Yes, it’s kind of a lame post title, but we’re attempting to get in the holiday spirit. Dorothy has hung up the mistletoe at AustenBlog World Headquarters and we’re waiting impatiently for Henry Tilney (such a good-natured, obliging young man) to show up and stand under it. Wearing a great coat. And boots. Definitely boots.

Where were we again? Oh yes…

We’ve been a bit remiss in keeping up with the latest publications. Lady Russell would be most put out; but she will no doubt be delighted to hear that just in time for her winter removal to Bath, the press will be groaning with several new Jane Austen-related books. We probably should not be surprised to note that they are all Pride and Prejudice paraliterature. Darcy™ is probably as much a brand as Jane Austen™, after all.

Elizabeth Aston will add a third book to her series of P&P sequels, The True Darcy Spirit. (Does that sound rather like something out of the Wodehouse oeuvre or has Dorothy used too heavy a hand with the Tullamore Dew in the Editrix’s hot toddy tonight?) We received some publicity information from the publisher:

Cassandra Darcy, the artistic eldest daughter of Anne de Bourgh (the woman whom Fitzwilliam Darcy is expected to marry in Pride and Prejudice), has been disowned by her family after a botched elopement and is taken in by Mrs. Nempnet, who turns out to be a high-class procuress. By lucky chance, Cassandra runs into Camilla Wyndham, a distant cousin and one of the five Darcy daughters. Outraged at the way Cassandra’s family has treated her, Camilla helps her to find new lodgings and sell her paintings. With her confidence bolstered, Cassandra sets about making a living for herself from her painting and enters into the bohemian world of artistic London. When she helps a down-on-her-luck young woman on the street, her kindness is repaid with a stack of valuable letters — valuable because they are highly compromising letters written by the Princess, whom the Prince is eager to divorce.

Meanwhile, Horatio Darcy, a third son and the much younger first cousin of Fitzwilliam Darcy, learns that Cassandra, whom he has known since childhood, did not marry the man she ran off with and is living as an artist. He is extremely disapproving, yet when the Prince recruits him to find the missing letters, Horatio’s investigations lead him right to Cassandra, and he finds himself falling hopelessly in love with her. Romance may prove elusive, however, as social obstacles and the efforts of a vengeful Lord Usborne conspire to divide the two would-be lovers. Filled with atmospheric details of 18th century London and endearing pitch-perfect characters, THE TRUE DARCY SPIRIT is another triumph for Elizabeth Aston.

HORATIO DARCY? Tee hee! (Dorothy, dear, bring us another of your toddies. They are so warming on these chilly nights.) The book is scheduled for release in March 2006.

Also due in March is the next book in the Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery series by Carrie Bebris, North by Northanger. A crossover between P&P and NA? What kind of lame-ass idea is that? (We trust that many of our Syncophantic Minions will apprehend our little joke.)

For the panting hordes who can’t wait till March to satisfy their Darcy jones, we have good news. The third book in the Fitzwilliam Darcy: Gentleman trilogy by Pamela Aidan, These Three Remain, has been released and is looking for a good home with a rabid Darcy fan.

The sequel to Linda Berdoll’s book Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife, titled Darcy & Elizabeth: At Home at Pemberley, will be released in May 2006. We dutifully report this though we consider it proof of the degenerate age in which we live, in which one can no longer obtain good old-fashioned quality smut.

And in the Golden Oldies department, Amazon seems to be listing The Confessions of Fitzwilliam Darcy by Mary Street, the Holy Grail of P&P paraliterature for some people, as actually available. Get ‘em while they’re hot, and don’t e-mail us whining if you miss out (or begging to buy our copy…it is NOT for sale).