The Ballad of Gregoire Darcy (66 page)

This novel captures the style and humor of Jane Austen's novel while turning the entire story upside down. It presents Darcy as a man in turmoil. His duty to his family and estate demand he choose a woman of high social standing. But what his mind tells him to do and what his heart knows to be true are two different things. After rejecting Elizabeth, he soon discovers he's in love with her. But the independent Elizabeth rejects his marriage proposal. Devastated, he must search his soul and transform himself into the man she can love and respect.

 

By changing the narrator to Mr. Darcy,
Darcy's Temptation
presents new plot twists and fresh insights into the characters' personalities and motivations. Four months into the new marriage, all seems well when Elizabeth discovers she's pregnant. However, a family conflict that requires Darcy's personal attention arises because of Georgiana's involvement with an activist abolitionist. On his return journey from a meeting to address this issue, a much greater danger arises. Darcy is attacked on the road and, when left helpless from his injuries, he finds himself in the care of another woman.

When Elizabeth Bennet marries Mr. Darcy, she's thrown into the exciting world of London society. Elizabeth is drawn into a powerful clique for which intrigue is the stuff of life and rivalry the motive. Her success, it seems, can only come at the expense of good relations with her husband.

Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy begin their married life blissfully, but it is not long before their tranquility is undermined by social enemies. Concern mounts with the sudden return of Elizabeth's sister Lydia. Alarming reports of seduction, blackmail and attempts to keep secret the news of another's confinement dampens even Elizabeth's high spirits.

 

 

Insightful and dramatic, this novel re-creates the original style, themes, and sardonic humor of Jane Austen's novel while turning the entire tale on its head in a most engaging fashion. Readers hear Captain Wentworth's side of this tangled story in the revelation of his thoughts and emotions.

MARSHA ALTMAN exists more as a philosophical concept than an atom-based structure existing within the rules of time and space as we know them. She is the author of four books set in Jane Austen's Regency England as well as the editor of an anthology of
Pride and Prejudice
– related fiction. When not writing, she studies Talmud and paints Tibetan ritual art, preferably not at the same time. She lives in New York, New York, and does not own any cats.

Copyright © 2011 Marsha Altman. Design © 2011 Ulysses Press and its

licensors. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

 

Published in the United States by
Ulysses Press
P.O. Box 3440
Berkeley, CA 94703
www.ulyssespress.com

 

eISBN : 978-1-569-75962-2

Library of Congress Catalog Number 2011922509

 

Acquisitions Editor: Keith Riegert

Managing Editor: Claire Chun

Editor: Kathy Kaiser

Proofreaders: Lee Micheaux, Lauren Harrison

Production: Judith Metzener

 

 

 

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