Berdoll, Linda

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Berdoll, Linda
(Linda Baker Berdoll)

PERSONAL:

Married.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Del Valle, TX.

CAREER:

Writer and farmer. Owner of a pecan farm, Del Valle, TX.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

(As Linda Baker Berdoll) The Bar Sinister: Pride and Prejudice Continues, Well, There It Is (Austin, TX), 1999, reprinted as Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues, Sourcebooks (Naperville, IL), 2004.

Darcy & Elizabeth: At Home at Pemberley, Source-books Landmark (Naperville, IL), 2006, also published as Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley.

SIDELIGHTS:

Linda Berdoll self-published her first book, The Bar Sinister: Pride and Prejudice Continues, a sequel to Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice. The book quickly became an underground hit and was reprinted by Sourcebooks as Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues. Berdoll begins the story with the marriage of Elizabeth to Darcy and a passionate wedding night. L. Watson, writing on the AllReaders.com Web site, commented that Darcy "is surprised at his lack of restraint when it comes to bedding his new wife." As the story progresses, a young man of illegitimate birth appears on the scene and may be Darcy's son. Although Elizabeth and Darcy appear happy, Elizabeth suspects Darcy of infidelity. In the meantime, Darcy must deal with a servant who is out for revenge. Several characters from the original novel are also included in this sequel. Carrie A. Herrmann, writing in the Library Journal, commented that the author "has done a remarkable job of capturing the flavor of the original characters." In a review on the Curled Up with a Good Book Web site, Rashmi Srinivas noted: "This is not Jane Austen of a bygone, refined era, but rather Linda Berdoll, a writer of today, who's continuing Austen's legendary story and as such brings her own style of flirty and fresh approach to the saga." Booklist contributor Kristine Huntley referred to the sequel as "rollicking" and a "wild, bawdy, and utterly enjoyable novel."

Berdoll continues to delve into the lives of Austen's characters in Darcy & Elizabeth: At Home at Pemberley, also titled Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley. This time the reader finds Elizabeth the mother of newborn twins and Mr. Darcy returned home after rescuing his sister, Georgiana, from the battlefield of Waterloo. The only problem is that Georgiana says that she became pregnant while nursing back to health their cousin Fitzwilliam during the battle. It turns out, however, that Georgiana is lying. Other plots involve Elizabeth's sisters, Jane and Lydia, with the former's husband fathering a child by another woman and the latter's confirmed ne'er-do-well husband believed to have been killed in battle. A Publishers Weekly contributor referred to the novel as a "lighthearted romp" and "thick in period trappings and language." Cynthia Johnson, writing in the Library Journal, noted that the author's "language … captures Austen's ironic flavor," adding that "her characters … are dead on." Another reviewer writing in Kirkus Reviews noted that the "big drama [for Darcy and Elizabeth themselves] concerns the frequency and picturesque locales of their connubial relations."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 2004, Kristine Huntley, review of Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues, p. 1422; August 1, 2006, Kaite Mediatore, review of Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley, p. 36.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2006, review of Darcy & Elizabeth, p. 249.

Library Journal, April 1, 2004, Carrie A. Herrmann, review of Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, p. 122; April 1, 2006, Cynthia Johnson, review of Darcy & Elizabeth, p. 80.

Publishers Weekly, March 27, 2006, review of Darcy & Elizabeth, 57.