Desire and Duty: A Sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Desire and Duty follows the five ideas Jane Austen told her nephews and nieces that would occur in a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. These storylines are documented in her nephew’s biography of his famous Aunt. Many critics feel the lively heroine of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet Darcy, is the best characterized female in all of English literature. Jane Austen’s story ends with Elizabeth’s marriage and the Baders continue her story as wife, mother, and confidante to her sister-in-law, Georgiana. Set in the years 1805-1816, Desire and Duty tells the romantic adventures of Mr. Darcy’s beautiful, shy, devout younger sister, Georgiana. After her narrow escape (in Pride and Prejudice) from the nefarious clutches of Mr. Wickham, Georgiana is very cautious about men. Her childhood friend and poor gentleman neighbor, Mr. Thomas Staley, returns from the battle of Waterloo to become a tutor for the Darcy children. He is fascinating to her, but he is ashamed of his poverty. When Georgiana realizes her feelings for Thomas are more than friendship, she has to fight her own extreme shyness as well as the machinations of her imposing and powerful aunt, Lady Catherine, who wishes to see Georgiana married to the Duke of Kent, who will inherit Catherine’s estate. Along the way, issues of duty and desire, in marriage and in one’s relationship to God, are presented. Surprises in the plot rivet the attention of the reader until the very end.