Friends in England sent me Follies Past, a prequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Since I'm always wary of sequels and prequels and all manner of imitations of Austen's books, I was surprised that I enjoyed reading the novel far more than I expected. The author, Melanie Kerr, spins a good yarn, and she portrays characters so well known to me from my many readings of Pride and Prejudice with consistency and smoothness so as to be recognizable without undue dissonance. Characters who are lesser known or never named in the earlier novel become the major focus of the story in Follies Past. To her credit, Kerr's effort surpasses that of the mighty P D James in her sequel, Death Comes to Pemberley.
My favorite character, Elizabeth Bennet, does not appear at all in the prequel, but Darcy is present, and the reader comes to know more of his sister, Georgiana, who remains in the shadows in P&P. Of course, the author does not write like Jane Austen, but no one writes like JA, and Kerr's effort is good enough. I thank my friends for sending me the book.
