The daily Astorian., August 17, 2017, Page 23, Image 32

AUGUST 17, 2017 // 23
BOOK SHELF // GLIMPSE // WILDLIFE // POP CULTURE // WORDS // Q&A // FOOD // FUN
The second half of the
book features seven stories
that borrow Austen’s char-
acters and play with them in
different settings and times.
Two Northwest authors are
featured here.
In “Pemberley by Stage,”
Aurora, Oregon, author
Natalie Richards scrambles
up a Wild West setting, a
stagecoach heist, Elizabeth
in disguise, and Darcy in
pursuit of that perennial cad,
Wickham.
Portland author Beau North
uses incipient rock & roll, the
Cuban missile crisis and a cold
winter in upstate New York to
fire up the romance between
Darcy and Eliza in “You Don’t
Know Me.”
Chances are you’ll like
some of these stories more
than others, but you can pick
and choose as you please —
not a bad way to idle your
way through August’s hot,
hazy days.
The Bookmonger is Bar-
bara Lloyd McMichael, who
writes this weekly column fo-
cusing on the books, authors
and publishers of the Pacific
Northwest. Contact her at
bkmonger@nwlink.com
BOOKMONGER
A fond salute to Jane Austen
Jane Austen fans marked
the 200th anniversary of her
passing this summer with
widespread commemorations
of her life, work and legacy.
The Regency-era author, who
chose anonymity in her own
lifetime, would be astonished
by the vast cult of Janeites
that has developed in the two
centuries since her death.
While Austen’s work
enjoyed only modest sales in
her day, millions of copies
of her books have sold since
then. In our current culture
of spin-offs and sequels, it
is little surprise that Austen
fan fiction now has become a
flourishing industry, too.
That is how this column,
which focuses on Northwest
books and authors, has come
to review “The Darcy Mono-
logues.” Christina Boyd,
who is the editor, publisher
and mastermind behind this
collection of short stories,
operates out of a tiny burg in
Whatcom County, Washing-
ton.
For this anthology, how-
ever, she has reached far and
wide, marshaling authors
from throughout the United
States and around the globe to
create short stories from the
point of view of Fitzwilliam
Darcy, who is the love interest
of Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride
and Prejudice.”
In creating Darcy, Austen
gave us one of the most di-
mensional and swoon-worthy
swains in all of English-lan-
guage literature. But for
some readers, that has only
whet their appetite for more.
Boyd’s authors have willingly
stepped up to the challenge.
“The Darcy Monologues”
is split into two different cate-
gories. The first stories return
directly to Austen’s work and
the Regency era.
Caitlin Williams kicks off
this set with an imagining of
Darcy’s thoughts on the eve
of his wedding.
J. Marie Croft backtracks a
bit to examine Darcy’s mind-
set just after Elizabeth has
spurned his first blundering
marriage proposal. Fueled by
anguish (and too much bran-
dy), Darcy spends a sleepless
night composing, scratching
out, and rewriting the letter
that will explain his motiva-
tions and actions to Elizabeth
so that she will understand
him better, even though she
has rejected him.
Other stories in the book’s
first half introduce super-
natural elements, a secret
door, and other manners of
embroidering on top of the
tapestry Austen had already
created. Some of it seems ex-
traneous, but other elements,
such as the fleshing out of
Darcy’s sickly cousin Anne
de Bourgh, provide intriguing
food for thought.
Crossword Answer
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“The Darcy Monologues”
Ed. Christina Boyd
The Quill Ink
414 pp
$14.95
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