The trilogy is composed of the following works: Fitzwilliam Darcy, although a mere 27-year-old gentleman, is the master of an impressive estate in Derbyshire called Pemberley (income of 10,000 pounds a year).
By contrast, Darcy is quite reserved and stiffly formal, and he expects the jovial informality of a country ball among ill-bred strangers will make for an arduous, unpleasant evening.
Shortly after Jane returns to her home Longbourn, Darcy receives a letter from sister Georgiana in which she expresses interest in his new friend.
During Darcy's dance with Elizabeth, they are interrupted by the locally prominent Sir Lucas, who thinks he is being complimentary in declaring them a handsome couple and suggesting a future alliance of Charles Bingley and Miss Jane Bennet.
To prevent the alliance, they further agree to get him back to London and, once there, Darcy will convince him that the emotional connection is slight and the practical drawbacks are huge.
Back in London, Darcy quickly convinces Bingley that his emotional connection with Miss Jane Bennet is slight and the practical drawbacks of such an alliance are huge.
Darcy and his cousin Richard Fitzwilliam travel every spring to Kent to assist their aunt Lady Catherine in the management of her estate Rosings Park.
During their coach ride from London, Fitzwilliam notices Darcy forlornly fingering Elizabeth's embroidery-thread bookmark, and he insists on hearing the romantic story associated with it.
To avoid telling Fitzwilliam the truth, Darcy quickly decides on providing him an alternate story about how he saved one of his best friends from an imprudent marriage.
Upon arriving, Darcy and Fitzwilliam learn that their aunt's rector, William Collins, has a visitor from Hertfordshire, Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
Over the course of week, through dinners, teas, parsonage visits, and especially shared walks on the Rosings grounds, Darcy comes to admire Elizabeth even more.
In London, he gets drunk with an old college friend, Dy Brougham, and cries in his beer about Elizabeth's rejection of his proposal that he made despite his concerns.
In Pemberley, Darcy acts rudely and brusquely and finally explains to Georgiana that his misbehavior is due to his disappointment over Elizabeth's rejection.
Darcy is well on his way character rehabilitation when Elizabeth receives urgent letters from home informing her that her 15-year-old baby sister Lydia has been seduced by the evil Wickham and is missing.
Simultaneously, Mr. Bennet and Uncle Gardiner are trying to do the same thing, but they fail, while Darcy succeeds by using his connections and money, especially with a Mrs. Younge, who was implicated in Wickham's attempted seduction of Georgiana.
When Elizabeth in Longbourn did not allay Lady Catherine's concerns, she traveled to London to confront Darcy, who tries to calm his aunt by noting that rumors like this are not unprecedented.
Please… my feelings… My feelings have undergone so material a change since that unfortunate day last spring that I can only receive with sincere gratitude and the most profound pleasure your assurances that yours continue the same."
As the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman is essentially a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, many of the main characters of the novels appeared previously in Austen's original work.
A proud, wealthy yet reserved and formal man, the novels focus primary on his developing yet conflicted feelings towards Elizabeth Bennet and his various attempts to either forget her or secure her affections.
Elizabeth Bennet is a young and attractive daughter of a gentleman with relatively modest estate who (initially at least) holds Darcy in some disdain due to his manners.
He is an intelligent and talented man who is very loyal to Darcy, who clearly appreciates him in return despite his reserved manner and his formal approach to the relationship between master and servant.
A shy and reserved girl, she recently suffered heartbreak at the hands of George Wickham, Darcy's nemesis, who attempted to elope with her for her vast fortune.
A subplot of the trilogy focuses on Georgiana's gradual maturation with the help of the religious teachings of her new governess, Mrs. Annesley, which both pleases and bemuses Darcy.
An old university friend of Darcy's, he hides a quick-witted intelligence and sensitive nature behind a seemingly foppish exterior and reputation, and is very socially active.
Brougham is eventually revealed to be an espionage agent employed by the Home Secretary; he is in many ways reminiscent of Percy Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel.
As Charles's friend, Darcy intends to both help them cement that status, by becoming landed gentry like himself, and avoid threats to it from connections with lower-ranking families.
George Wickham is Darcy's nemesis, a childhood friend and seemingly charming young man whose true personality is duplicitous and untrustworthy.
When finally located by Darcy in London, Wickham is contemptuous of Lydia Bennett, claiming that she followed him when he left to avoid his gambling debts.
The first use of this title may have been in the 1995 BBC miniseries, when Mr Collins states that the son of the Earl of Matlock is about to visit the parsonage, referring to Colonel Fitzwilliam.
In these novels Mrs. Annesley is a devout woman who influences Georgiana to embrace religion and charity as a way of forgetting Wickham's deceit.