Rewinding Time

By Jeff Bigler

Hello all! Welcome back to my desk, dear readers. I have been reading quite a good P&P variation lately, and what a journey that was! I was contacted by a new male writer within the Austen variations, his name is Jeff Bigler. I was very surprised by his writing and the POV’s we follow throughout his plot. But it was such a pleasure to read another male-written P&P variation, since there are so few within the Austen variation world, that I know. For now I will allow Jeff to take over and let you journey through his “Rewinding Time” P&P variation. Jeff, the stage is yours.

BLURB;

Rewinding Time: A Pride & Prejudice Variation is a novel in which Darcy and Elizabeth separately (and unbeknownst to each other) find themselves in possession of a potion that enables them to travel back one hour in time. The potion enables Darcy and Elizabeth to go back and change their mistakes, sometimes only to make new and different ones, and occasionally with farcical results. You will enjoy reading multiple variations of some of your favorite scenes from Pride & Prejudice, much more than Darcy or Elizabeth will enjoy experiencing them…

EXCERPT;

Darcy had just uttered the stupidest remark of his life to Bingley, and followed it with the second-stupidest to Miss Elizabeth.  Miss Elizabeth had responded by handing him a well-deserved set-down.  I have behaved embarrassingly badly, he thought, and the worst of it is that none of what I said is true.  Miss Elizabeth is so much more than tolerable, and nothing that she has done is anything less than genteel.

Darcy turned beet red.  “I pray you excuse me, Miss Elizabeth,” he choked out and turned on his heels and walked briskly away.

Darcy watched Elizabeth walk to the refreshments table, where she began speaking animatedly with Miss Lucas.  He paced the room through the next dance set and half of the one after, running through the events over and over in his mind.  How could I be so crass as to insult such a handsome and intelligent woman.  If only I could turn back the clock.

Wait.  I have the flask with Mr. Connors’ potion in Bingley’s carriage.  I CAN turn back the clock.

Darcy quickly exited the assembly hall and found Bingley’s footman outside.  He asked the man, “Where is the carriage?”

“Do you wish for me to bring the carriage around?”  the footman asked.  “I shall return with it in a few minutes.”

“That will not be necessary.  I left something inside of it that I wish to retrieve.”

“I would be pleased to fetch it for you, sir.”

“I would prefer to fetch it for myself.  Would you be so good as to lead me to where the carriage is parked?”

The footman led Darcy to the carriage and he retrieved the flask from among his belongings, clandestinely stowing it in a pocket in his jacket.

“Thank you James,” Darcy said to the footman.  “I have what I need.  I shall return to the assembly, and I will see you at its conclusion.”

Darcy re-entered the assembly hall.  He took a glass from the table and poured a small splash of punch into it.  He walked out onto the balcony and looked around to ensure that he was alone.  He poured out the punch, retrieved the flask from his coat pocket, and poured an ounce of the contents into the glass.  He quaffed the potion, which turned out to be quite foul-tasting, and waited for the effects.

Within seconds, Darcy began to feel faint.  The room was spinning, and each candle flame appeared to split into multiple parts until there were tiny pinpricks of light throughout the room.  The pinpricks swirled together and Darcy clutched his head, vowing to keep his stomach from emptying its contents over the railing of the balcony.  Darcy sat down on the floor breathing heavily, and closed his eyes.

* * *

When Darcy opened his eyes and his vision cleared, he was walking away from Elizabeth, having just uttered the most shameful and embarrassing words of his life.  Damnation!  Why did I wait so long?  If I had thought of the potion just a few minutes sooner, I could have prevented this entire debacle.

Darcy turned back to Elizabeth.  He called out, “Miss Elizabeth?”

She paused for a moment and turned back toward him.  “I beg your pardon, Mr. Darcy, but I am in no humor at present to give consequence to gentlemen who slight women behind their backs.  You had better return to your friends and enjoy their smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”

She walked away, but Darcy hastened to catch up.  “It is I who must beg your pardon, Miss Elizabeth.  I am out of sorts at present.  I did not intend for anyone but my friend Mr. Bingley to hear my remark, though that does not excuse it.  What I said about you was ill-considered, rude, and completely false.  In truth, I find you quite handsome and I deeply regret my earlier statement to the contrary.  The only explanation I can give is that my intent was to induce Bingley to leave me alone and stop badgering me to dance, without giving sufficient thought to the consequences.  I most humbly beg your forgiveness.”

“Very well, Mr. Darcy.  I forgive you for the slight, but I do not promise to forget it.  You are a gentleman, and I am a gentleman’s daughter.  Manners dictate that I permit you to exchange pleasantries with me, but you have certainly not inspired me to remain in your presence any longer than necessary.  I therefore humbly beg your leave, and I bid you good evening.”

Darcy stood for a moment, speechless and mouth agape.  When he recovered his composure he replied, “Good evening, Miss Elizabeth.”

REVIEW;

The plot was well written, and absorbing and had me as a reader sighing, shaking my head, and exclaiming throughout the plot.

An apothecary has made a timedisplacing potion, which makes both protagonists able to erase/learn from their blunders and avoid their more serious mistakes throughout the plot. The timedisplacing potion was very interesting as a concept, and how the protagonists meet the apothecary, and how and why they are gifted the potion. The relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth went much more smoothly with the “time displacing potion” which is the whole turning point of the story. 

Though I will admit to thinking Jeff had made the Hunsford proposal ten times worse than anyone ever had, but afterwards the plot flew – and of course, the Wickham trouble nearly costs too much. I will admit to blushing in mortification over Darcy’s proposal, and how badly he screws up his words during the proposal, but so glad that both Darcy and Elizabeth can learn from it.

The plot definitely caught me after the initial first few pages of getting into the plot, and then I read the book in two seatings, and I was quite enjoying it. The characters are spot on, the authors voice is clear throughout the plot, though I will admit the male characters came out the stronger for being written by a man, but it was the ending that really was the best part.

The characters learn to treasure each other, their personalities and their differences. The plot was enjoyable and interesting, – and I will definitely recommend this excellent book. I hope to see more books from Jeff!

AUTHOR BIO;

I grew up in the Southern Tier region of New York State, but I have lived near Boston, Massachusetts for most of my life.  I studied engineering and science in college; after brief stints working in biotech and software, I have been a high school science teacher since the early 2000s.

I have always enjoyed reading and writing, both fiction and non-fiction.  What I have (self-)published so far has been non-fiction: class notes for physics and chemistry, and a short book about teaching experimental design.  I have written a couple of unpublished short stories, and I have a couple of works-in-progress dating back quite a few years, but Rewinding Time is the first full-length novel that I have completed and (self-)published.

My wife Nancy and I have enjoyed reading aloud to each other and our children throughout our marriage.  One of our daughters discovered Jane Austen FanFiction (JAFF) during the COVID-19 pandemic.  She introduced Nancy to the genre, who then introduced it to me.  Now, JAFF is most of what we read to each other, which is how I became inspired to write a JAFF novel.

My other main interest besides writing is music; I play viola in several local orchestras and violin for Morris dancing.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

Dear readers, Jeff will give away one EPUB copy of “Rewinding Time” for every ten people who comment.  This means that if fewer than ten people comment, one of them will receive an ebook.  If more than ten people, but fewer than twenty comment, two of them will each receive an ebook.  And so on. Good luck, dear readers! I will catch you on the flip side of this month with more books, reviews and authors who are guesting my blog.