So Material a Change
By: Amy D'Orazio / Narrated By: Stevie Zimmerman
Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
Dare I say it? DeLIGHTful!!!
I do sooo love it when one of m’ beloved Jane Austen P&P Variations is so good that I’m happy it tops the 10-hour mark. I also do sooo love when a new Variation starts Bang! with a twist but then goes on to show us that the author truly understands THE Elizabeth and THE Darcy that we’ve all fallen in love with enough to make us see that they indeed WOULD think, act, behave, exACTly as they do given the twists that we understand will follow.
Throw in P&P canon galore, and dearheart, I’m THERE!!!
So Material a Change ain’t the only Amy D’Orazio in my Library, but reviews of other of her works said that (A couple in particular) were, and I quote: Satisfyingly steeeeamy… Oh UGH!!! Spare me Elizabeth and Darcy Doing the Nasty, do please, won’t you?
But last week’s On Tyranny just well and truly left me so very disheartened about the recent past, the current reality, and the probable future, that I was actually thinking it’d be nice if I was nauseated by a sex scene or two rather than m’ toes curling and wanting to barf cuz reading the newspaper made me wanna DIE!!!
On to The Chance that E&D Do The Nasty… and oh HOW tickled to tears I was that this was truly charming, and really quite tame.
And so it begins with Darcy thinking way too much of a pair of fine eyes, even to where he rouses to dreams of her whilst sleeping (This had me thinking: Uh oh, this really IS going to be steamy, drat it). This is unfortunate as it turns out that, so tired of waiting for him to make a proposal, Caroline Bingley has taken matters into her own hands and has skulked into his bedroom at night, has shimmied in a chemise into his bed, and has stirred him to a bit of misguided passion. Fortunately (For me, SOME reviewers wanted more, oh ick!), Darcy wakes up posthaste, grabs a robe after bellowing at Caroline, and storms off to have a heated chat with Charles Bingley. Bingley, however much he believes Darcy or not, understands that no matter what, if the story gets out, Caroline is truly compromised: Darcy shall HAVE to wed her.
Uhm, not so faaaast, Darcy quavers: He, uhm, caaan’t cuz, see, uhm, like, yesterdaaaaay? he got engaged to Miss Elizabeth Bennet, uhm, YEH THAT’S IT!!! And so he hotfoots it over to Elizabeth in the morning, suggests a walk, and gives her the Infamous Proposal speech. She’s disgusted, but asks him What The Heck, and he comes clean. Feeling pity, she says Hell NO, but I shan’t say anything otherwise until things blow over.
And so she and Jane (They were at Netherfield for Jane’s SickBed Thing) come home, and Mr. Collins has shown up. He’s heard that Jane’s spoken for, so he proposes to Elizabeth. Of course Mama is onboard, but what’s this? Mr. Bennet is as well? And this is where I started admiring Ms. D’Orazio because she made Mr. Bennet’s justifications realistic to who he was. You see, he has realized that he HASN’T made preparations for his family should something happen to him, yes -but- he also realizes that he’s been checked out as far as running his estate goes. Longbourn will NEED someone steady of mind to run it. Now is that true to Mr. Bennet, or what? The man was sooo checked out!
This all makes Elizabeth go Deer In The Headlights cold, and she SUDdenly recalls that, uhm, no, uhm, cuz ya see, uhm, did she mention that she got engaged to Mr. Darcy the other day?
What follows are the usual rounds of P&P Variations with our main characters remaining true to the way Jane Austen wrote them, for the most part. There are the introduction of new characters like Colonel Fitzwilliam’s older brother the Viscount Saye who is absoLUTEly the most fun addition and such a grand and necessary surprise. I say necessary because Elizabeth, once out of her humble stomping grounds and now in London, starts finding herself out of her depth and starts trying so very hard to not shame Darcy. This reminded me of how she was portrayed in the really good Longbourn by Jo Baker which was very well-written but which made me wanna open a vein and bleed m’self out till dry. Saye is just the MOST honest and levelheaded person around, and there are conversations that Go There, without making me blush… too much. He’s hiLARious.
Throw in a believable relationship between Georgiana and Elizabeth, add a few impasses and realizations by ALL characters (I believe you Jane, and I’m sooo totally with ya about Bingley!!!), and gosh was I happy.
And jeez, Stevie Zimmerman is her usual AWEsome self, but in So Material a Change I SWEAR her recording equipment is better and sounds less “tinny” and I SWEAR she does less of the Punch & Roll stuff with flubs. It’s sooo apparent that Ms. Zimmerman IS THE Voice for All Things Jane Austen, except, uhm, Jane Austen herself (Too many grand voice actors out there). Her dialogue is stellar, her characterizations are superb with her voice for Elizabeth being just spot-on what I believe Elizabeth SHOULD sound like. So maaaybe, hmmm… Maybe Ms. Zimmerman COULD do the original Pride and Prejudice…? except I would miss her doing Viscount Saye and other characters toooo much…!
Wonderful Wonderful Wonderful
I’m so very happy I was in a total decline and decided to give an Amy D’Orazio a shot. It was just what I needed, and Jiminy H. Freaking Cricket, did I need it, or what?!?
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