Pride & Prejudice Variations With Natural Disasters
Pride & Prejudice variations with natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, extreme weather. and more.
I’ve always really enjoyed Pride & Prejudice variations where there is a natural disaster of some kind that alters the storyline.
It’s part of why I decided to write “When Summer Never Came,” based on the Year Without Summer in 1816.
I’ve decided to not include pandemics or fires, as there are so many of those – I’ll make them their own posts in the future.
Did I miss any? Are there any you would add to the list? Let me know in the comments!
When Summer Never Came: A Pride & Prejudice Variation by Tiffany Thomas
In When Summer Never Came: A Pride & Prejudice Variation by Tiffany Thomas, a worldwide disaster of epic proportions causes Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet to meet under extraordinary circumstances. In this retelling of Jane Austen’s famous work, will Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth find their happily ever after?
In April 1815, the volcano Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia. It affected the climate so that in 1816, there was cold and snow throughout the summer all across the world.
How would Pride & Prejudice be different if it had erupted ten years earlier, drastically altering the climate across the world? Would Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy still find one another in a year when summer never came?
Elizabeth Bennet has just experienced one of the most difficult years of her entire life. The loss of a beloved sister, a failed harvest, and the threat of freezing to death from a bitterly cold winter cause the inhabitants of Longbourn to do the unthinkable.
Meanwhile, Fitzwilliam Darcy is desperate to keep his family and his tenants alive. The scarcity of food due to a freezing summer has him taking extreme measures. His radical idea takes him, along with his friend Charles Bingley, to Netherfield, where his drastic experiment has the potential to save them all – or ruin his life forever.
Will the changed circumstances cause Elizabeth and Darcy to come together in unity? Or will his pride and her prejudice remain alive in spite of the terrible circumstances that are a result of the year without summer?
The Rushing Waters of Pemberley by Melanie Schertz
Fitzwilliam Darcy must marry before his next birthday or lose his inheritance in The Rushing Waters of Pemberley by Melanie Schertz.
He has never met a young lady who caught his attention, until the swollen river during a storm brings Miss Elizabeth Bennet to Pemberley.
Not knowing if her father is dead, and needing protection, will she agree to marrying the man who risked his life to save her from drowning?
What will happen when their family and friends begin to arrive at Pemberley?
Note: Chapter 20 has a sexual scene at the end of the chapter. It is the only sexual scene in the book.
Alone with Mr. Darcy: A Pride & Prejudice Variation by Abigail Reynolds
Elizabeth Bennet can’t imagine anything worse than being stranded by a blizzard in a tiny cottage with proud and unpleasant Mr. Darcy, and that’s what happens in Alone with Mr. Darcy: A Pride & Prejudice Variation by Abigail Reynolds.
But being trapped there for days – and nights – with an injured and confused Mr. Darcy who keeps saying the oddest things about her is even worse. At least he possesses the useful ability of lighting a fire to keep them from freezing to death. But when he puts his arms around her, she discovers the hearth isn’t the only place he knows how to build a fire. And the little half-frozen kitten he finds in a woodpile isn’t proving to be much of a chaperone.
She doesn’t really believe his promises to marry her if anyone finds out they spent two nights alone together, especially after learning he was betrayed by another woman in the past
When her worst fears are realized and her reputation is in tatters, she isn’t surprised to discover Mr. Darcy has vanished into thin air, leaving her no choice but to find a husband as soon as possible before her whole family is ruined.
Any husband will have to do, no matter how much she dislikes him.
Even if she can’t stop thinking of Mr. Darcy….
To Conquer Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Jennifer Altman
When Fitzwilliam Darcy departs Hunsford after his disastrous proposal to Elizabeth Bennet in To Conquer Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Jennifer Altman, he does not expect their paths to cross again. Indeed, knowing the lady’s true feelings for him, he makes every effort to see that they do not.
But when a chance encounter leaves him stranded in an abandoned cottage with the one woman he can never have, Darcy quickly realizes there is more at risk than just Elizabeth’s reputation.
Elizabeth Bennet knows Mr. Darcy is the last man in the world whom she could ever be prevailed on to marry. Until the morning he hands her a letter, his countenance as dark and forbidding as the windswept sky.
