Clergyman's Wife: A Pride & Prejudice Novel

This is a beautifully crafted book. The author establishes Charlotte’s voice believably and maintains this throughout the book - for a variety of reasons she was very similar to myself as a young girl and I really felt the ‘inside’ of the character. There were two jarring Americanisms however - somebody was ‘visiting with’ and here we just visit; and somewhere was ‘a ways away’ - not English. There was a third but I cannot recall it now so I guess you could say that it did not make such an impression. Of course, that is only three altogether but their very scarcity make them really stick out in an otherwise more or less faultless text. But a great book - and the clever thing is that in some ways not much happens, but the detail of this ‘not much’ is treated so well and is such an integral part of social life at the time. Generally brilliant and I defy anyone not to be totally moved by the description of the saddest time in Charlotte’s life.

For me this novel did not live up to the advertising which prompted me to buy it. I found the narrative and the characters to be dull and flat. I read to the end, hoping that it would improve but sadly, it didn't develop well, in my view, and it was thin and lacking substance. I also noted the American spellings of some words, which I might have overlooked if the story had been better, but which for me were out of place in this context. I must add here, that I read and enjoy novels by other American authors (who are not attempting to write a Jane Austen spin off) and I am not anti American spelling as such, but I feel that some better editing of The Clergyman's Wife would have been appropriate for the British market where an Austen spin off was concerned. I have only spent 99p on this book, but I am annoyed that I persisted for some hours with it, when I could have been reading or doing something else.I am sorry to write such a negative review, and of course, my views may not be the views of others, who may enjoy the book, but sadly I didn't.

This is clearly one of the best books I've read in a long time. There have been many attempts to try and write a Jane Austen 'follow-on' but not many of them actually succeed. To date, only Amanda Grange's diaries of the viewp0ints of the men in Jane Austen's books have really hit the mark, partly I suppose because they tap uncharted terriority. This book is just the same. We all know that Charlotte Lucas accepts the hand of the rather pompous and ridiculous Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice and maybe many of us think her ridiculous too for having done so.In this novel, the Clergyman's Wife, Molly Greeley takes us into the married Charlotte's world and we begin to see things from her point of view. Suddenly she is no longer ridiculous but we are entirely in her world rooting for her as she discovers true love and agonising with her having to accept the narrow confines of a world existing of Mr Collins and Lady Catherine de Bough. We experience her comfort in her young daughter and deeply wish for her situation to improve...

It's 1.30am and I have been ugly crying over this book on and off for the last two hours, which was surely the absolute best way to spend my evening having read the whole thing in one go. No matter your view of the Charlotte Lucas of P&P, you will be rooting for this older, more mature, more open version of her right from page one. I urge you to read this book.

I’m convinced that Jane Austen would be proud to read this tale of poor, plain Charlotte Lucas. The author has drawn us into the world of women in that era ,who were usually under the domination of men. They had two choices - marriage or spinsterhood. Who wouldn’t choose to be in charge of their own household, to have a child to pour their love on. We follow Charlotte through her boring ,tedious life, the death of her baby son, the birth of her daughter and the birth of love which cannot be fulfilled. I was keeping my fingers crossed for a happy ending. I wish there were more tales like this from this author .