Indiscretions in the Life of an Heiress by Alison

Indiscretions is a prequel to Pride and Prejudice that, like most prequels, tells us about something we already know all about.  In this case, it’s George Wickham’s near-elopement with Georgiana Darcy, the incontrovertible proof of his villainy that (as we all know) is related in Darcy’s famous letter.

Why you should read this: It’s thoughtful, credible, well-written, well-characterized, incredibly well-researched, comments on canon without shoehorning irrelevant parts of it in, ignores fanon, and the whole thing is written in letters. That’s right:  it’s an awesome epistolary prequel. With footnotes.

Why you may not like it: Oddly, Indiscretions’ pros and cons are usually the same things.  It’s a prequel, so we all know pretty much everything that happens.  It’s written in letters, so it’s . . . written in letters, and you might not care for the style.  The research can be slightly overkill for people and it’s a WIP-that’s-not-in-progress.

Regency, Canon-Compliant, General, WIP at Firthness (requires password)

As far as I’m concerned, Indiscretions is everything that a prequel should be.

It turns the inevitability that so often dogs prequels into an advantage.  Our knowledge of the future turns every other letter into a DUM DA DUM moment.  It’s a bit like the storytelling equivalent of sitting at the movie theatre and trying not to scream NO NO HE’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU HE’S BEHIND YOU AND HE HAS A GUN!! Only, not a gun.

Sometimes, prequels try to deal with that inevitability by adding “new” plotlines.  We already know what’s going to happen, so let’s focus on all this comparatively irrelevant stuff that’s not constrained by the original plot!  I put “new” in scare quotes, because these plots tend to be mined from the original one, anyway.  In Ramsgate stories, for instance, Georgiana’s second thoughts about the elopement often come not because of any moral scruples of her own, not out of loyalty to her brother, but because Elizabeth randomly appears and shows her the error of her ways.

Indiscretions does nothing of the kind.  Elizabeth is not present in either person or spirit (“oh, if only I had a clever, confident older sister to guide me!”).  None of the Bennets are – we have no idea what’s happening with them, because they’re completely irrelevant to the story.  There are no cute cameos from other novels; none of the other heroines sweep in to save the day, either.  Indiscretions sets out to tell the story from Darcy’s letter – a story about Wickham, Georgiana, Darcy and Mrs Younge – and never sways from that.

The voices are not only accurate but rather fascinating, since all but (very debatably) Darcy are rarely heard outside of interchangeable fanon versions.  Here’s Alison’s Mrs Younge — more like a younger, poorer Lady Susan than the cipher of fanon — talking about Darcy:

 

There is exquisite pleasure in breaking a spirit such as his, which I could almost call noble were it not so rational. I should like to have him fathoms deep in love with me, I should like to spoil his confidence and lead him not into temptation but loathing. He would thoroughly hate himself for his misjudgement; it would be worth the sacrifice of time and the practice of a little artifice.

 

Here’s Wickham:

 

Old Mr Darcy truly was an excellent man, benevolent of temper and warm in his affections. This Darcy is a dull dog.

 

Mrs Younge, interestingly, is the more human of the two.  She’s manipulative, scheming, ruthless, and sadistic, but we’re given glimpses of a softer side that makes her connivance with Wickham all the worse:

 

Send me a cheerful line. It is weakness, I know, yet Miss Darcy’s pale and altered face haunts my thoughts.

 

Georgiana’s excruciating shyness is preserved without any attempt to rationalize it away, as is her reverence for her brother. However, she’s also passionate, creative, and sensitive, easy prey for the brilliant Mrs Younge and ingratiating Wickham.  Alison steers refreshingly clear of the usual victim-blaming we see with Georgiana.  There’s no hint that she has a weakness for bad boys, that she’s secretly rebellious, that she’s anything but a sweet, highly-strung girl whose (quite natural) trust in her childhood friend, and her own companion, is abused by a pair of unscrupulous con artists who isolate her from the people who genuinely care for her.

Of course, while an author has plenty of leeway with these three, it’s quite a different matter with Darcy.  He’s hedged about with layers of an elaborate and difficult canon characterization and a shallower, but at least as distinctive fanon one.  You might expect that she’d revert to the familiar with him — but she doesn’t, really.

Alison’s Darcy is as remote from the brooding, overwrought version of films and fanfic as her Georgiana is from the bouncy, willful teenager everybody wishes she was.  He’s at once austere and intense, his character dominated by a cool intelligence, fierce adherence to principles, deep rather than tumultuous loyalties, and all the self-command of a dozen nuns.  His letter to Wickham (Alison’s version of the “note” with which he canonically sent Wickham fleeing), written at the height of his fury, is a thing of beauty:

 

You have proved yourself beneath all contempt. There is no disgrace severe enough for you. I trust we will never meet again, in this world or the next.

 

The major weakness in the story is that, in common with most authors, Alison seems unwilling to accept Georgiana’s motivations for telling Darcy about the elopement.  We know from canon that when Darcy showed up at Ramsgate, Georgiana promptly told him everything, because she couldn’t bear to offend and disappoint him.  In Indiscretions, however, not only is Darcy’s appearance anything but chance — he’s there because another servant informed him of Mrs Younge’s perfidy — but Georgiana herself has already discovered that Wickham is a lying liar who lies.  Her choice to confide in her brother springs out of desperation rather than adoration and respect; it’s the only possible step she can take.

Her confession remains a powerful scene, however (the sensitive among you may wish to bring a handkerchief), only very slightly detracts from the overall strength of the story, and Indiscretions in the Life of an Heiress remains one of the best fics in the fandom, if not the best.  Besides, epistolary fic earns more than enough extra credit to make up for it.