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    The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh
    The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh
    The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh

    Written by Molly Greeley

    Narrated by Ell Potter

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    ""Greeley’s storytelling is intricate, masterly, and delightfully imaginative. Highly recommended.""—Library Journal (starred review) 

    In this gorgeously written and spellbinding historical novel based on Pride and Prejudice, the author of The Clergyman’s Wife combines the knowing eye of Jane Austen with the eroticism and Gothic intrigue of Sarah Waters to reimagine the life of the mysterious Anne de Bourgh.

    As a fussy baby, Anne de Bourgh was prescribed laudanum to quiet her, and now the young woman must take the opium-heavy tincture every day. Growing up sheltered and confined, removed from sunshine and fresh air, the pale and overly slender Anne grew up with few companions except her cousins, including Fitzwilliam Darcy. Throughout their childhoods, it was understood that Darcy and Anne would marry and combine their vast estates of Pemberley and Rosings. But Darcy does not love Anne or want her.

    After her father dies unexpectedly, leaving her his vast fortune, Anne has a moment of clarity: what if her life of fragility and illness isn’t truly real? What if she could free herself from the medicine that clouds her sharp mind and leaves her body weak and lethargic? Might there be a better life without the medicine she has been told she cannot live without?

    In a frenzy of desperation, Anne discards her laudanum and flees to the London home of her cousin, Colonel John Fitzwilliam, who helps her through her painful recovery. Yet once she returns to health, new challenges await. Shy and utterly inexperienced, the wealthy heiress must forge a new identity for herself, learning to navigate a “season” in society and the complexities of love and passion. The once wan, passive Anne gives way to a braver woman with a keen edge—leading to a powerful reckoning with the domineering mother determined to control Anne’s fortune . . . and her life.

    An extraordinary tale of one woman’s liberation, The Heiress reveals both the darkness and light in Austen’s world, with wit, sensuality, and a deeply compassionate understanding of the human heart.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 5, 2021
    ISBN9780063032033
    Author

    Molly Greeley

    Molly Greeley is the author of the acclaimed historical novels The Heiress and The Clergyman’s Wife. A graduate of Michigan State University, she lives with her husband and three children in Traverse City, Michigan.

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    Reviews for The Heiress

    4/5

    107 ratings8 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I think I'm not exagerating by saying this ought to be a masterpiece! The imagery, the plot, everything is si beautifully written! Sarah Water's comparison seem poor to me. I really hope more people would be able to appreciate the beauty of this book

