Colonel Brandon's Diary [Paperback]

I couldn't wait for the U.S. release so I again, like previous Amanda Grange "diaries", ordered it from Amazon U.K. As soon as it arrived, I started reading it and hardly put it down until it was finished. I believe this is her best yet -- yes, even better than Mr. Darcy's and Captain Wentworth's! Her Colonel is everything I imagined: passionate, honest, melancholy, honorable, thoughtful, heartbroken over his loss of his first love, Eliza... a romantic hero of the highest order. The first half of the book is entirely pre-Sense and Sensibility and dwells on his relationship with Eliza and the horrible events leading to her demise and his finding her. Knowing what is to come, all his happy entries were so bittersweet and every page seemed full of my self-inflicted angst. This part of the diary has an almost impending gloom about it. When he finally meets Marianne, well I wasn't sure how Grange was going to make the Colonel love her because until this point, the author has done an excellent job in getting me invested in his past relationship with Eliza and his resulting remorse. His soul really seemed lost, as if he were living only for the sake of living. Well, he does fall in-love with her, as we all know, and not because she is a substitue for Eliza. Unknowingly, she captivates him by her own natural charms -- and I believe, Grange successfully translates Austen's S&S through the eyes of the good Colonel. I wish there had been a few more entries after the marriage but all in all, a satisfying read that I happily recommend.

Whenever I think about the characters created by Jane Austen invariably I think of Marianne Dashwood as a twit. I just don't understand her, probably because she and I would be considered exact opposites. Amanda Grange has done me a huge favor by writing this book. She has helped me see Marianne in a more complete context and I can now appreciate the differences between Marianne's personality and my own. All of this was accomplished because Ms Grange has written such a very good book about Colonel Brandon.

This "diary" covers a period of twenty years, from 1778 to 1798. When we first meet James Brandon he is just 18 years old and very much in love with Eliza, his father's ward. Eliza returns his feelings and they begin to make plans to marry. They both know that they are very young, Brandon knows that he needs to have a profession so that he can support a wife but they are both willing to wait until circumstances are right for them to tell his father of their plans. Then, in one terrible conversation everything changes.

Because Eliza weds someone else, Brandon cannot stand the thought of remaining at home and continuing with his schooling so he enlists in the military and leaves for India. All of this portion of the book is the work of Ms Grange's imagination and I enjoyed it very much. It filled in huge gaps in the life history of Colonel Brandon which Jane Austen chose not to include. The story of how Eliza's child became the ward of Colonel Brandon is believable and compelling, given the type character he has. His inheritance of Delaford gives him the opportunity, the duty, to leave the military and to bring the estate back to its former glory. I found that Amanda Grange had brought all the characters necessary from Sense and Sensibility into this novel with a great amount of skill. The meeting of each character was done with great attention to detail as to the Austen work but it also made complete sense from the Amanda Grange standpoint. I congratulate her on this accomplishment.

By looking at Marianne through the eyes of Colonel Brandon I saw a completely different young woman. I saw how she could have been so easily lead astray by Willoughby. I understand better how vulnerable she was as a person because of her lack of experience in meeting people outside her family and small communities. Even while growing up at Norland she lived an isolated life to a large degree. Marianne is still not my favorite Austen character, she isn't even among the top five or six, but Colonel Brandon is. Thank you, Amanda Grange for giving me this personal look into the heart and soul of this quiet, good man.

Do you find Colonel Brandon romantic? Do you sometimes think he is better suited for Elinor than Marianne? Do you think he fell in love with Marianne because she resembles Eliza? Perhaps you'd like to get to know Colonel Brandon a little better and discover the answer for these questions yourself... If you are unfamiliar with this series, it is the retelling of Jane Austen's novels from the perspective of the male hero. No, it isn't all new and original material, but there is much understanding to gain by hearing the same story from another person's point-of-view. In "Colonel Brandon's Diary," Amanda Grange brings us new insight and comprehension for the seemingly silent and grave Colonel Brandon. In addition, she illustrates a heartrending backstory of his tragic love affair with his father's ward, Eliza.

As a young man studying law at Oxford University, James Brandon is looking forward to only one thing on his holiday from school, and that is spending time with his beloved Eliza. He anticipates spending hours in her company, basking in their love for each other, and discussing future plans of marriage together. When his father announces that Eliza is to marry his libertine and alcoholic brother, James desperately seeks for a way to save Eliza from this fate and unsuccessfully attempts to elope with her. Unfortunately, James is unable to stop the marriage and in his anguish decides the best course for him is to join the army and leave England.

Fourteen years later Brandon returns to England and inherits Delaford since his father and brother have both passed away. The only family he has remaining is Eliza's orphaned daughter, also named Eliza, who spends most of her time away in a boarding school. Colonel Brandon takes on the position of estate owner with adroitness and determination, and he works on restoring and improving Delaford and the land surrounding it to its former state before his mother died. He establishes a nice quiet life for himself with friends, tenants, and a ward. Yet this quiet life of his he will soon discover is not complete...

Having read all the other books in this series, I was very eager to read "Colonel Brandon's Diary." Although "Sense and Sensibility" is not my most favorite Austen novel and Colonel Brandon is not my most favorite hero, I was looking forward to seeing him in a new light and acquiring a new sense of appreciation for him. Ms. Grange did not disappoint, just like with "Captain Wentworth's Diary," she created a viable and enlightening history for Colonel Brandon. I was delighted that she spent one third of the book outlining his life prior to meeting Marianne Dashwood, and I took pleasure in witnessing the emotional and poignant journey he experienced as a youth and observing how it impacted his character.

In "Sense and Sensibility," Colonel Brandon is portrayed as a quiet and unassuming hero, not a dashing, passionate, and Byronic hero like Willoughby. However, after reading "Colonel Brandon's Diary," the reader will conceive that Colonel Brandon, with his strong character, devotion, patience, and yearning for Marianne is one of the most romantic heroes Jane Austen created. I enjoyed the accurate characterization of Colonel Brandon as well as the seamless integration of "Sense and Sensibility" with Ms. Grange's original material. Ms. Grange always approaches Jane Austen's novels and characters respectfully and knowledgeably and I admire her creativity and perception. My only wish is that she would dig deeper into these characters, tell their story a little more leisurely with more specifics and details.

Austenesque Reviews