The Ladies of Rosings Park: A Pride and Prejudice Sequel and Companion to The Darcys of Pemberley
By: Shannon Winslow / Narrated By: Marian Hussey
Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
One of the better P&P sequels—Anne de Bourgh’s story
I love Pride and Prejudice so much that I have to admit it: I have NUMEROUS variations/vagaries/sequels, all written by well, authors who aren’t quite Jane Austen. Still, any continuation of the story, and I’m usually a happy camper.
The Ladies of Rosings Park, however, is barely a sequel as it’s mostly the story of Darcy’s cousin Anne de Bourgh, Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s quiet and sickly daughter. It also follows Lady Catherine, Charlotte Collins, and Mrs. Jenkinson (Anne’s companion). The story is told part by part, in the differing points of view.
I always thought Anne got a bum rap in P&P. Darcy blows her off, plus she has to live with such a wretched and domineering mother. Then she has her poor health to consider, is shy, wan and pale. She’s just a mess!
Here we find the credible evolution of Anne as she’s seen by a new doctor, one who doesn’t order the standard leeches and bleeding, but makes her exercise in fresh air, eat throughout the day, and keep a journal monitoring EVERYthing, especially her debilitating headaches. So for a good amount of time of the audiobook, we follow Anne as she makes these changes and follows these orders. And it doesn’t hurt that Dr. Essex speaks to Lady Catherine and asks her to keep things as peaceful and stress-free for Anne as possible.
Peaceful? Lady Catherine?!? Yes. She does try not to nag mercilessly, but can she actually stop scheming and planning Anne’s life?
The Ladies of Rosings Park therefore is a pretty fun romp as Anne looks up to Elizabeth Bennet as her guide to becoming the lively person she’d like to be. It goes in slowly at times, as Anne has a lot of ground to make up, but we start seeing her for the lovely, inquisitive, sometimes funny person she is (Darcy be damned).
Well-narrated by Marian Hussey who does both women’s and men’s voices well (always tricky in a romance where poor narration could turn a story into melodrama), this is a light-listen of an audiobook. And it scratches that little spot that’s been itching ever since you read P&P.
You know the spot I’m talking about; admit it. And give yourself a nice bit of extra story here too!
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