As a P&P fan, it’s not a surprise that I would choose to request this book from NetGalley. After all, it’s focuses on Darcy – who inspired Jane Austen to come up with his character and his lasting influence on culture.

There’s Something about Darcy is broken into 3 main sections:

The first section talks about the figures that might have influenced Austen in the creation of Darcy, focusing on the very real person George Brummell. I found this section to be interesting because this isn’t an area that I’ve not read much on, and I found quite a lot of new information.

From there, the book moves on to talk the influence of Darcy on literature, including the Bronte sisters and Dracula. Frankly, this was the part of the book that was the most unconvincing to me. Malcolm argues that Darcy influenced literature by becoming an archetype, but I’m not convinced. Darcy is definitely influential, but he’s also a pretty typical tsundere-type character. Because the author focused on books that came after P&P, I didn’t see an argument that Darcy was the first of his kind and thus works as an archetype for all other tsunderes to come, something that would have bolstered the author’s claims.

Additionally, my sense of the modern Jane Austen fandom is that it was sparked by the 1995 BBC drama. I’m not sure if Austen’s influence was quite as big in the years before it – the book pretty much takes for granted that Austen was influential, but I didn’t see a convincing argument as to why I should think that way.

The final section of the book looks at Darcy reinterpreted today, including film, the fandom, and fanfiction. I wish I can find a copy of Austentatious because I cannot help but think that the two books would complement each other for this section.

The film portion of the discussion talks about the different adaptations over the years and the different emphasis they had – it was interesting and if I ever decide to binge all the adaptations (which, I’ll be honest, is unlikely because I’m more a fan of the book), I’d want to keep this chapter in mind.

I really like the point about how the core principle (or one of the core principles) of fanfiction is that you cannot mess with the basic nature of the characters. If you make, for example, Elizabeth dull and shrill, you’re probably going to get a lot of flak because that’s not her. You might as well be writing your own OCs instead of fanfiction.

Another thing I liked was the discussion about the different ways P&P has been retold and how they show new aspects – from PD James’ murder mystery sequel to Baker’s focus on the servants in P&P in Longbourn. I loved Unequal Affections and would have loved it if it were included (it also started on fanfiction.net, which I think is pretty interesting) but sadly it’s not mentioned in the book.

Overall, this was an interesting read. I am not convinced that Darcy was so influential as to be the model of every Western tsundere-type character in the years to come, but I appreciated the discussions on the Jane Austen fandom and the ways that P&P and Darcy have been interpreted and re-interpreted, especially in recent years.

Featured Image: Photo by Me