Clara Rowsley Pride and Prejudice variations
Cover of What Mr. Bennet Remembered: on a frosted lane a young lady in a sage-green pelisse with a white muff stands at a wooden stile while a gentleman in a long dark coat reads a letter; bare trees and a pale winter sun behind them.

From St Nicholas to Christmas, 1811. Coming to Kindle in November 2026.

What Mr. Bennet Remembered

A Pride and Prejudice Christmas Variation Novella

Twenty-three years ago, Mr. Darcy’s father advised his friend not to marry a pretty attorney’s daughter. Mr. Bennet married her anyway.

A Kindle ebook. Coming to Kindle in November 2026.

The story

It is December 1811. Mr. Bingley is gone from Netherfield, Jane Bennet is trying not to hope, and all Meryton knows how Mr. Darcy treated poor Mr. Wickham. Then a packet from Longbourn reaches Mr. Darcy in town: a letter in his late father’s hand that he has never seen, and four dry lines from Mr. Bennet.

Mr. Bennet has the rest of the letters. He will lend them one a day, by his daughter Elizabeth, on one condition: for every letter, Mr. Darcy must answer one of her questions, truly.

Elizabeth means to ask him everything. She does not expect to like the answers, or the man.

What Mr. Bennet Remembered is a clean, low-angst, standalone Pride and Prejudice variation novella of about 19,000 words, an afternoon’s read with dry humour and one kiss, set in the weeks before Christmas, with a happy ending for Darcy and Elizabeth.