Searching for Pemberley

Searching for Pemberley, by Mary Lydon Simonsen, is a story of Maggie Joyce, a young girl from the small coal-mining town of Minooka, PA.  She moves in with her sisters in Washington D.C. near the end of WWII after finishing school to help the war effort by clerking.  After WWII ends, her sisters move back home and she decides to transfer to Germany with the promise of the chance to transfer to London after a year.

Maggie is a huge fan of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  Once she finally moves to London, she is trying to get ideas of places to visit on weekends.  When a co-worker suggests her visiting the house that inspired Austen's Pemberley, she gladly jumps at the chance.  During the visit, she is drawn into the whole story of the families that inspired the characters in P&P and is encouraged to visit a family who know a great deal about the Laceys, the family the Darcys are based on.  She becomes very close to this family and visits them often to find out as much as she can about the real people of P&P.  She also takes as many trips as possible to see all the homes of the P&P families.

During her time in England, she wins the hearts of two men: one an American flyboy she met in a local bar and the other the youngest son of the family.  When it is finally revealed to her that the mother of the family she has grown close to is actually a descendant of the great Laceys, and therefore so is her son.  Maggie must now decide which man is right for her.  But which will she choose?

This is a really good story and despite the time period, I wished I could have been there right alongside Maggie touring the English countryside.  I wanted to just jump on a plane England.  And one of these days I will get to do that...  But until then, I will dream of the English countryside...and English gentlemen.