The writing is as good -- and far fewer typos and wierd grammar gremlins. One thing I can't figure out -- the Colonel's elder brother's first name is D'Arcy. So would the inference be that the Colonel is related to Darcy on both Darcy's mother's and father's side? Odd...

The story is mostly new since it follows Darcy from leaving Netherfield to getting ready for Rosings -- a period of time that JA never touches. I found this story a bit on the "Udolpho" side.

All in all, a wonderful read, and just makes you yearn even more for These Three Remain.

        Written by Kathi (2/13/2005 9:06 p.m.)
However, I found _Duty and Desire_ a great disappointment and only bothered to plow through it because I thought it might be necessary to understanding the third book. Having finished it, I wish I had just skipped it. It has very little to do with anything in P&P; as someone else has pointed out, is more Radcliffe than Austen; and it was fairly boring. It was difficult to keep the new characters straight, and I didn't care enough about them to try very hard. I'll probably read the third one, though, because I assume it will return to Austen.

         Written by Sarah Catherine  (2/18/2005 10:58 p.m.) Then I got to Duty and Desire and, though it was entertaining, kept saying "What? Voodoo? Spells? What? Kidnapped baby? Not really dead stepmother? What novel am I in again?" As Henry Tilney would say, it all sounded like something out of Mrs. Radcliffe. I think that the author, when focusing on a period during which Darcy is out of contact with Elizabeth and for which there's no guidance from P&P, got a bit carried away and let the novel write her.