Death Comes to Pemberley

About a year ago (six months ago?), I read Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James.

I hated it.  I really, really hated it.  I'm still surprised I finished it.

I don't normally hate books.  I love books and I love stories.  My biggest hurdle is usually...uh...budoir themed scenes.  I don't like and won't read them.  But, other than that...I like the different aspects that can be pulled out to illustrate humanity.

However, this story had a fatal flaw.  You see, I felt, it was missing a beating heart.  A soul.  Life.  The characters were so wooden, they were like chess pieces on a board, rather than living, breathing characters.

So, while I started the book with great excitement, I finished the book with great irritation and wasn't sure I would see the movie.

Thank goodness for individual talents.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that whoever adapted the book to the screen seemed to recognize the missing heart, and infused the movie with scenes that pulsed with emotion.

It was brilliant to see all the potential of life be fulfilled.

However, there are aspects of the story that I didn't care for in the book and movie.

Like the evolution of Colonel FitzWilliam, who was written by Austen as an affable, humorous, openly avaricious man.  Even though we know he rejects Lizzie Bennet because he needs a more advantageous match, we forgive him, because he is genial and airy.  

But P.D. wrote him as a stodgy, arrogant, avaricious man.  Somewhere along the way, he lost his charm.  And charm is so important to him.  Then she pairs him up with someone in such a way, that I feel we miss out on layers and depth.  It's a mismatch for me.

Perhaps, I am colored by the adaptation that Anna Elliott, wrote.  She wrote a story where Colonel FitzWilliam evolves into a man, still kind-hearted but broken by the war, attracted to a woman (the same woman that P.D. James sets him up with) but in such way that we ache for him and her.

I think even without the Elliott adaptation, I would be dissatisfied with the direction P.D. sent the Colonel.  It just feels...shallow.

That being noted, I have to say that I loved the way Wickam was portrayed.  If there was depth and layers given to a character, Wickam got the lion's share in this story  Because of what he did to Georgiana, Lizzie, Darcy, that freckle-faced girl, and Lydia, we see him as a rogue.

He is still a rogue, and an unrepentant one at that.  But he has more to him.  Mr. Bennet has the best line, along the gist of, "I wish he would decide who to be.  First he played the earnest suitor, then the rake, then a war hero, and now a murderer."  I don't remember the exact line but he gives a great summation to all the aspects of Wickam's character.  And even though he is unrepentant, we the ones who are ingesting this story, still don't want him to hang.  That is an incredible feat.

Lydia is painted with similar brushstrokes, unlikable but we find ourselves wanting to see her make it through unscathed.  

So I am not sure how many people read the book and/or watched the movie but these were my thoughts as I experienced both.  And while I will never, ever read the book again, I will, more than likely, watch the move again.  Because, along the way, and through the end, it did tug at the heart in the way that it ought to have.  There really is a heart at the center of Death.