In this collection of short stories inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emma, author Alice McVeigh confidently and commendably adds her voice to the Austen-verse with interpretations of well-known characters, minor characters, well-trod events, and those Austen only hinted at.
Focusing on the Bennet family and major events in Pride and Prejudice, PRIDE AND PERJURY explores off-page occurrences and characters to absorbing effect. The collection contains twelve stories, many of which are diaristic and provide glimpses into a character’s mind. All of the tales investigate possible what-if scenarios or imagine fresh explanations for major cannon events.
In “One Good Sonnet,” we learn that there are rumors of Mrs. Bennet being an “opium eater,” which influenced Jane’s London poetry-writing suitor who never proposed. “A Heliotrope Ribbon” elucidates how and why Lydia ran away with Mr. Wickam in Brighton—“‘My currency differs from most people’s,’ said Wickham boldly. ‘I wish to be paid…with a kiss.’” “Captivating Mr. Darcy” chronicles Caroline Bingely’s feelings for, and pursuit of, Mr. Darcy. “Lady Catherine Regrets” provides one interpretation on how Lady Catherine heard that marriage rumor which led her to confront Elizabeth Bennet and ask, “Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?”
Every kind of Austen reader will find something to like in PRIDE AND PERJURY, or else something to debate to good effect. With germane prose, each of these stories are believable offshoots of the Austen canon and standalone entries into the “comedy of manners” tradition. Some tales cover the whole of Pride and Prejudice, while others are mere peeks into imagined scenes. Of course, reworking vaunted literary figures will always be met with strong reader reactions. McVeigh’s choice of fleshing out off-page action and minor characters, like Perry the apothecary in Emma, gives readers thought-provoking, entertaining, non-world-shaking additions to Austen’s classics.
Superbly copyedited and formatted, PRIDE AND PERJURY’s prose is technically faultless. The collection’s flow is smooth, though not necessarily chronological. The shift towards the stories about characters from Emma is a bit jarring, but when McVeigh makes clear that Pride and Prejudice and Emma share not only a universe but a common time, the unique through-line is revealed.
Even for readers not familiar with Austen’s classics, there is much to be enjoyed. McVeigh provides an epigraph from the original text to ground each story. Nonetheless, readers need not recall the exact details of the novel (or even the movie adaptations) to orient or immerse themselves in the stories. Austen fans, Austen fan-fiction fans, historical fiction readers, and British classics stalwarts would do well to add PRIDE AND PERJURY to their bookshelves.
Absorbing, delightful, and loyally Austenian, PRIDE AND PERJURY by Alice McVeigh will win over Jane Austen fans and newbies alike with its germane prose and inspired interpretations of minor characters and off-page events.
~Remy Poore for IndieReader