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Went on a bit long at times but it was good. The narrator really helped make the novel with Anne's characters initial complete wooziness, as her mother has kept her medicated to the point of incapacity on laudanum (opium) since she was an infant! Her mother lady catherine did absolutely infuriate me with her selfishness and lack of caring. But Anne gives it to her when she finally returns clean and sober to take control of her estate! I wish it hasn't taken quite so long from the beginning with Anne reminiscing her entire childhood until 9 years after her governess has left her to get to going ! The governess was the only person in Anne's entire life who ever dated suggest to her that the laudanum was what kept her ill , that she wasn't even sick never needed it at all. And that stupid dr who kept prescribing it to her while it's obvious other individuals let alone physicians are well aware of long term and addictive effects of laudanum. The whole lesbian lover thing threw me for a loop, i was not expecting that from the summary for this book lol. But after reading through the beginning of the novel and some of Anne's strange comments regarding other women or her governess kind of made me wonder butI was really surprised at how it became totally just out there and not like secretive or like hinting that it was like blunt.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I loved this book! It gets repetitive but it’s engaging and I’ve already recommend it to someone else.
    • 5/5
      A beautifully written and narrated audiobook that imagines a life for Anne de Bourgh, the would-be bride of Pride and Prejudice’s Fitzwilliam Darcy had her mother had her way, in which she rejects the narratives that have been fed to her about her abilities, embraces her attraction to women, and carved out a place for herself outside the control of her mother and skirts the limits of what’s expected, or even tolerable, in polite society. I appreciate that her relationship with her mother includes them learning to understand each other a bit better instead of having Catherine be a thinly-characterized overbearing smother.
    • 3/5
      I don't read a lot of [Pride and Prejudice] retellings or spin offs, but this novel was recommended by a friend and then I saw I signed copied in an independent bookstore that I visited while on vacation in Traverse City, MI. [[Molly Greeley]] lives there and so I felt I had to pick it up. As this genre goes, this was really good. The crux of her story is that Anne de Bourgh was given laudanum as a baby and continued to have it administered as "medicine" into her teens. A governess finally awakens her to the fact that her illness is caused by her medicine instead of helped by it. The rest of the book follows what happens when her mind clears and she becomes part of the world. I think this book works because it doesn't take much from Austen except Anne de Bourgh and her mother. Darcy and Elizabeth make appearances and are part of the story, but they aren't developed characters, so the reader is allowed to keep their own picture of those much-loved characters in their head. Most of the people Anne ends up interacting with are the author's own invention. Some of the writing is a bit overdone and things work out a bit too neatly, but all in all this was enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      Not being a fan of Pride and Prejudice - shock horror! - my limited knowledge of Anne de Bourgh, Lady Catherine's sickly daughter and Darcy's cousin, comes from Rosamund Stephen's silent, bespectacled portrayal in the 2005 film adaptation. I'm not really sure why I wanted to read this continuation about Anne's life after Darcy and Lizzie's meeting at Rosings, but I'm glad I did!And because I was ill, nothing ever changed in my life from year to year, and so I had nothing to talk about.I really enjoyed Anne's narration in Molly Greeley's sequel. First person narration can sound clumsy and unnatural when forced on a bland character but Anne's voice is wonderfully lyrical and thoughtful:My breast filled with affection for the ivy: its rustling three-pronged leaves, its apparent stillness and inexorable creep. And at the same time, I was sometimes punched by sympathy for the tree, for, just as inexorably, it was being smothered.The author doesn't try to ape Austen, which I appreciated, and creates instead almost her own world inhabited by characters with familiar names. I also loved the back story explaining Anne's delicate health in Pride and Prejudice - dosed on laudanum since she was a colicky baby, Anne is an addict by the time we meet her at Rosings, and her mother Lady Catherine almost guilty of Munchausen's by proxy! Shocking but also believable and more dramatic than a mere nervous complaint or leaving her as a frail, fainting maiden. Her path to recovery is also well done, and I loved the emphasis on Anne's inheritance of Rosings and the way the house gives her strength.The romantic subplot also felt natural to me, if a little reminiscent of Mrs Everything by Jennifer Weiner. Turning Anne into Gentleman Jack might appal some Austenites - like the reviewer who announced that she deleted her copy after a kiss! - but I feel there is too much heteronormativity in Austen sequels and welcome a different view.The middle section of the book in London could have been shortened - whole years fly by in a chapter and then interminable drawing room scenes drag on forever - and there a few anachronisms and Americanisms but overall this was a delightful sequel!
    • 4/5
      Anne de Bourgh was the woman Mr. Darcy was promised to when he elected to wed Elizabeth Bennet instead and this novel is her story. Anne is the heiress to a wealthy estate only slightly less impressive than Pemberley and the only daughter of the overbearing Lady Catherine. Considered a sickly child, Anne lives for years in an opium-induced haze until she decides to take her fate into her own hands. I loved this story of a woman discovering who she is and making her own path and finding her own happiness, especially with a romance unconventional for the era. I enjoyed the references to well-known Pride and Prejudice characters, but this novel is very much its own tale and asserts its independence from that classic story, just like its heroine.
    • 4/5
      Another take on Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice and I love it! Anne de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy’s intended is brought out from the shadows. Her mother fears for her health and keeps Anne drowsy with laudanum. Catherine, Anne’s mother is domineering yet one day Anne manages to forgo the laudanum and travel to London, as near to normal life as she can get. It is well-written, does a good job with Austen’s voice in writing and provides some backstory.