Review: Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape by Marsha Altman

Source: Review copy from Sourcebooks
Rating: ★★★☆☆

“Sadly, I think this is neither the time nor the — ow — place,” Darcy said as Elizabeth tried to attend to his wound again.  “It’s just one of your mother’s tirades, sadly.”

“Is that what they are to you, nephew?”

All turned, collectively horrified, at the entrance of Lady Catherine de Bourgh.  She strutted about as if nothing was amiss, not even Darcy’s red and swollen face.  “Well?  Why do you all stand about in such a silly manner?  Darcy, I must speak with you at once!”

“I’ve no doubt,” Darcy said.  “But as I have no desire to speak with you, we are in a conundrum.  In fact, I cannot think of a person in this room who, knowing your designs, would wish to have any connection with you!”

(from Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape, page 48)

Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape is the latest book in Marsha Altman’s series about the Darcys and the Bingleys, the third sequel she’s written to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.  At this point in the series, Altman has made Austen’s characters her own and thrown in several new faces without compromising the original story.  (**Please note that there may be some spoilers in this review simply because it is the third book in the series.  I’m not going to divulge too much of the plot of this book, but I might make mention to events brought to light in the first two books.**)

Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape opens with Kitty Bennet’s wedding and quickly moves to the Darcy’s trip to Rosings to visit Mr. Darcy’s aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, for the first time since they married eight years prior.  Shortly after the visit, which is both amusing and infuriating, Mr. Darcy determines that he must leave the country to find his half-brother, as the war being waged by Napoleon has threatened his safety as a monk and cut off all communications with his family.  He decides to travel with Caroline Bingley’s husband, Dr. Maddox, who is making his way to Transylvania to visit his brother and royal sister-in-law.  Things do not go as planned, and the two find themselves held captive, leaving their wives and Darcy’s cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, to help them escape from a long imprisonment that takes a toll on their bodies and minds.

While the first two books in the series, The Darcys & the Bingleys and The Plight of the Darcy Brothers, are mostly light and funny, Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape is a darker tale.  It has its humorous moments, but much of it focuses on Darcy’s state of mind after his escape from Transylvania.  Prior to meeting Elizabeth, Darcy was very reserved, and after months in a dark dungeon with little food or drink and only Dr. Maddox for companionship, he is withdrawn.  Anyone in Darcy’s situation probably would be messed up, and Altman shows this without going overboard.

Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape is a far cry from Pride and Prejudice, but that’s to be expected in a series in which part one is really the Austen sequel.  Altman has taken some liberties with Austen’s characters, but I think she’s stayed true to them, and any differences in their personalities can be attributed to the changes we all undergo as we get older and (hopefully) wiser.  She also devotes a good chunk of the book to the story of Brian Maddox, the rogue brother of Dr. Maddox who flees Transylvania with his wife and encounters numerous dangers while journeying through Russia and Japan on the way back to England.  While the Bennet family does not make much of an appearance, readers get a glimpse of Mr. Darcy’s father and troubled uncle.

Overall, I enjoyed Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape, but it dragged a little after Darcy and Dr. Maddox’s rescue.  I thought the inclusion of Brian Maddox’s adventures and the scenes with Mr. Darcy’s father and uncle were interesting, but they seemed out of place and detracted from the story that was occurring in the present.  Although the darker story of Darcy’s imprisonment and recovery was well executed, Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape is missing the humorous banter that made The Darcy & the Bingleys and The Plight of the Darcy Brothers shine.  Even so, fans of Altman’s previous books should enjoy following her characters (both original and re-imagined) on yet another adventure.  I hope Altman has more books planned for the series, and if so, I can’t wait to see where she takes them next.

Disclosure: I received Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape from Sourcebooks for review.

© 2010 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Guest Post: Marsha Altman, Author of Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape

I’m pleased to welcome Marsha Altman to Diary of an Eccentric today.  Marsha is the author of The Darcys & the Bingleys, The Plight of the Darcy Brothers, and the new release Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape.  This series of sequels to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice provide a (mostly) humorous glimpse of what might have happened in the years following Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage, keep up with other characters from the beloved Austen novel, and introduce several new (and entertaining) characters.

But more on my thoughts later.  I’ve read the first two books and really enjoyed them, and I’m reading Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape right now.  I will be posting all three reviews shortly.  (I’d hoped to do it sooner, but I’m a bit under the weather, so look for the reviews to be posted by tomorrow if all goes as planned).

I want to thank Marsha for taking time out of her busy schedule to talk about her path to publication and provide some advice to aspiring novelists.  Please give a warm welcome to Marsha Altman.

From Writer to Another: Advice!

Write. Write a lot. Write as much as you can about anything you want to write about. Don’t worry that you’re copying your favorite author – we all do it subconsciously anyway. Don’t be ashamed to write fan-fiction and post it on the internet for comments. Don’t be ashamed to make mistakes, then read some book on writing five years down the line about how you shouldn’t have done them.

If you are under 20, don’t submit your work to publishers unless you want to get a first-hand experience at crushing rejection, though I admit it’s not bad to have that under your belt. I submitted my first book when I was fourteen, and was rejected across the board, something I’m now grateful for. I strongly believe something that’s contended by many people, which is that your early writing is going to be embarrassing when you’re older, so don’t expect the world of it or expect it to be published. I’m grateful nothing I wrote in junior high or high school was published. That stuff was terrible. I was rejected again in college, again after college, and got my first book contract while I was in graduate school, not a moment too soon in terms of the quality of what I’d written.

There’s a saying in publishing that the third time is a charm, that the third thing you submit is the book that will be published. This happened to me, which means I had to go through two rounds of agonizing rejections of what I considered to be a publishable novel before I got to the book contract, and I’m not even counting the try at age 14. Obviously, to get to book 3, you have to produce 3 books. In actuality, I produced much more than that. Not everything was publishable or worth submitting.

So write. Write as much as humanly possible, about topics you care about even if nobody else cares about them. If nobody else cares, you don’t have to show the work to anyone. Sometimes you’re writing for yourself. I like to write books I would want to read – books that disappoint me by not being out there already so I have to write them myself.

And whatever you do, get an agent, even if you already have a book contract at hand and the publisher says you don’t need one. You need one.

Thanks, Marsha!  I wish you much success and look forward to reading more of your work in the future.

Are you interested in reading The Darcys & the Bingleys, The Plight of the Darcy Brothers, and Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape?  Well, you’re in luck.  Sourcebooks is offering a set of Marsha Altman’s books to one lucky reader.  Just leave a comment on this post with your e-mail address.

This giveaway is open to U.S./Canada readers only and will run through Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010, at 11:59 pm EST.

**Please note that this giveaway is now closed**

Disclosure: I am an Amazon associate.

© 2010 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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