The Recovery of Fitzwilliam Darcy now available!

It’s publication day! For this celebratory post, I thought I would do something a little different and share some insights into the characters from The Recovery of Fitzwilliam Darcy. One of the things I love about writing Austen variations is imagining how a change in circumstances results in changes to our beloved characters. I can’t talk about all of them, of course (that would be too long), but let’s take a look at some of the key people.

William Lucas/Fitzwilliam Darcy

The Recovery of Fitzwilliam Darcy is very much Fitzwilliam’s story. As a writer, I love to explore the emotional aspect of what characters are experiencing, and that is what I did for William/Fitzwilliam in the book. He was very young when he was kidnapped and does not remember his life as a Darcy. He grew up believing he was the son of an innkeeper. His position in life is socially lower than that of Elizabeth, his dearest friend and the love of his life.

All of this changes when he discovers the truth of his past, and he ends up feeling torn between what he sees as two different people—William Lucas and Fitzwilliam Darcy, who he thought he was and who he really is. I believe that people would handle this sort of situation differently based on their personality, age, life experience, and so on. Fitzwilliam has had a quiet life (definitely not someone “who has lived in the world”, as Elizabeth said about Darcy in Pride and Prejudice), learnt early on to be deferential to his ‘betters’, and is an introvert. He watches and takes in what he hears and senses from the new people in his life but cannot easily express what he feels. What he really needs is someone he is comfortable enough with to question and confide in, but he is—or at least feels—alone.

Elizabeth Bennet

In essentials, Elizabeth in TRoFD is like Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. She is bright, good-humoured, and sometimes too quick to judge people. In TRoFD, Elizabeth’s life has been easier than it was in canon because of William Lucas’s presence in her life and that of her family. Her father takes on the task of tutoring young William, and William becomes the son he never had. This gives Mr Bennet more purpose in his life, he attends to his estate and family more (for example, Kitty and Lydia are not out). Because of this, the Bennets are a happier family. Between that and having William as her best friend and the love of her life, Elizabeth has faced less strife and fewer challenges in her young life. I would say that it keeps her from maturing the way she otherwise would have. All of that changes when ‘her William’ is recognised as Fitzwilliam Darcy.

George Darcy

One added incentive for me to write TRoFD was that it gave me a chance to develop Darcy’s father. I love the idea of exploring people we don’t see or only glimpse in canon. In TRoFD, George is a third protagonist, although we never hear from him because the only points of view in the book are Fitzwilliam’s and Elizabeth’s. However, George and his reaction to discovering his son are a great influence on Fitzwilliam. When I chose the word ‘recovery’ for the title, I did it to draw on the dual meanings of the word. We have recovery as in discovery—Fitzwilliam was discovered to be alive. But we also have recovery as in returning to a normal state of health, which encompasses both mental and physical, and well-being. Fitzwilliam, Elizabeth, and George have to recover in this second sense, as do others in the book. Simply put, Fitzwilliam’s return to his true identity has an emotional toll on many people. They have to adjust to the ‘new reality’.

George has had a difficult life, even though it was marked by privilege. He became master at Pemberley when he was 23 after the sudden death of his beloved father; among his other responsibilities was that for his younger brother, Jeffrey. Then there was his son’s kidnapping and presumed death—trying to imagine what that would feel like is not something I recommend to anyone—followed by his wife’s decline and death two years later. In short, the man suffered. I asked myself, how would he feel to know that his son had been alive all that time, living a different life, believing other people were his parents, while George was alone, grieving for his child and everything he lost? Again, there are different ways George could have reacted when Fitzwilliam was recovered. I present one, based on how I perceive George’s character and how he has been affected by his life experiences.

The main part of the story—from Fitzwilliam’s discovery to the crisis point and the start of the resolution—takes place over about six months. I think this is a reasonable (even short) time for people to take in and adjust to such a significant, life-altering event. There are many others who are touched by what has happened, of course. The Lucases—Sir William, Lady Lucas, and Charlotte—who face the loss of their son and brother. The Bennets who have loved William and seen him as part of their family for years. On the other hand, there are those who regain a family member. Among the Darcys are Frederick (George’s cousin) and his children, Rebecca and Freddie, as well as George’s brother, Jeffrey, and his son, John. Their lives are disrupted by Fitzwilliam’s recovery, especially John, who had believed he was George’s heir.

Finally, there are the Fitzwilliams—Fitzwilliam Darcy’s aunt and uncle, Lord and Lady Romsley, and their children Sterling (Lord Bramwell) and Tom (Colonel Fitzwilliam). After the kidnapping, George became estranged from the Fitzwilliams; this breech in their relationship has lasted through the years. It adds an additional complexity to the situation. The Fitzwilliams want to know Fitzwilliam (egads, how many times can I write Fitzwilliam in one paragraph? Haha). This is especially true for Lord Romsley (Philip), who was very close to his sister Anne. It doesn’t come out in the story, but Sterling was old enough to remember the kidnapping, which gives him an additional emotional pull towards his recovered cousin. (I have lots of deleted scenes about some of these additional characters that I may share at the blog.)

So, there you have it. A brief look at some of the characters in The Recovery of Fitzwilliam Darcy. The book is now available at Amazon, including Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. An audiobook version is coming. I hope you will give it a try!

Lucy