Darcy’s struggles

By Kelly Dean Jolley

Hello all! Welcome back! Today I am glad to introduce Kelly Dean Jolley, and his new book, “Darcy Struggle” a P&P variation. Welcome to Interests of a Jane Austen Girl, Kelly! It is a pleasure to welcome you and what a delight to learn of a new Pride and Prejudice variation. I leave my readers in your hands, Kelly.

BLURB;

Brilliant, sensitive, and private, Fitzwilliam Darcy finds himself at the Meryton Assembly, consciously troubled by recent events in Ramsgate and unconsciously troubled by himself.  He insults Elizabeth Bennet, at whom he has only glanced.

It is not until she appears at Netherfield—full of life, skirted in mud, and eager to attend to her sick sister—that Darcy truly looks at her. When he does, he knows she is the woman he has been searching for, the elusive her of his heart. He falls for her completely…despite her apparent unsuitability to be the Mistress of Pemberley and his half-hearted efforts to convince himself he can live without her.

Shortly before Elizabeth leaves Netherfield, Darcy apologizes for what he said at the Assembly. Will that apology and the depth of his sudden but durable feelings give him hope with Elizabeth? Might George Wickham’s arrival frustrate his hopes, especially after Darcy blunders into a marriage proposal to Elizabeth? 

Romantic, reflective, and ironic, this is a story told from Darcy’s point of view, a story of the struggle from intellect to heart—a deliberate character study and a delicate love story.    

TOLERABLE HAPPINESS;

In Darcy’s Struggle, the characters meditate repeatedly on happiness (Darcy especially, of course).  How did Austen understand that state?

Austen’s novels all have happy endings, but the notion of ‘happiness’ that she works toward in them is not quite what we often imagine when we imagine happy endings.  Across all the novels, the notion of ‘happiness’ Austen aims at is that of tolerable happiness. Austen uses the term repeatedly (along with a variant, ‘tolerable comfort’) in the novels, and it characterizes the happiness of the novels’ happy endings.

I suspect that Austen doubles her meaning here — a common feature of her prose. ‘Tolerable’ can describe that which can be borne or endured (Darcy’s use of it at the Assembly in Pride and Prejudice); it can also describe that which is moderately good or agreeable, that which is not contemptible. In Mansfield Park and Emma, I believe, we also get the phrases ‘happiness á la mortal’ and ‘finely chequered happiness’, both of which belong to this discussion.

Austen knows that what we often want when we want happiness are moments of transport, of body-abandoning euphoria (there are such moments in the novels, usually handled with irony: for example, Anne’s “high-wrought felicity” late in Persuasion) but she also knows that such moments are (as a matter of logic) moments: such happiness is intolerable as a constant state; it cannot be borne, supported, for long: the business of embodied living goes on, á la mortal. The happiness that satisfies is one that is moderately (another doubled word in Austenian contexts) good, agreeable, supportable. Livable. It is compatible with wanting rather better pasturage for one’s cows (as at the end of Sense and Sensibility).

But, someone might ask, what of Emma and Knightley’s ‘perfect happiness’? That sounds more than tolerable, at least in the second sense? — True. — Still, I wonder if the ‘perfect’ there is not a bit of deliberate ironic archness, a bit of Emma’s imaginist point of view allowed to color the narrative voice? Not that I mean they were not happy: but rather that their perfect happiness was, after all, perfectly tolerable.

EXCERPT;

Darcy tolerated it well enough except for Collins’s inability to stop talking about Rosings and demanding that Darcy, as he another person acquainted with the place, substantiate or second all that he said. It would have been an annoyance in any case, but Darcy was seated so far from Collins that the man had to shout for Darcy to hear him.

“The number of windows, the sheer number—why Rosings is like the many-eyed Cherubim, keeping watch over Hunsford and Westerham! Do you not agree that it is so, Mr. Darcy? Is not my comparison apt?”

Collins was proud of himself and pleased to have found a topic on which he could hope to please both his patroness and his possible patron.

Darcy nodded, noting Elizabeth, who was seated across the table from him, as she attempted to stifle a giggle at the ludicrousness of it.

Down the table, he heard Miss Mary ask in a horrified whisper of anyone, everyone. “Did Mr. Collins just compare a house to an angel, to a Throne-bearer of God?”

A nodded answer to the query was not enough for Collins. “What do you say, Mr. Darcy?—Mr. Darcy?” he shouted even more insistently.

The noise at the table died so he could answer.

“Rosings has many windows.”

For a moment, the only sound was the clatter and clink of silver against china. Richard cleared his throat.

“You see!” Collins said finally, plump index finger risen in vindication, interpreting Darcy’s laconic comment as agreement and turning to Miss Lucas, who had been one continuous, mortified blush for several minutes. “You see, it is so. Mr. Darcy confirms it.”

The noise of the table reanimated.

Elizabeth lifted her eyes to Darcy and gave him a smile that made the entire evening a blessing despite the curse of Collins and a rancorous end-of-party argument between Mrs. Bennet and Lady Lucas that was ostensibly about a stolen pork receipt but obviously about Mr. Collins.

AUTHOR BIO;

 Kelly Dean Jolley, a professor at Auburn University, has penned several novels. His first, Big Swamp, is a detective novel, which he followed with a Christmas mystery, The Vanishing Woman. He also composed a book of poetry, Stony Lonesome.

Using the pseudonym Newton Priors, he released three additional novels: Balter (A Retelling of Pride and Prejudice), Tides of Bath (A Retelling of Persuasion), and a Western, Heaven and Hell: A Romance. 

Professor Jolley has made contributions to many academic publications as well. He is the author of The Concept ‘Horse’ Paradox and Wittgensteinian Conceptual Investigations, the editor of Wittgenstein: Key Concepts, and has published over forty academic articles. He is a past Alumni Professor and currently the Goodwin-Philpott Endowed Chair in Religion and Professor of Philosophy.  

GIVEAWAY;

Meryton Press will give away one eBook of Darcy’s Struggle to a reader. Please leave a comment and I’ll choose a winner, very soon.

Amazon Universal Preorder/Buy Link

https://mybook.to/jolleyDS

Darcy’s Struggle

CONTACT INFORMATION;

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kellydeanjolley

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Blog: kellydeanjolleyauthor.com

It has been a pleasure to host you, Kelly! I hope you enjoyed being hosted here.