Fitzwilliam Follies

Having read Pride & Prejudice many times, and watched the BBC miniseries even more than that (Colin Firth = drool), I had kicked around the idea of a P&P story for a while now. There are many failed attempts at a modernized version sitting on my netbook gathering dust. They just seemed to fight me with every page and just weren't working. So I decided to just toss those aside and make an attempt at a regency era fic. Needless to say, that version is flowing much better.

But as I am not one to simply rewrite P&P the same way yet again, I have taken a different approach. Most P&P fanfics follow the original work in that Elizabeth Bennett is the main focus and everything else is secondary. I feel however that there is more to the world of Pride & Prejudice than just the Bennett sisters.

Fitzwilliam Follies focuses on Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam - hence my rather clever little title there. While I have not ignored the Bennett sisters completely, they do not take center stage in this story. This is Darcy's story. This is the colonel's story. Why should such interesting background characters go ignored so often, or merely be written in as comic relief support for Darcy and Elizabeth a thousand times over? Austen only ever gave us the briefest glimpse into Darcy's thoughts and character - and only in relation to whatever Elizabeth was saying or doing at the time. I wanted to explore this more, and so I have.

As with all my fan fiction, there has to be an original character or two tossed into the mix, and Follies is no different. Here we have the introduction of Madeline Stonefeld, long time family friend of the Darcy's. No, I have not re-written P&P history completely so put down the pitchforks. The grand Stonefeld estate is not all that far from Pemberly, and young Madeline grew up there, becoming more of a sister to Darcy and Georgiana than a romantic interest. That particular nugget of joy was saved for the colonel, though he did try to mess things up rather recently. Cousin Anne is even brought into the mix, though her part is not so large...I may very well end up writing a sequel or two to this work.

Interactions involving Darcy and Elizabeth are seen through his eyes, as well as letters and conversations he has with Madeline. She offers her advice on any given topic, leaving Darcy to follow it or ignore it at any given moment. Georgiana is taken under wing, and there is nearly a competition to see who Caroline dislikes more - Madeline or Elizabeth. Though I am not wanting to make Caroline such an evil witch...I'm not sure if I have succeeded just yet. As I'm still writing though, I have time to fix that.

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