Review: A fun retelling of “Pride and Prejudice”.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 12, 2014
Prudence Higginbottom had a terrible adolescence because of her unfortunate name. Her classmates always teased her and made awful jokes. Now she is twenty-six, she is an organic farmer and she works at her family’s café and catering business. Everything is fine until she meets a newcomer, William Darling, who, together with his friend Charles Bradley, hires the Higginbottom family to cater the opening function for a new business in town.This is a fun, modern retelling of “Pride and Prejudice”. Our heroine, Prue Higginbottom (Elizabeth) finds herself in several embarrassing situations which influence her behaviour towards William Darling (Darcy). Aside from his negative comment the first time William sees Prue, I have not seen any similarities between this modern Darcy and the original character. He is disagreeable at first but does not have the pride which is the distinctive feature of Darcy’s personality. This Darcy simply offends Prue and then acts like he is interested in her and all the troubles between them arise just because of Prue’s prejudice.Prue misjudges William because she thinks she has understood his attitude thanks to some things he says and to an Internet article written by a Georgina Wickham, but there is nothing more. The only character I found faithful to the original is Mrs. Higginbottom. She is exactly like Mrs. Bennet! She wants her girls to marry, she is shameless, she prattles and her girls are always scared she can do something wrong. Only one thing is different: when Prue tells her mother William offended her and explains why she cannot stand him, her mother sides with the guy! Moreover, one thing I missed a lot was a modern version of Lydia (I thought I would never say that, but it is true). Without her doing something irreparable, William/Darcy does not have the chance to save the girls’ reputation (or at least help them solve a huge problem since it is a story set in the modern age) and put aside his particular opinions about them. Therefore, we cannot see a great change in his behaviour.All in all, this is a light, entertaining short story and I think people who enjoy reading Austen inspired books might like this one. So, I would recommend it especially to “Pride and Prejudice” enthusiasts.