Mr Darcy

Mr Darcy has been given his most radical makeover yet, appearing as a bespectacled, bow-tie-wearing duck who favours top hats and is prone to blushing.

IN Clueless, he was repackaged as the stepbrother with a social conscience; in Bridget Jones's Diary he appeared as a buttoned-up lawyer; and now Mr Darcy, the hero of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice has been given his most radical makeover yet, appearing as a bespectacled, bow-tie-wearing duck who favours top hats and is prone to blushing.

His latest incarnation will be lost on the four to eight-year-olds at whom this children's book is squarely targeted but Carnavas' gorgeous illustrations - which see the avian Mr Darcy frequently depicted with his bill in the air - are likely to be appreciated by whichever adult has been drafted into reading them a bedtime story.

The accompanying tale by Field, a first-time author, is designed to convey a simple truth: that self-importance plus loneliness equals one miserable duck, especially when the bird in question is prone to clumsiness and averse to accepting the assistance of others.

Mr Darcy lives in the park by himself - "a place where trees blossom and the lake sparkles'' but often finds himself longing for company - so you'd think he'd be inclined to accept an invitation to take tea with a kind-hearted fellow duck named Lizzie and her four sisters. Instead, we're told, he "tosses the invitation aside'' on the basis they live in a comparatively ordinary park that he has no personal inclination to visit.

Instead, he continues on his accident-prone way, falling flat on his face and hitting a tree, spurning Lizzie's friendly advances in the process. But a close encounter with a treacherous mud puddle could finally force him to re-examine his actions. And as a sitting duck finally gets his comeuppance, it seems a happy ending could be just around the corner.

VERDICT: A new twist for an old classic

Mr Darcy, Alex Field, Illustrated by Peter Carnavas, New Frontier, $24.95.