Pemberley Ranch
By Jack Caldwell
Sourcebooks Landmark, 2010
I love Jane Austen fan fiction. Good or bad, I generally plow through to the end. This is the first of the Jane Austen fan fiction where I thought to myself, you know, I would have liked this book a lot better if Caldwell hadn’t used the character names from the original Austen texts. I just don’t think Austen’s characters belong in Civil War/Reconstruction-era Texas. I mean really, “Doc Bingley”? Mr. Darcy saying things like “Saddle ’em up, boys. Let’s ride!”?
The storyline is necessarily quite different from Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, and would have been interesting if the character names hadn’t constantly reminded me that this was supposed to be a retelling of Pride & Prejudice in the Old West.
As it was I felt like I was intruding on the Darcys, Bingleys, Bennets, and Lucases as they played a game of Cowboys and Outlaws in the Old West at a Pride & Prejudice family reunion and I was kind of embarrassed for them.
Related Links:
- Book Review: The Annotated Pride & Prejudice (BostonWriters)
- Book Review: Death Comes to Pemberley (BostonWriters)
- Book Review Short: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (BostonWriters)
- Memorable Quotes from Somewhere in the Middle of a Book: The Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters Edition (BostonWriters)
- Memorable Quotes from the Middle of a Book: Emma (BostonWriters)
- Book Review: Evelina (BostonWriters)
BostonWriters 
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