The Passions of Dr. Darcy

February 11, 2013
A peripheral character from Lathan’s Darcy saga takes center stage in this tepid Jane Austen pastiche. Driven by medical ambition and scornful of idle aristocrats, 22-year-old Dr. George Darcy (uncle to Austen’s memorable Fitzwilliam Darcy) takes a post in colonial India. Impatient with his incompetent boss, a “pompous, insufferable hack,” George throws himself into his work and pursues romance between brief visits back home to Pemberley and briefer glimpses of political unrest and contemporary medical practice. After George’s first love marries a rival who, unlike George, is willing to move back to England, Lady Ruby Thomason uses George to get an heir for her secret husband, the scheming Duke of Larent. Short affairs give way to a grand passion for Jharna, the widow of a good friend, then more affairs after her early death; the eventual wedding-and-baby happy ending with an Englishwoman lacks romantic impact after all these dalliances. Lathan eschews subtlety, delivering a straightforward melodrama of by-the-book passions in a bare-bones setting. Agent: Scott Eagan, the Greyhaus Literary Agency.

February 1, 2013
Volume 8 of the Darcy Saga--a Pride and Prejudice spinoff series--devotes itself to the exploits both professional and, especially, romantic of Dr. George Darcy, a gifted medic working in colonial India. Making token gestures toward the family and country estate of Jane Austen's indelible hero, Lathan's novel pursues a tangential branch of the line, the life history of Uncle George, who, heartbroken at the death of his twin brother, quit England in 1789 to work for the East India Company. Arriving in Bombay, he meets a villainous boss, a friendly colleague and an important Indian mentor, Dr. Ullas. More importantly, there are encounters with significant women. Although apparently unlucky in love, George has his fair share of passionate--and sexually explicit--encounters. But after the early death of Ullas, it's with his widow, Jharna, that George finds a measure of long-term, if unmarried, happiness. Traveling the subcontinent over almost three decades, he learns much about healing and Indian society, but returns occasionally to England and eventually, after tragedies, retires there, only to find love one last time. Forget Jane Austen. This romance/historical chronicle offers immense length and devoted application in lieu of plot or wit. For fans of Volumes 1 to 7.

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