These Three Remain book review

This is the third book in Pamela Aidan's Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman series, which is Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's point of view (these prompted me to do my own version). The first one, An Assembly Such As This, covered until the Netherfield ball, and was very good. The second one, Duty and Desire, was while Darcy was in London (not in P&P), and was good until about halfway, when he goes to a friend's house for a visit. Then it goes weird...I didn't like Book 2.

What struck me most about this one was that it focused mostly on Darcy's reaction to Lizzy's refusal, rather than the happy ending.

In P&P the original, while the title is Pride and Prejudice, it is almost exclusively about prejudice. Lizzy's, mainly, and Darcy ends up being very much a side character, for all that he marries her in the end.

Pamela Aidan's books are a refreshing change. They are not Jane Austen's words spat out again with "he thought" instead of "she thought", nor are they supportive of Lizzy wholeheartedly. Instead of "See how stupid Darcy was", the goal is "Understand who Darcy is".

The first book showed Darcy at his worst. Here he is: intelligent, rich, cynical, young, without parental guidance, and surrounded by fools. Not good. We don't see anything of his good side, and his pride, though not ungrounded, is glaring off each page. But this is not all: These Three Remain finishes the portrait.

Men, it has been said, have difficulty in two things: reading facial expressions and understanding how other people feel. Men of Darcy's type also have difficulty understanding how social niceties work. It is completely understandable, therefore, that Darcy does not "stoop" to such things as tact and masking disapproval (and dancing when he does not wish it); that he does not understand Lizzy's bad opinion of him (she does appear to be teasing); and that he does not understand how horribly insulting his proposal would sound (what's wrong with showing how strong your love is by explaining all the scruples?).

But once he is refused, he understands all too clearly the signs that he had missed. He comes to a self realization that is noticably lacking in Jane Austen's original. There, Darcy's letter was the catalyst for Lizzy's self knowledge, and it only takes up one chapter. We only see the result of Darcy's change. In These Three Remain, Darcy's change is more dramatic, and takes up most of the book.

The title of These Three Remain confused me at first, for I did not understand it. However, a third of the way through the book, I realized that it refers to 1st Corinthians 13, especially the climax in verse 13: "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Love is the theme of TTR, and not romantic love, as I originally thought. When Darcy first proposes to Lizzy, he is infatuated with her, is quite completely "twitterpated". Her refusal, first prompting anger, then pointing to the truth, makes him realize that every fault of his stems from one: he does not love. He controls Bingley, and does not think about his happiness: he must learn to love his friend. He is once unfeeling and stubborn towards Georgiana: he must learn to put her wishes above his own. He does not want to bare his dealings with Wickham: he must learn to do what is best, rather than what he wants. He thinks he loves Elizabeth: he must learn to love her for her character. He doesn't want to deal with annoying people, he wants to do things his own way: he must learn to put others above himself, to deal gently with them, and to serve them.

The climax of his growth is his meeting with Elizabeth at Pemberley. Not only is he thinking only of her comfort, his first thought when she betrays Lydia's fall is "what can he do to help". In going to rescue Elizabeth's sister, he is doing many things. He is swallowing the last of his pride by dealing with Wickham, Mrs. Younge, Lydia, and going to parts of London where he would never deign to go before. (In fact, any pride he might have had in knowing what Lizzy will think of him when she knows his beneficence, he swallows by insisting that his dealings are kept secret.) He admits that he made a mistake, and is fixing it. And he is being of use to people in need. This is a vastly different Darcy from the one who refused to dance with Lizzy because he dislikes dancing.

These Three Remain is a powerful finish to a good series. Unlike other sequels not by the author, this one carries a message that is as strong and as clear that of the original, and quite worthy of merit apart from its original.

(You can read much of the book on the author's website, where she posted previews)