Duty and Desire Duty and Desire Duty and Desire is a 2004 historical Romance novel by Pamela Aidan. The second in the "Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" trilogy, the novel examines Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" from the perspective of Fitzwilliam Darcy, the central male character of that novel. In relation to "Pride and Prejudice", on which the novel is based, "Duty and Desire" takes place between Darcy's initial leaving of Hertfordshire and his reappearance in "Pride"'s narrative at Rosings Park. Following on from the events of "An Assembly Such as This", the novel opens with Fitzwilliam Darcy preparing for the Christmas season with his
Mr. Darcy for people of Meryton, this proves his social superiority as his "London manners" are described variously in the novel as "fashionable" and "elegant". Irvine argued that the union of Elizabeth and Darcy at the end of the novel was meant by Austen as a symbol of the union of the national and regional elites in England, forging together a united nation. One scholar Rachel Brownstein noted of all the Austen romances that of Darcy and Elizabeth is the only one where the couple began as complete strangers at the beginning of the book, making "Pride and Prejudice" the most romantic