Preview of "Darcy's Struggle"

Brilliant, sensitive, and private, Fitzwilliam Darcy finds himself in Hertfordshire, consciously

troubled by recent events in Ramsgate and unconsciously troubled by himself.  

At the very public Meryton Assembly, he speaks aloud words he should have thought

silently—words overheard by their subject, Elizabeth Bennet, at whom Darcy has only glanced though he describes her insultingly.  

It is not until Elizabeth appears at Netherfield, full of life, skirted in mud, and eager to attend to her sick sister, Jane, that Darcy truly looks at her. When he does, he knows she is the woman he has been searching for, the elusive her of his heart. 

He falls for her then, completely, despite her apparent unsuitability to be the Mistress of

Pemberley and despite his repetitive but half-hearted efforts to convince himself he can live

without her. 

Shortly before Elizabeth leaves Netherfield, Darcy apologizes for what he said at the Assembly, and Elizabeth accepts his apology.  

But will that apology—and the depth of his sudden, durable feelings—give him hope with

Elizabeth? Can he overcome himself, his past, his present, and his pride, and please a woman worthy of being pleased? How will George Wickham’s arrival frustrate Darcy’s hopes, especially after Darcy bungles his attempt to ask Elizabeth for a courtship and instead blunders into a proposal that surprises them both? 

How will Darcy bear the knowledge that his beloved does not love him back? 

Romantic, reflective, and ironic, this is a story told from Darcy’s point of view, a story of the

struggle from intellect to heart — a deliberate character study and a delicate love story.