A Darcy Christmas: A Holiday Tribute to Jane Austen by Amanda Grange, Sharon Lathan and Carolyn Eberhart. © 2010 Sourcebooks Landmark. ISBN 9781402243394. Trade Paperback. Anthology/Historical Romance. 290 pages. Source: review copy furnished by the publishers.

Synopsis: Three holiday novellas featuring Mr. and Mrs. Darcy.

Review: A Darcy Christmas is an anthology featuring three novellas by two Austen veterans and one newcomer: Mr. Darcy’s Christmas Carol by Carolyn Eberhart, Christmas Present by Amanda Grange, and A Darcy Christmas by Sharon Lathan. While I’m thrilled to find some holiday tales playing around in Austen’s sandbox, this collection is so drenched in saccharine that I nearly went into a diabetic coma while reading it. Also, the predictability and blandness of each story left me not finishing any but one of the three (Christmas Present). Nothing here left me with the spirit of Christmas.

Mr. Darcy’s Christmas Carol by Carolyn Eberhart really used too much of Dickens if you asked me, leaving the whole story with an unoriginal taste in my mouth. Darcy is of course Scrooge, who after his high and mighty proposal to Elizabeth is visited by three spirits to show him the misplay of his snobbish ways, thereby leading him to propose again, sincerely. This was definitely the wrong story to place as the book‘s lead-in.

Christmas Present by Amanda Grange was a stronger piece which should have lead the anthology. Here we have a very pregnant Elizabeth and Darcy traveling to the Bingley’s for Christmas in order to visit Jane’s newborn son. Of course, Elizabeth ends up going into labor and all ends completely satisfactory. This was a very short story. The other two are each 100 pages or more, where this one was only a little over 60.

A Darcy Christmas by Sharon Lathan continues the trend of “happily-ever-after” with a reminiscing story where Lizzy and Darcy think back on their life together: their initial infatuation, their honeymoon, the births of their five children, ad nauseam.

Overall, if syrupy sap is your thing this time of year you’ll no doubt devour these stories, but I was looking for something a little more … well more. Each story seemed to be centered around one of the things that annoys me most about Christmas: over consumption. I would have loved to see a story where Darcy and Elizabeth spend Christmas with a local not-well-to-do family, or they have financial troubles but come to realize that it doesn’t matter because they are together with family all around them (who needs money right). There’s nothing new here, and I’m beginning to wonder why writers seem to be afraid to push the envelope a little, and do something other than “and-they-lived-happily-ever-after-with-tons-of-kiddies-and-loads-of-money-never-having-one-worry-in-the-world. the-end.”

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Teresa

Teresa (nom de plume: Torrance Sené) is a self-proclaimed geek, a Janeite, a lover of werewolves and bad-ass angels, an aspiring novelist and an avid book reader who freelances as a web designer. You can follow her on Twitter at @eireannoir.

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