Cousin Anne

In this prequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Anne de Bourgh is in London with her parents, where a family announcement catches her unawares: she is expected to marry her cousin Fitzwilliam Darcy. Even though she is only seventeen, Anne knows her heart: she doesn’t want to marry Fitzwilliam. She hopes to marry for love. In fact, since arriving in London her thoughts have been agreeably occupied with daydreaming about a young man she can well imagine marrying: George Wickham, her uncle Darcy’s godson and the son of the Darcy family’s former steward. Enjoying her reckless affection for Mr. Wickham, she launches herself like an unsteady fledgling into the ether and trusts her instincts. Trouble follows.