From Ashes to Heiresses: A Pride and Prejudice Variation Short Story
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From Ashes to Heiresses: A Pride and Prejudice Variation Short Story
Narrated by:
Catherine Bilson
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Narrated by:
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Catherine Bilson
About this listen
With the rest of their family gone and their home destroyed, Elizabeth and Jane are taken in by their aunt and uncle in Meryton. Concerned about the two surviving Bennet sisters' situation, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley come to Hertfordshire, but not before Mr. Wickham attempts to use the situation to his advantage. From Ashes to Heiresses is a Pride and Prejudice variation short story.
©2016 Summer Hanford (P)2019 Summer HanfordListeners also enjoyed...
We have here a short Regency-set variation of Pride and Prejudice that veers off from canon after Elizabeth Bennet has broken her return journey from Kent to stay with her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in London. Her elder sister Jane has been resident there for several months. So, we've had Darcy's disastrous first proposal in Hunsford and both he and Bingley's sisters know that Jane has been in London without telling Bingley. Then tragedy strikes; the Bennet family home of Longbourn is razed to the ground by fire, resulting in the deaths of Jane and Elizabeth's parents, their three younger sisters and some of the staff.
This well-written short story is bookended by letters from one of the girls' uncles (Mr. Phillips) to the other (Mr. Gardiner). In the first, Mr. Phillips tries to send a warning about the fire and its consequences so that it doesn't come as a shock to the girls. Sadly, the letter arrives too late and they don't find out until their arrival back in Meryton. These opening scenes are sad and truly heart-rending; Elizabeth comes upon the ruins of her family home totally unexpectedly (the Ashes of the title) whereas Jane finds out from the Lucas family.
Bingley hears about the tragedy in a letter whilst staying with Darcy and his sister Georgiana. Of course, everyone simply has to up sticks and head off to Hertfordshire. We do spend quite a bit of time inside Darcy's head in this, never a bad thing for me. I won't give any more plot details for such a short story, save to say that we have an even more dastardly Wickham than normal. As to the the Heiresses part of the title? You'll have to find out for yourselves!
I listened to the audio version of this tale and though I hadn't heard any of Catherine Bilson's other performances, I was rather impressed and it takes quite a bit to impress this particular Picky Brit when it comes to English historical fiction performances. At just under an hour and twenty minutes running time, it fitted in perfectly to one of my commutes last week which was 40 minutes each way.
On the whole, I'd award 4.5 stars if I could; 4 for the story (Picky Brit deduction for some US language use) and 5 for the performance.
I received my copy of this audiobook in a giveaway from the authors but there was no expectation for a review. This is my honest opinion.
Good story, excellent performance
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Listener received this title free
Good pace for a quick read / listen
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amazing
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Listener received this title free
Nicely narrated. Some problems with rustling sounds once or twice but doesn't detract really from either story or narration.
Recommended for fans of JAFF.
Lovely sweet novella
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