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Darcy, who was standing by the window, gave a sudden exclamation.
'My God! What does that fool of a coachman think he's doing? He'll have the whole chaise over! This is madness. And who on earth are they?Elizabeth, is anyone else expected tonight?'
'No one.'
Elizabeth and the rest of the company crowded to the window and there in the distance saw a chaise, lurching and swaying down the woodland road towards the house, its two sidelights blazing like small flames. It was too distant for the wheels to be heard and it seemed to Elizabeth that she was seeing a spectral coach of legend, flying soundlessly through the moonlit night, the dreaded harbinger of death.
The year is 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the Pemberley nursery, Elizabeth's beloved sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live within seventeen miles, the ordered and secure life of Pemberley seems unassailable, and Elizabeth's happiness in...
Tovább
Fülszöveg
Darcy, who was standing by the window, gave a sudden exclamation.
'My God! What does that fool of a coachman think he's doing? He'll have the whole chaise over! This is madness. And who on earth are they?Elizabeth, is anyone else expected tonight?'
'No one.'
Elizabeth and the rest of the company crowded to the window and there in the distance saw a chaise, lurching and swaying down the woodland road towards the house, its two sidelights blazing like small flames. It was too distant for the wheels to be heard and it seemed to Elizabeth that she was seeing a spectral coach of legend, flying soundlessly through the moonlit night, the dreaded harbinger of death.
The year is 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the Pemberley nursery, Elizabeth's beloved sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live within seventeen miles, the ordered and secure life of Pemberley seems unassailable, and Elizabeth's happiness in her marriage is complete. But their peace is threatened and old sins and misunderstandings are rekindled on the eve of the annual autumn ball. The Darcys and their guests are preparing to retire for the night when a chaise appears, rocking down the path from Pemberley's wild woodland, and as it pulls up, Lydia Wickham, an uninvited guest, tumbles out, screaming that her husband has been murdered.
In a pitch-perfect recreation of the world of
] Pride and Prejudice, P. D. James elegantly fuses
I her lifelong passion for the work of Jane Austen
; with her talent for writing detective fiction.
I She weaves a compelling story, combining a
J sensitive insight into the happy but threatened
^ marriage of the Darcys and the excitement
] and suspense of a brilliantly crafted detective
ij story. Death Comes to Pemberley enshrines the
; qualities her readers have come to expect:
! psychological and emotional richness of
i characterisation, vivid evocation of place, and
j a credible and superbly structured plot, in a
J powerful and distinguished work of fiction.
I III 1
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p. D.James was born in Oxford in 1920 and (' ,. " i: .i
educated at Cambridge High School for Girls. From 1949 to 1968 she worked in the National !
Health Service and subsequently in the Home Office, first in the Police Department and later in the Criminal Policy Department. All that experience has been used in her novels. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature ,, v '
and of the Royal Society of Arts and has served as a governor of the BBC, a member of the Arts Council, where she was Chairman of the Literary Advisory Panel, on the board of the British Council, and as a magistrate in Middlesex and London. She is an Honorary Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. She has won awards for crime writing in Britain, America, Italy and Scandinavia, including the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award and the National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature (US). She has received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded an OBE in 1983, and was created a life peer in 1991. In 1997 she was elected President of the Society of Authors.
She lives in London and Oxford and has two daughters, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Vissza