of the mystery at the very end of it – a muddled and disappointing explanation that seemed botched and uninteresting, not to mention barely related to the actual crime.
The very end of the book also annoyed me, conveying all the crap that is generally found in YA literature, only condensed and insipid, as if only to make sure every reader would be kept happy by the addition of one last romantic bit and a happy ending. It was tactless, devoid of any passion and the main characters just vomit old feelings that hadn’t been discussed in Pride and Prejudice (probably for all the righ reasons) but that the author felt she needed to voice before topping her story with a little bit of happy mums-to-be and couples-to-be-married.
All in all, a disappointing read. I felt that there were numerous historical and linguistic incoherences, and the tasteless and boring «mystery» does not deserve such a title. It will annoy Austen’s fans and disappoint mystery lovers.
The mystery in itself is perfectly tasteless, with no sense of suspense or, indeed, mystery. There is no wonder about what happened and how it happened, no clues left behind for the reader to try and put together, it is all too detached from the final explanation that will only be found in the last part of the book, therefore making for a very boring read.
The original characters were somewhat dampened by James’ fondness of them, and it isn’t rare to have to put up with the author’s often unwelcome or particularly obvious take on the original manuscript. I was disappointed to see so much reliance on and reference to Austen’s work only for P.D. James to try and voice her views on the events that took place in the original work – opinions that are often unwanted and disruptive, merely exposing James’ feelings about Pride and Prejudice rather than improving her own story.
While I enjoyed the first part of the book, the description made and the reminders of the context, it soon became tedious, especially as the mystery unfolds particularly slowly and unefficiently. It was a pain to have to put up with so much of a book for the sole satisfaction of reading the explanation of the mystery at the very end of it – a muddled and disappointing explanation that seemed botched and uninteresting, not to mention barely related to the actual crime.
The very end of the book also annoyed me, conveying all the crap that is generally found in YA literature, only condensed and insipid, as if only to make sure every reader would be kept happy by the addition of one last romantic bit and a happy ending. It was tactless, devoid of any passion and the main characters just vomit old feelings that hadn’t been discussed in Pride and Prejudice (probably for all the righ reasons) but that the author felt she needed to voice before topping her story with a little bit of happy mums-to-be and couples-to-be-married.
All in all, a disappointing read. I felt that there were numerous historical and linguistic incoherences, and the tasteless and boring «mystery» does not deserve such a title. It will annoy Austen’s fans and disappoint mystery lovers.
PD James was obviously a fan of Jane Austen - it is generally noted in the writing style she uses for this book and the care she takes in maintaining the integrity of the characters. As one Austen fan to another, I can appreciate that. However, in the foreword, James herself notes that Austen probably would think this book unnecessary and I agree. The beginning and end of the book are fine and read as James's fanfic of what life in like six years after the events of Pride and Prejudice, with a couple nods to characters from Emma and Persuasion. However, this is a mystery novel and the mystery is just blah. It centers around Wickham, who no one cares about anyway and most of the action takes place in the courtroom, where most of the characters are not even present. This made the whole thing a bit of a slog.
Worth the second read as major parts of the plot differed from PBS Masterpiece movie. It was helpful to remember James's original ending.
medium-paced
This book is more a Pride and Prejudice tribute than a mystery. I enjoyed it, but the mystery aspect took a backseat to telling the next chapter of the Darcys.