Jane Austen Sequels: The Novels of Marsha Altman
Marsha Altman books include three Pride and Prejudice sequels that form her Darcy’s and the Bingley’s Series: The Darcy’s and the Bingley’s, The Plight of the Darcy Brothers and Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape.
Born in New Jersey, Altman is now living in New York City but has also lived in Israel. She has also traveled in India and has written a blog about her travels. Altman has a B.A. in History from the Brown University. She also has a MFA in Creative Writing from The City College of New York. She specializes in late antiquity Rabbinic literature and works in publishing.
The Darcy’s and the Bingley’s is a book about events in the run-up to the wedding of Darcy and Elizabeth. The events are set in the three days before the wedding that the original Pride and Prejudice story by Jane Austen ends with and in the first part of the book, called A Bit of Advice, Charles Bingley asks Darcy for some advice as he is about to marry Jane Bennet. In the second part, The Question of Consent, the two friends investigate a man who has proposed to Bingley’s sister Caroline.
Altman has said that when she started writing this book she wanted to explore the friendship between Bingley and Darcy, something she found important to the original story but lacking in many of the sequels. As she began writing, she intended this to be a fun short story, but it soon expanded. Altman also says she wanted to see if Caroline Bingley could be made into someone more sympathetic than in the original story.
In the second of the novels by Marsha Altman, The Plight of the Darcy Brothers, both the Bingley’s and the Darcy’s are experiencing the ups and downs of their new married lifestyle. Meanwhile Mary Bennet returns from home pregnant, and some familiar characters appear in this eventful book, including Mr. Wickham.
In Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape, Pemberley is the background for a lot of action and humor as Darcy lands in prison while searching for a missing half-brother, and the two families end up in a complex rescue operation. The background to this last book in the series is the year 1812 and the events in the book unfold as Napoleon attacks Russia. Lady Catherine de Bourgh also makes an appearance in the story.
All three of the Darcy’s and The Bingley’s series are a completed joy to read, and I can highly recommend all in the series. They are some of my favorite Jane Austen sequels of many I have read.
Marsha Altman’s books are creative, well written, and take a different path than most JA sequels writers follow. Her characterizations are complex, interesting and her plots truly original. All of her novels are page turners, and much loved by Janites. She is clearly one of the better Jane Austen sequel writers and her books are amongst the most popular in the genera.
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