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 of the Austen novels. Irvine argued that Elizabeth appears to be unworthy of Darcy not because of their differences in income level, but because of the class divide as she contemplates the glories of Pemberley. Against the interpretation that "Pride and Prejudice" is primarily a novel about class, the American scholar Susan Morgan argued the novel is about character, stating Mr. Wickham may not be as wealthy as Darcy, but his commission in the militia would have made an eminently respectable man to marry in Regency England. Morgan wrote though Darcy is rich, he does not represent "society" as some