12 h 23 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 23 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if Austen’s familiar households opened their doors to one another—and made room for new attachments?
In Old Friends and New Fancies, Sybil G. Brinton brings people from Jane Austen’s novels into one shared world. Elizabeth Darcy and Mr Darcy join a wider circle that includes Emma Knightley, Fanny Bertram, Anne Wentworth and Catherine Tilney. Familiar faces find new company amid country houses, drawing rooms and carefully chosen words.
Visits, letters and news carried between households keep this gentle comedy of manners moving. Marriage and family remain at its heart, bound up with money, rank and place. As people meet and form attachments, the quiet pressure of what neighbours think gives ordinary conversations weight. For readers who know Austen well, recognition is part of the pleasure.
What you’ll discover
- Old acquaintances, new company Meet familiar people beyond their original circles, with fresh company around them.
- Wit beside reserve Return to quick, witty Elizabeth Darcy and her proud, reserved husband.
- Lives still entwined Follow a social world where marriage connects personal hopes with money and rank.
- Drawing room pleasures Enjoy visits, letters and household news that make small encounters worth watching.
- An admirer’s affection Enter Brinton’s imagined continuation, shaped by her devotion to Austen and her characters.
Who will love it
Readers who love Jane Austen's drawing rooms and want to meet her people again. It suits anyone who enjoys matchmaking, gossip, family loyalty and gentle comedy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A broken engagement opens the story
- Bath brings new friends and old enemies
- Colonel Fitzwilliam meets Mary Crawford
- A quiet invitation is badly handled
- Gossip does its damage at the reception
- London brings Georgiana a friend and a rumor
- Kitty builds a romance on hope alone
- Mrs. Jennings, a proposal and a ball
- Misreading hearts is the book's chief theme
- A sequel told through letters, scenes and talk
Who’s who
- Elizabeth DarcyThe clever mistress of Pemberley who loves her family and cannot resist helping her friends find happiness.
- Georgiana DarcyDarcy's shy, kind sister who wants everyone around her to be happy, often before herself.
- Colonel FitzwilliamThe Darcys' modest cousin, a soldier who loves music and hopes to find a wife who will value him.
- Mary CrawfordA graceful harpist whose family's scandal follows her and who guards her pride closely.
- Kitty BennetElizabeth's youngest unmarried sister, eager to marry and quick to build a dream out of a few kind words.
- William PriceA cheerful young naval lieutenant, brave and friendly, who wants to rise in his profession.
- Lady Catherine de BourghDarcy's overbearing aunt, who loves to rule her circle and is easily swayed by flatterers.
- Mrs. JenningsA warm, noisy matchmaker who sees a courtship in every friendly glance.
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Old Friends and New Fancies
by Sybil G. Brinton · 1913
A broken Pemberley engagement sends Elizabeth Darcy matchmaking in Bath as gossip threatens her friends' happiness.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What becomes of Jane Austen's heroines once the weddings are over? Sybil G. Brinton answers in Old Friends and New Fancies, a sequel that gathers people from Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion and Emma into one busy circle.
Old Friends and New Fancies at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h5 h 35 min fast, 8 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 100,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1913by Sybil G. Brinton
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A broken engagement opens the story
The book begins with a quiet problem. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy had encouraged Georgiana to become engaged to Colonel Fitzwilliam, her cousin and oldest friend. They meant well, and the match looked sensible to everyone. Georgiana is twenty and shy.
One April morning in the library at Pemberley, Elizabeth tells her husband that Georgiana is not happy. The girl avoids being alone with the Colonel. Darcy is startled and doubts it. Georgiana confesses with deep embarrassment that she cannot love her cousin in that way. The Colonel admits he has long feared he could not make her happy.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1913
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 8 h 0 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Brinton, Sybil G. Old Friends and New Fancies. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/old-friends-and-new-fancies.
Brinton, S. G. (2026). Old friends and new fancies. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/old-friends-and-new-fancies (Original work published 1913)
Brinton, Sybil G. Old Friends and New Fancies. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/old-friends-and-new-fancies.
@book{brinton2026old,
author = {Brinton, Sybil G.},
title = {Old Friends and New Fancies},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/old-friends-and-new-fancies},
note = {First published 1913}
}
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What is Old Friends and New Fancies about?
It is a sequel to Jane Austen's novels that gathers characters from several of them. It follows Elizabeth Darcy as she helps her sister-in-law Georgiana, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mary Crawford and Kitty Bennet through love, rumor and misunderstanding.
Which Jane Austen novels do the characters come from?
They come from Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion and Emma. The book lists the characters at the start, and readers who know the originals will enjoy the reunions.
Who wrote Old Friends and New Fancies and when?
Sybil G. Brinton wrote it, and she died in 1928. It is not by Jane Austen. It is a tribute built from Austen's own hints about what became of her characters.
The author
Sybil G. Brinton
English novelist
Sybil G. Brinton (1874–1928) was an English novelist born in Stourport, Worcestershire. She wrote Old Friends and New Fancies, published in 1913. The novel was a sequel to the novels of Jane Austen. It is the only novel Brinton is known to have published.
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