E. Bradshaw

Sorrow and Second Chances takes an alternative route to the story told in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, with a twist at its heart that changes the original events of Austen’s plot. In this adaptation, the Bennet family are afflicted with grief following a sudden death in their family, and as a consequence, the fate of the whole family is changed forever. Fitzwilliam Darcy, who has been filled with regret and deep remorse ever since his last encounter with Elizabeth Bennet, realises that – in this time of great sorrow – he might just have a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the woman he loves. Told predominantly from the viewpoint of Mr Darcy, who has been left broken-hearted by Elizabeth Bennet’s rejection, this Pride and Prejudice variation tells the story of what happened next between these two much-loved characters. ‘He could easily see that he had astonished her, and he knew very well that he was skirting well over the line of acceptable conduct with his close proximity and with his use of her Christian name – but he felt that they had travelled well beyond the realms of proper conduct a long time ago. Somewhere between their heated argument at the Hunsford Parsonage and their private conversation in the dark of her bedroom, they had crossed an invisible line. They could never return to holding polite, stilted conversations about music or politics, or the state of the weather, when they had already bared so much of their inner souls to one another. Let other people conduct their courtships in such a way, he thought determinedly to himself, but he could remain silent no longer. If he had felt less for her then he might have been able to restrain his candour, but he knew he was well beyond that now.’