Talk about slash fiction.  This is probably one of the best fan fics I've read in a long time.  Everything that happened in the original but just happened off-screen (-page) happens here.  If it was hinted at by Austen and glossed over for whatever reason, it's explicit here.  And the best part is that it still sounds like Austen, still uses language like Austen.  Of course, any truly fanatical reader will discount this book as a cheap rip-off of a master-piece, but even retellings, recasting, and rip-odd can be really good reading.

My one complaint is that this book is very interested in men having sex with other men, and men and women having sex with each other, but women having sex with other women is somehow uninteresting.  Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley get entire chapters, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham get at least several pages, Mr. Darcy and various other male persons get time and page space, even Mr. Bingley and the former Miss Bennett have several sections, and Mr. Darcy and the former second Miss Bennett, of course, are (un) covered in great detail.  But the second Miss Bennett and Miss Lucas, her best friend?  Well, we don't get so many details on that.  While the men continue happily carrying blankets into the forest and marrying their male lovers' sisters so as to have a good excuse for visiting, the women all either settle down happily into heterosexual monogamy (even if their husbands are not monogamous), or are reduced to chaste cuddling.  Somehow, particularly for Miss de Bourgh and the former Miss Lucas, this seems unfair in the extreme.

For readers who've loved Jane Austen's most popular novel-the inestimable Pride and Prejudice-questions have always remained. What is the real nature of Darcy's intense friendship with Charles Bingley, to explain why he would prevent Bingley's marriage to Elizabeth's beautiful and virtuous sister Jane? How can Darcy reconcile his own desire for Elizabeth with his determination to save his friend from a similar entanglement? What is the disturbing history behind Darcy's tortured relationship with his foster brother, George Wickham? And what other intimacies, besides their cherished friendship, are exchanged between Elizabeth and Charlotte Lucas?

Ann Herendeen, acclaimed author of Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander, reimagines this classic love story, focusing on the untold aspects of Jane Austen's timeless novel. Pride/Prejudice brings to light all the buried secrets, potential scandals, and unspoken, forbidden loves of Austen's story, weaving a tale of intertwined passions, pride humbled, and ultimately, freedom from prejudice.