Mistaking Her Character

Fans of "Pride and Prejudice" will devour this regency romance, which is a variation on aforementioned novel. Mr. Bennet is a doctor, and is hired by Lady Catherine DeBourgh to take care of her ailing daughter, Anne. Being a controlling person, Lady Catherine involves herself with everyone’s lives, including that of Elizabeth, the daughter of Mr. Bennet. When Darcy falls for Elizabeth, Lady Catherine does everything in her power to stop their relationship from blossoming. 

There were some changes from the original, and in particular Mr. Bennett’s personality. Here he is a unlikeable brute; a mean, horrible man. At the same time, he’s complex enough to be an interesting villain. Lady Catherine and Anne are both good villains too, both of them controlling and manipulative. Elizabeth goes through a lot of struggles, starting with the emotional abuse at the hands of her father, making her vastly different from the Lizzie the reader may know from "Pride and Prejudice". 

However, the twist on some of the character’s personalities shows how much characters' personalities craft a novel, and how different a book can be if just one is tampered with. Not all the changes are bad, but the reader is left to wonder what the book gains from turning the girls from sisters into stepsisters. Also, Elizabeth’s personality, while fitting that of an emotionally abused person, is a far stretch from her personality in the original. 

Majanka Verstraete