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'Bridget Jones' shocker: Latest 'Bridget Jones' novel gets fans buzzing

'Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy' was excerpted in the Sunday Times, revealing a shocking plot development in the new novel. The 'Bridget Jones' novels have previously been adapted into two films.

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Laurie Sparham/Universal Studios
The 'Bridget Jones' films star Renee Zellweger (r.) and Colin Firth (l.).
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Take a deep breath, “Bridget Jones” fans – and stop here if you don’t want any spoilers before the third “Bridget Jones” novel, “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” by Helen Fielding, is released this month.

The British newspaper the Sunday Times released an excerpt of the new novel in its magazine this past weekend. According to the Times, Bridget and her love interest Mark Darcy married and had two children, but Mark Darcy has since died and "Mad" finds Bridget as a widow.

Some readers are not pleased, to say the least.

“how could they kill off Mark Darcy?!” a user named Sam Garcia tweeted, while a user named Kristy Lear wrote, “Just heard about the new Bridget jones storyline... I think it's fair to say I'm not the only girl in the world who's going to be dev[a]stated.”

A Twitter user named Saba Rizvi wrote, “Mr. Darcy cannot die!! It wd b like killing the hopes and dreams of millions!”

“Mad About the Boy” is due to be released Oct. 15 in the US. The “Bridget” story began as a column written by Fielding for the British newspaper The Independent in 1995 and the first book, “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” was released in 1996 and a sequel, “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” arrived in 1999. Fielding briefly revived the column in The Independent between 2005 and 2006.

The first two books were adapted into two films starring Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones, Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, and Hugh Grant as Bridget’s other love interest Daniel Cleaver.

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