An Arranged Marriage by Jan H

Elizabeth’s father dies shortly after Darcy’s proposal at Hunsford.  In order to save her family from poverty she agrees to marry Mr. Darcy, however her opinion of him has not improved since his first proposal.  This is the story of how she comes to know him and fall in love with him.

Why you should read this: The writing is quite good and this is a cut above most full-length JAFF stories.

Why you might not like it: The characterization of Elizabeth is a bit off.  The story falls into some of the Victorian moral clichés often found in JAFF.

Regency, AU (what if), PG-13, at #DWG#

I believe I should start this first review with a disclaimer, Jan H. is my opinion one of the better JAFF authors.  I find her writing to be of a higher quality than most other JAFF writers, and I value high quality writing above all else when reading.  I wanted to start this off with a mostly positive review, however…

While the quality of the writing itself is of the high quality I remember from Jan H., the story begins with a serious character issue and some confusion about Regency vs. Victorian morals.  As the title indicates, this story concerns an arranged marriage between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy.  It is somewhat like a forced marriage scenario, however in this case, both parties agree to the marriage, even if Elizabeth is not at all enthusiastic about the match.  It plays out like a forced marriage scenario, though fortunately without the overused “comprising” of a character.

Elizabeth, although having read Mr. Darcy’s letter, knowing about Wickham, still carries the same level of animosity towards him as she does at the time of the proposal.  I find this to be extremely out of character, in the novel she begins to reexamine her feelings immediately after reading the letter: “‘How despicably have I acted!… But vanity, not love, has been my folly…. Till this moment, I never knew myself.’”(P&P, ch. 36)  I find it difficult to believe that Elizabeth would continue to act this manner after that self-revelation.  I can forgive some of her poor behavior because she is still mourning her father, but most of it seems out of character.  If she had not yet read the letter before the story takes place, I would find her behavior to be entirely in character.  She behaves like a pre-Hunsford, pre-letter Elizabeth, yet she is not.

Elizabeth is also at times impossibly naïve, for example she is surprised when she opens a door in her bedroom to find it connects to Darcy’s bedroom.  I don’t attribute this as much to the characterization issues mentioned above as to the Regency/Victorian issues.  It seems unlikely that a gentleman’s daughter, even one who spent virtually her entire life in the countryside would not expect to have a bedroom adjoining her husband’s.

Darcy is generally written much more in character.  He is patient and kind, doing things quietly without taking credit.  However he does occasionally veer off, once declaring in a very Rhett Butleresque fashion, “If you think a lock will keep me from your room, you are mistaken. When I decide to enter, there is no lock made that will keep me out.”  For the most part though, he stays in character and well-written.

The quality of writing is generally quite good, but it does occasionally slip into a clichéd and overwrought style: “Way down deep within, though, and even hidden at the time from my own acknowledgement, there was another reason for this marriage, a reason I was not yet able to put into words, to envision, or admit to myself. Something in me wanted to know Mr. Darcy in his entirety, to put to rest my curiosity excited by his intriguing masculinity. I wanted to understand why my senses quickened in his presence, why I felt every part of life more keenly around him, and what it was that made him want to marry me.” (AAM, ch. 2)  That sounds like something out of a cheap romance novel.  However most of the writing is much better.  The author’s main weakness seems to be when writing of romantic feelings.  There is also a disturbing subplot about Georgiana and Col. Fitzwilliam, but I’d rather not go into it or think about it.

This was probably one of the first full length JAFF stories I read, and my rereading of it has not lived up to my memory of the quality.  I’ve found some of the storyline to be clichéd, however as this was written in 2004 at the latest, perhaps it was not at the time of writing a clichéd plot.  My knowledge of the history of JAFF is extremely limited and I can only guess by dates who has influenced who.