Such is Jane Austen's brilliance that our obsession with Pride and Prejudice has hardly ceased over the two centuries since its publication. Along with Austen's ahead-of-her-time ingenuity in creating characters, some might say that her mastery of subplots is what has kept readers talking and wondering for centuries.

Take, for instance, the mystery around Mr. Darcy's cousin Anne de Bourgh. What we know about her from Austen's novel is that she was sickly, had an ungodly inheritance and (much to our relief) never ends up marrying Mr. Darcy, as had been arranged since their births. But isn't there so much more we have wished to know about her?

Enter Molly Greeley's novel The Heiress, an entertaining elaboration to satisfy generations of readers who have wondered and theorized about Anne. In perfectly Austenesque style, Greeley reveals the backstory of the Rosings Park heiress and just what made her so sickly, so interesting and so complicated.

Anne begins life as a colicky baby, and with a doctor's recommendation, her mother, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, gives baby Anne opium-heavy laudanum to calm her down. This leads to an addiction that weakens Anne and leaves her in a constant daze, as readers will remember in Pride and Prejudice. But Anne comes to a rare moment of clarity in her late 20s when she questions if her fragility and illness are truly real. Desperate to find out, she flees to London to stay with her cousin Colonel John Fitzwilliam. It's a move so bold that it paves the path for other bold and unexpected decisions to follow.

Keen observations about society and strong supporting characters make The Heiress a perfectly joyful read.

Another Pride and Prejudice retelling? Yes, but as in her debut, The Clergyman's Wife, Greeley doesn't dwell on the big-name protagonists. Here she tells the story of Anne de Bourgh, the heiress Darcy was expected to marry, who was calmed with laudanum as a cranky baby and is now addicted to it. But when her father dies, she decides to dump the drugs and take over her own life. With 75,000-copy first printing.

Greeley (The Clergyman's Wife) delivers an immersive queer reimagining of Pride and Prejudice character Anne de Bourgh. Anne is born into wealth as the heiress to Rosings Park in Kent, England, and the daughter of Lady Catherine and Sir Lewis de Bourgh. Anne, now in her 30s, has been prescribed laudanum since she was an infant, then for being "fussy" and now for being "delicate," and though she expects to marry her cousin Fitzwilliam, he weds Elizabeth Bennet. While Catherine is away from Rosings Park, Anne stops taking her laudanum and travels to London, where she becomes acquainted with Eliza Amherst, a friend of her cousin's wife, and their friendship evolves into a secret romance. Though Anne hopes Eliza will consider returning to Rosings Park as her companion, Eliza reluctantly understands the societal obligation for her to marry an eligible man, and Anne reckons with fulfilling her obligations as heiress to the estate. Greeley's expert imaginings of the life of Anne de Bourgh reveal the hidden depths of her character and highlight the societal restrictions of 19th-century women as Anne seeks to overcome her mother's domineering persona and find happiness. Historical fiction fans will be drawn to Anne's plight. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency. (Jan.)