Now, trapped in a snowstorm with the one person she was certain she despised, Elizabeth is startled to discover that her feelings are not at all what she expected. But is one night alone together enough to alter the course of their future?
Can any man as proud as Mr. Darcy be expected to offer for the same woman a second time?
In this tale of serendipity and second chances, the world’s unlikeliest couple must conquer pride, prejudice, and faulty first impressions in the elusive quest for their own happily ever after.
Pemberley Quaking by Melanie Schertz
In November of 1795, an earthquake struck Derby shire in Pemberley Quaking by Melanie Schertz.
Trapped in the basement of the mercantile in Lambton are Gerald Darcy, his son Fitzwilliam, and Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
What will happen in the wake of the earthquake?
A Year Without Summer: A Variation on Pride and Prejudice by Martin Hunnicutt
A Year Without Summer: A Variation on Pride and Prejudice by Martin Hunnicutt in the fall of 1815 with celebrations of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo. The Bennet family recognizes that the winter is very cold but nothing prepares them for the ‘year without a summer’ that follows. Frost and cool temperatures every month of the growing season reduce harvests of important grains, vegetables, and fruits.
Their England is dependent upon locally grown foodstuffs and the people are unable to bring in food stuffs from other parts of the world–in fact other parts of the world would not have had surpluses of food to send. Horse and oxen-drawn wagons could only move produce so far in any single day.
With some good luck, Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennet separate after the Ball at Netherfield on excellent terms. Through happenstance, the couple meet at Hunsford at Easter during the cold spring, fall in love and become engaged. However, as the families and tenants struggle to harvest diminished harvests of grains and hay, the Bennet and Darcy families struggle to remain hopeful.
The poor harvests do not prevent the marriage of Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam, and they travel from London to Pemberley for the lean winter that affects the inhabitants of manor houses and farmhouses.
In Hertfordshire, Charles Bingley must deal with Caroline and his aunt from Scarborough, and Jane must rally her family as they discover how much they miss Elizabeth’s humour and wit. But in spring 1817, the weather makes all of England a green and bountiful land once again, and Jane and Charles find their way toward the happily-ever-after they deserve.
Mr. Darcy’s Refuge: A Pride & Prejudice Variation by Abigail Reynolds
Trapped for three days by a flood, and trapped forever by society because of it – that’s what happens in Mr. Darcy’s Refuge: A Pride & Prejudice Variation by Abigail Reynolds.
The river isn’t the only thing overflowing in Hunsford when a natural disaster forces Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy to work together.
The residents of flood-stricken Hunsford, seeking refuge in the parsonage atop the hill, are unaware they are interrupting Darcy’s disastrous proposal.
Even worse, the flood has washed out the only bride to Rosings Park, stranding Darcy with the woman who has just refused his offer of marriage.
But it may already be too late to redeem Elizabeth’s reputation….
Note: This book contains an intimate scene between a married couple.
Storm Clouds of Love by Melanie A Schertz
Storm Clouds of Love by Melanie A Schertz is a Pride and Prejudice what if story, beginning just after Elizabeth Bennet receives the infamous letter from Fitzwilliam Darcy.
What would happen if Darcy’s departure was postponed due to a storm, a storm which has caused Elizabeth to lose her way back to Hunsford Parish and safety?
Blinded by Prejudice: A Pride and Prejudice Variation (Falling for Mr Darcy Series) by KaraLynne Mackrory
ELIZABETH BENNET ANTICIPATED NOTHING MORE than a pleasant day among friends and relations when the pleasure trip to the ruins of Bodden chapel commenced in Blinded by Prejudice: A Pride and Prejudice Variation (Falling for Mr Darcy Series) by KaraLynne Mackrory. But what began as mere diversion turns frightening when the walls of the ancient church tumble down around them, endangering lives, demolishing pride and propriety, and bringing a hero into focus.
AS THE EARTH BEGINS TO TREMBLE, Fitzwilliam Darcy sees Elizabeth Bennet is in mortal danger and acts on instinct to save her. But when the dust settles, there are unforeseen consequences to his actions, including a serious injury to his eyesight.
BOUND TOGETHER under the most strained circumstances, Darcy and Elizabeth embark on a future neither one of them saw coming. Time can heal all wounds but will time allow them to see through hearts made clear and eyes no longer blinded by prejudice?