Lady Catherine's Necklace
by Joan Aiken



Hardcover - 176 pages (April 2000)
St Martins Pr (Trade); ISBN: 0312244061
 

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Hardcover - 172 pages ( 3 February, 2000) 
Victor Gollancz; ISBN: 0575068043

        Review by Jenny Scott on Wednesday, February 11, 2000
I have just read Lady Catherine's Necklace by Joan Aiken.

The cover describes the book as 'A Jane Austen Entertainment' and it is just that. Lady Catherine and her family are involved in intrigue and skulduggery and there is romance as well. It is not a serious documentation of what happened after PRIDE AND PREJUDICE but an amusing and entertaining read.

What a lovely change from the last new sequel! [The Bar Sinister]

        Written by April Laymon  (10/4/2001 10:30 p.m.)
I also recently read one of the P&P "sequels", Lady Catherine's Necklace. The story revolves around Lady Poop-Doesn't-Smell herself, and Maria Lucas. (There is an odd side story with Anne deBourgh, too.) While some of it was somewhat diverting, I hated the ending.
        Written by Kaeli L. (3/9/2002 12:31 a.m.
I have read Lady Catherine's Necklace by Joan Aiken, and I was not at all pleased, and I'm not too hard to please as far as books go. It seemed like Aiken didn't even pay attention to language, and her characters were definitely not Jane's characters.
        Review by Linda Waldemar, February 9, 2003
This is a simple and quick read. Not too bad, but not especially good, either.

The main characters here are Anne de Bourgh and Maria Lucas. As it begins, Charlotte Lucas Collins has just given birth to her third and fourth children; twin sons. Maria is visiting to help her sister. Mr. Collins must go to take care of the Longbourn estate because Mr. Bennet has just died; Mrs. Bennet predeceased him. He is away for most of the story. Maria is sensitive, sensible, intelligent and musically proficient.

Anne de Bourgh is either 17 or 19, depending upon which chapter you wish to believe. She is active (fond of long walks), defiant and compassionate. She befriends the gardener and plants a garden for herself.

I found Jane Austen's Lady Catherine a laughable, sometimes annoying, character. Aiken's Lady Catherine is despicable; insensitive, selfish, uncaring and mean. Colonel Fitzwilliam is also present and he is nothing like the character that I imagined from reading P&P. There are several characters from Joan Aiken's imagination that contribute to a convoluted and unbelievable plot with an incredible ending.

If you want to read this book, I recommend that you borrow it from the library. Unless you collect sequels as I do, don't waste your money.

        Written by Jo H (4/8/2003 8:21 a.m.)
I've read Lady Catherine's Necklace (Joan [Aiken] - I think?) but that was fairly ordinary.