What if Elizabeth Bennett accepted Mr. Darcy’s first proposal? This is what author Lara S. Ormiston asks in Unequal Affections: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling (published 2013). The story of this Elizabeth Bennett begins immediately after Mr. Darcy finishes saying his proposal, which, as any readers of Pride and Prejudice know, had offended the original Miss Bennett in multiple ways. In this retelling, instead of rejecting Darcy outright and telling him how offensive he is, Elizabeth considers his proposal and decides to accept it. The story in Unequal Affections is that of the two strong minded people coming to an understanding of love for each other, even when their courtship was begun with “unequal” love between them.
I read this a few years ago and enjoyed the building comradery between our two protagonists, as well as the consideration of how the story would have been different had Darcy been a more integral part of the Bennett life sooner in the timeline than it had been. Consider: Elizabeth didn’t know the truth about Wickham. She hadn’t seen Darcy’s comfort in Pemberly. He hadn’t accepted the lower lifestyle that the Bennetts lived. Yet, as he declared in the original proposal, he “loved” Elizabeth.
On this read, I had a hard time accepting that this was the same Elizabeth that had been honest and scathing in her comments throughout the original novel. Her personality is lost if she doesn’t stand up for her family and community! Thus, this is a retelling with a completely different Elizabeth. But I’ll just ignore that fact as I consider this book on its own merit for now.
Darcy seemed the same and approached life with his stiff pride in his place, even when he was visiting with Elizabeth’s family. Over the course of the courtship, however, he began to feel unhappy to see that Elizabeth was unhappy. One of my favorite scenes is when Elizabeth points out that these are her childhood mentors, neighbors, and friends.
“Even my mother isn’t all so bad,” she argues at one point (paraphrased since I don’t have it in front of me). Elizabeth shares the stories of what these “low” people have done to support her and others in her community. This gives Darcy a glimpse into how his pride is mistaken: just because someone is at a lower social status doesn’t mean they don’t deserve kindness and comradery.
I liked seeing how their courtship might have been different from the original novel. Elizabeth is truly the teacher in this volume, as she opens Darcy’s eyes to his own pride and his mistaken prejudice. In this volume, I watched Darcy transform because he wanted to help the woman he loved be happy, even though she had declared she did not love him. It granted me a unique perspective on the possibilities of overcoming prejudice.
