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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780979893308
ISBN number: 0979893305
Label: TRC Castle Garden Publishing
Manufacturer: TRC Castle Garden Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 441
Printing Date: November 30, 2007
Publishing house: TRC Castle Garden Publishing
Sale Popularity Level: 270925
Studio: TRC Castle Garden Publishing
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Product Description:
While visiting Montclair, an 18th Century Georgian country house located in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England, Maggie Joyce, a 22-year old American living in postwar London, is told that the former residents of the mansion, William Lacey and Elizabeth Garrison, were the inspiration for the characters of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen's masterpiece, Pride & Prejudice, and that Montclair is the novel's Pemberley. During her visit to the nearby Village of Crofton, Maggie meets Beth and Jack Crowell, both of whom have ties to the Lacey family and Montclair, and who know if the legends associated with the house and Fitzwilliam Darcy are true. While exploring the truth behind the romance of Darcy and Elizabeth, Maggie is drawn into the love story of the Crowells, who married in the midst of the horrors of World War I, as well as her own love story with Rob McAllister, an American who flew on bombing missions over Germany during World War II, and who has returned to England for his own deeply personal reasons. Pemberley Remembered is a story of lovers who bridge class differences in Regency England, but it is also speaks to love and loss in postwar England.
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Rated by buyers 
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I've found that when it comes to historical fiction there are two types of books: those that transport me back in time on a cozy Sunday afternoon and those that need to be savored in small bites over time. Pemberley Remembered is definitely the latter.
Pemberley Remembered is actually a story within a story. The main character is 22 year old American Maggie Joyce, living in post-war London. While there she happens upon an interesting tidbit of information. She is told that it is possible that the characters in Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice were based upon real people. Drawn into the possibilities, Maggie seeks to learn more about these people. Maggie's own live life, well you'll have to find out for yourself.
Pemberley Remembered will be well accepted by those individuals who are diehard fans of Jane Austen. The sheer complexity of the web woven here is staggering. The book also explores the culture of postwar England to some degree. Still, the primary focus is the Jane Austen connection.
Rated by buyers 
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I am not a fan of Jane Austen. It's not that I dislike her; I just don't go out of my way to read her works, which means the only Jane Austen books I've read were required reading in high school and college in my distant (very distant) past. However I am a history fanatic and always appreciate good literature. You do not need to be a Jane Austen fanatic to enjoy Pemberley Remembered. You do not necessarily even need to know who Jane Austen is. Mary Simonsen weaves three stories together with masterful artistry, flawless writing, and impeccable historical research. (Yes I spot fact checked the book. Yes I am anally retentive). This is no dry historical tome though; Ms. Simonsen's descriptions, settings, and dialog all bear marks of loving attention resulting, among other things, a multi-dimensional main character you come to care about. This is Ms. Simonsen's very first novel, but hopefully will not be her last.
Rated by buyers -
I have found Pemberley Remembered to be a very impressive, very first time novel. The knowledge that Mrs. Simonsen displays regarding the book Pride & Prejudice, and both world wars is quite extensive. Maggie Joyce's relationship with Rob McAllister as well as with Beth and Jack Crowell is indepth and gives a distinct feel for the period. When Maggie discovers the secret of who Austen's characters in P & P are based on, she is like a little kid on Christmas morning-both thrilled and most satisfied. You do not need to be a Jane Austen fan or familiar with her book to enjoy Pemberley Remembered. There is enough history, romance and suspense to hold your attention. Not only is there Maggie and Rob's relationship, but you discover how Beth and Jack fell in love, despite their different status in society . Intertwined throughout the book is the story of the fictional characters of P & P, especially Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, told through letters and diaries that Beth Crowell has in her possession. A sequel is a must. Mrs Simonsen has three distinctive stories that she could tell and I'm sure each would be as well written and enjoyable as Pemberley Remembered..
Rated by buyers -
You pick up Pemberley Remembered at very first because you loved Pride and Prejudice and you want to enjoy those characters again. But once you begin to read, you will find yourself drawn into a multi-layered story taking place in three different time periods, with three different couples.
Maggie Joyce, an American living in England after the Second World War, visits Montclair, a mansion rumored to be the inspiration for Pemberley, the home of Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's famous classic novel. Once there, Maggie learns that the former inhabitants of the mansion, William Lacey and his wife Elizabeth Garrison Lacey, are considered by locals to be the true inspiration for Austen's Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Meaning only to while away an afternoon, Maggie talks to Jack Crowell, one of the local experts on the story, and finds herself caught up in a complex tale of family and love.
In Pemberley Remembered, characters and plotlines are revealed to the reader as a series of interconnected anecdotes and reminiscences. For me, it called to mind the way you learn about your own family history. Ancestors, recent and not-so-recent, are known to you through the stories told by your relatives. This is the way Ms. Simonsen reveals her characters' lives to the reader, one remembrance at a time. As Maggie talks to Jack Crowell, she learns not only about the Garrison-Lacey family, but also his own. The tale of the Crowell family, and its connection to the Laceys, turns out to be just as interesting as the original Jane Austen novel.
Originally, of course, the story begins with the Garrisons and the Laceys, who may or may not be the Bennets and the Darcys. But the reader is quickly caught up in the story of Jack Crowell and his wife Beth, whose own love story spans the First World War. In addition, Maggie's romance with the former navigator of an American bomber runs through the novel like a ribbon. Their developing relationship--and the ways in which their different backgrounds and his experiences in the war may affect their future--provides the backbone of the novel, while the Elizabeth-Darcy and Beth-Jack romances mirror each other in surprising ways.
This is a story of love, of the devastation wrought by two different wars, and of social status and family ties that complicate the lives of three different couples in three different time periods. A thoroughly enjoyable and complex historical romance.
Rated by buyers -
For those familiar with Jane Austen's novels, "Pemberley Remembered" is an exquisite dessert to an already sumptious meal. For others, like me, whose knowledge of "Pride and Prejudice" stops with Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman, this is still a heck of a read. Using "Pride and Prejudice" as a road map and tour guide, author Mary Simonsen not only deftly weaves us through victory gardens, cold-water flats and the beautiful Kentish countryside, but through time itself.
Maggie Joyce is the product of a Catholic coal mining family in Pennsylvania who buries herself in Jane Austen novels to relieve her tedium. When WWII breaks out, Maggie joins the war effort as a typist. When the war ends, she stays on, very first in war-ravaged Frankfurt, then, as something of a thank-you from the War Office, London. While there, her friend Pamela introduces her to Jack and Beth Crowell, whose love of Jane Austen equals Maggie's. When Jack and Beth disclose that they have old letters and journals that could shed light on the people and places of "Pride" and ask Maggie to join in their quest, she is hooked.
Mary Simonsen's meticulously-researched historical novel paints a very realistic portrait of love and the scars of war in the still dimly-lit England of 1947 and 1948. Although not a romance novel per se, there is plenty of romance, especially between Maggie and the complicated American B-17 navigator Rob McAllister.
Readers may want to stay alert in the early pages of the book when characters, both major and minor, come tumbling out at a brisk pace. The author senses our need for a little help by providing a cast of characters in the beginning. But stick with it, because like caviar and single-malt scotch, "Pemberley Remembered" is well worth the effort once you get the hang of it.
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