Of Time Gone By by Bekah

I probably read a dozen of my old favourite stories for this review, but as soon as I finished Of Time Gone By‘s first chapter, I knew I’d be reviewing it. I’m a little behind schedule, so let’s go forward without any further ado:

Why you should read it: It’s well-written, beyond the technical, it handles its subject matter sensitively, it develops naturally from its premise, it has lots of well-characterized drama and romance while remaining credible.

Why you might not like it: It’s not a minor what-if and does not closely adhere to the canon storyline; the use of Austen’s lines can be jarring; it suffers a bit from Lord of the Rings syndrome, with resolution after resolution after resolution. It both relies on and defies fanon, which could irritate both anti-fanon and pro-fanon folk.

Regency, AU, General, Complete at DWG

Of Time Gone By is, I feel, a story best understood as one that was produced very much within Austen fandom, at the same time that a lot of other stories were being written and posted. Re-reading it, I was constantly reminded of different fics—usually to this one’s credit—so I’ll be talking about Of Time Gone By at least somewhat in the context of other stories I’ve reviewed.

I’ve given five quills to two other stories, both of which I admired for diverging from fandom convention. Both Alison’s Indiscretions in the Life of an Heiress and tree’s Hearing Light avoid the things that are done so badly in so many fics: violence, melodrama, miscommunication, gimmicks, altered characterization, and fanon in general. The subject of my one four-quill review, Kent’s London Outskirts, uses a number of these things, but exaggerates them to the point of comedy. Of Time Gone By, however, neither caricatures nor avoids the popular tropes, but instead, aims to use them well.

The fic is predicated upon a single point of departure; Darcy contracts “brain fever” (identified by the author as meningitis) as a small child, and though he miraculously survives, he loses his hearing. Given the place and time in which he lives, his personality and relationships are dramatically altered, though never to the point that he and they are completely unrecognizable.

For instance, Georgiana seems to be Darcy’s chief companion (although he retains his canon friendships with Colonel Fitzwilliam and Bingley). She aids, supports, and to some degree, protects him, and as a consequence, the prejudice directed his way often extends to her. She’s become stronger-willed and more confident than in canon, and stands on a more equal footing with him—if anything, what imbalance that exists skews her way. Nevertheless, she’s not written as “stronger” in the way Georgiana often is—completely reinvented to appeal to modern ideas of what Darcy’s teenage sister should be, rather than what Georgiana herself is like. Bekah’s Georgiana is neither rebellious, like many fanfic Georgianas, nor a friendly, unabashed shipper like in many adaptations (see the 2005 Pride and Prejudice and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries). Her shyness has been crushed into mere reserve, but she remains withdrawn, highly-strung, slightly paranoid, and easy to misread.

I want to clarify that Of Time Gone By is not what’s called issuefic, stories that, in taking on some social issue, becomes little more than a preachy lesson about the issue—the fanfic version of Captain Planet, but without the fun superpowers. I’m not going to say the fic is not about Darcy being deaf, because—it is. However, it’s not about deafness. Neither is Darcy’s disability a mere gimmick to set off the AU, but either ignored, treated as a personality flaw, or magically overcome when it ceased to be convenient for the plot. In, for instance, Mortie’s Fudge, Darcy’s disability is very strongly marked in the first part of the story and the focus of Elizabeth’s dislike. He wins her heart by better concealing his mental disorder, and it disappears as an issue for either of them.

By contrast, in Of Time Gone By, Darcy’s deafness is in no way a flaw; the suffering he experiences is overwhelmingly the result of others’ bigotry, and his worst mistake is internalizing that bigotry in a way that harms Elizabeth as well as himself. He can read lips, sign, and speak, but these do not negate his deafness. His Georgian-era fellows are offended that he stares at their mouths; his hands get tired and inflamed from constantly writing and signing; he stammers when he speaks, and is extremely self-conscious about doing so. In regard to his stammer, Bekah walks a very fine line between accuracy and narrative ease, and I think does so very successfully. Darcy speaks more and more frequently through the story, but his stammer never goes away, or even diminishes at all; it’s written into his spoken dialogue, but lightly enough that it’s not distracting to read. Ultimately, the story is about how Darcy’s deafness affects him, the people around him (mostly Georgiana and Elizabeth), and simply the plot, but I would never refer to it as “the deaf fic.”

A few other points:

• You may have noticed that I haven’t talked about spelling and grammar, as I often do. That’s because there is nothing to say; they’re both thankfully unremarkable.
• On a slightly higher level, the writing is not merely solid, but compelling. It doesn’t try too hard to be Regency, nor feel inappropriately modern. Bekah does re-use a number of Austen lines, which sometimes fits and sometimes feels a bit out of place, but not enough to significantly reduce my enjoyment or admiration of the story.
• There is highly dramatic violence (warned for and set off by asterisks, even), but it not only seems unfortunately credible, it’s carefully prepared for—foreshadowed to Antarctica and back, but it still manages to be shocking.
• A popular fanon theory is casually included, to surprisingly good effect (and the usual rebuttal acknowledged).
• Speaking of fanon: we do see some of it, both trivial (Darcy’s uncle the earl is “Lord Matlock”) and more significant (Lord and Lady Matlock are “the nice ones” when it comes to Darcy’s relations, Lady Catherine is a horrible human being). As with other popular tropes, however, these are explored in more nuanced ways; the kindly Matlocks do not instantly welcome Elizabeth into the bosom of their family, Lady Catherine was very close to her sister, and expectations of her are repeatedly subverted.
• It’s very, very long, and is paced in such a way that different problems are resolved at different points—what I mentioned as the Lord of the Rings syndrome in why-you-might-not-like-it. At one point, I actually said aloud, “There’s another section, seriously?” This is not at all unusual for Austen fics, but whereas in most, it feels like the author is simply unable to let go, here important aspects of the story were still winding up. Your mileage may vary on how well it works; I don’t think it seriously detracted.

 

In the end, I am very, very happy to unreservedly recommend this fic on virtually every level: spelling and grammar, quality of prose, characterization, plot, actually dealing with the issue it brings up in a way that is neither boring nor offensive, fidelity to canon while still varying from canon, and just being a really enjoyable story. It easily earns five quills.