I was in the mood to revisit two of my favorite characters- Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. I found The Banished Uncle over on Kindle Unlimited so I quickly downloaded it. Even though I was supposed to write the blog post for The Firebird, I quickly got swept up in The Banished Uncle.
This has the traditional cast of characters- Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Bennet, Charles Bingley, Fitzwilliam Darcy, etc. But it adds an older Gardiner brother- Aaron. Aaron had fallen in love with the youngest daughter of a Viscount, who refused to let his daughter marry the son of a tradesman. Aaron had taken orders and was a clergyman, but that wasn’t good enough for the Viscount. Instead, he married Sophia to the youngest son of an Earl.
Sophia had two children by her first husband, but when he was killed, Aaron found Sophia and whisked her away to be married. They then traveled to India to live for twenty years. The Gardiners returned only when Sophia’s oldest child Philip inherits the Earldom.
Having the elder Mr. Gardiner around changes a lot of what happens in the story and causes it to vary from shortly after the Bingleys with Mr. Darcy had left Meryton. Uncle Gardiner meets Mr. Wickham and knows him to be a liar and a slanderer, due to his never having taken orders. Aaron is not fooled at all by Wickham.
Brief Summary (while trying not to give everything away)
In The Banished Uncle, there are lots of changes made, starting with Elizabeth and Jane going to visit the younger Mr Gardiner and family after Christmas. The changes go on from there.
Recommendation?
The Banished Uncle is a great read for all Pride and Prejudice fans. A truly wonderful variation that changes key points and shows how it could logically occur. This one is on Kindle Unlimited.
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And in case you hadn’t figured it out, my plan for 2021 is to write a blog post for each book I read. Last year, I read 150 books. We’ll see how I do this year.
Want to see all the books I read this year? Check out my kit here!
Other Pride and Prejudice Variations
