The Darcys Give a Ball by Elizabeth Newark

While Jane and Lizzie plan a lavish ball at Pemberley, the Darcys' second son falls in love with the Collins' daughter, first-born Juliet Darcy is almost lured into an elopement, and Georgiana's timid daughter Lucy is the new target of Miss Caroline Bingley's meddling.


The Darcys Give a Ball is a charming and very amusing imagining of the next generation of Jane Austen's beloved characters from Pride and Prejudice and other novels, where all the young people come together for a surprising and altogether satisfying ending. Sons and daughters share the physical and personality traits of their parents, but of course have minds of their own, and as Lizzie says to Jane: "The romantic attachments of one's children are a constant distraction."

As usual I picked this one up with a mix of great expectations and dread. The first because it is always nice to revisit the characters of our favourite stories, and the second because sometimes these sequels totally ruin them. Although that doesn't happen here I guess it's more because this novel is more about the Collins family than Elizabeth and Darcy.

The story takes place about twenty five years after the end of Pride and Prejudice. The Darcys, the Bingleys and the Collinses - not to mention the Brandons, the Wentworths and other Austen characters - now have adult children who are making their way into society.

The beginning of the story tells us about the life Charlotte Lucas has been leading since she married Mr. Collins. She produced a number of children, has made the best of her situation and has kept in touch with Elizabeth Darcy although they are not regular visitors of each other’s house for obvious reasons.

When an invitation arrives for a ball at Pemberley, Charlotte is naturally ecstatic for this opportunity to revisit an old friend and Mr. Collins is even more so. Never having been invited before this seems like a dream come true but unfortunately an illness prevents him from attending. That's how Charlotte finds herself a guest at Pemberley with her two children - Jonathon and Eliza. The two youngest Collins are the main characters of this story, at Pemberley they meet Elizabeth's offspring, namely her son William and her daughter Juliet. Eliza and William immediately strike up a friendship but Juliet seems, sadly, like a really disagreeable young girl.

The second half of the story is about the ball and all the events surrounding it. The guests include a lot more Austenesque characters but we don't really get to know them well as the plot centers around the Collins and Darcy children and their romantic attachments. It's a light and fun read perfect to spend an afternoon with!

Grade: 4/5

Jane Eyre's Daughter by Elizabeth Newark

In this sequel to Jane Eyre, young Janet Rochester is consigned to Highcrest Manor and the guardianship of the strict Colonel Dent while her parents journey to the West Indies. As she struggles to make a life for herself guided by their ideals, she is caught up in the mysteries of Highcrest.

Why is the East Wing forbidden to her? What lies behind locked gates? And what is the source of the voices she hears in the night? Can she trust the enigmatic Roderick Landless or should she transfer her allegiance to the suave and charming Sir Hugo Calendar?

Riding her mare on the Yorkshire moors, holding her own with Colonel Dent, or waltzing at her first ball, Janet is a strong and sympathetic character, and like her mother, she will need all her courage ...

Since I recently watched two Jane Eyre adaptations and reread Jane Eyre last year I couldn't resist picking this one to read. Although this is a sequel to Jane Eyre the truth is that Jane and Rochester only appear in the first and last chapters of the book and I found that that was a good thing. Too often I've been disappointed by sequels where the characters I already knew did not seem to behave as in the original book. By keeping them out of sight Newark gave me a chance to appreciate it more because I couldn't quite believe in her Jane and Rochester as the characters of Charlotte Bronte's novel.

Janet Rochester is the daughter of Jane and Rochester. She admires her mother and has a deep love for her father. When she is about sixteen her parents decide to send her to a school while they travel to Jamaica to oversee the lands that Rochester has inherited from his first wife. She will finish her education and, if the family hasn't returned yet, afterwards she will stay with the widower Colonel Dent, one of her guardians.

Janet is a very introspective girl and we get to know her pretty well as the book is told in the first person. After finishing school which she didn't much enjoy except for the friends she made there, Janet goes to live at Highcrest with Colonel Dent. The she meets Mr. Landless, an enigmatic young man which reminds her of her father, and meets again the Calendars, a brother and sister she had first met in London and that have rented Thornfield Hall from her parents.

Highcrest is a dark and mysterious house, Colonel Dent is an old gentleman set in his ways about what is proper or not and he definitely feels that Janet's ways are not as genteel as they should be. Not only that but Janet soon realises that part of the house is closed to her and that all the servants are family or at least come from the area and the Colonel doesn't want outsiders joining the household. Of course Janet is determined to find out what's behind the closed doors...

I did find this Jane Eyre's Daughter an engaging novel. I read it in one sitting actually... There were many similarities between this story and the original Jane Eyre, more than you usually find in sequels I felt, and the one big complaint that I have is, as I mentioned previously, that the original characters, especially Jane, did not ring true. But I did like Janet a lot and I was happy to follow her on her adventures and to unravel all the mysteries regarding Colonel Dent, Mr. Landless and the Calendars. I liked Janet's confrontations with the Colonel and her interaction with both Landless and Calendar, not sure that I did buy Sir Hugo's motivations though.

I did like the story as the gothic novel that it is but, considering my doubts about Jane and Rochester, maybe not so much as a Jane Eyre sequel.

Grade: 4/5