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| UK Cover |
Today
I’m bringing you my review of Janice Hadlow’s ‘The Other Bennet Sister’, the
focus of which is the middle Miss Bennet, Mary. Let’s look at the blurb and
then I’ll move on to my thoughts on this novel.
Book
Description:
For fans of Jane
Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Janice Hadlow's The Other
Bennet Sister tells Mary's story...
It is a sad fact of life
that if a young woman is unlucky enough to come into the world without
expectations, she had better do all she can to ensure she is born beautiful. To
be handsome and poor is misfortune enough; but to be both plain and penniless
is a hard fate indeed.
In Jane Austen’s Pride
and Prejudice, Mary is the middle of the five Bennet girls and the plainest
of them all, so what hope does she have? Prim and pious, with no redeeming
features, she is unloved and seemingly unlovable.
The Other Bennet Sister, though, shows another
side to Mary. An introvert in a family of extroverts; a constant disappointment
to her mother who values beauty above all else; fearful of her father’s sharp
tongue; with little in common with her siblings – is it any wonder she turns to
books for both company and guidance? And, if she finds her life lonely or
lacking, that she determines to try harder at the one thing she can be:
right.
One by one, her sisters
marry – Jane and Lizzy for love; Lydia for some semblance of respectability –
but Mary, it seems, is destined to remain single and live out her life at
Longbourn, at least until her father dies and the house is bequeathed to the reviled
Mr Collins.
But when that fateful day
finally comes, she slowly discovers that perhaps there is hope
for her, after all.
Simultaneously a
wonderfully warm homage to Jane Austen and a delightful new story in its own
right, Janice Hadlow's The Other Bennet Sister is, at its
heart, a life-affirming tale of a young woman finding her place in the world.
Witty and uplifting, it will make you feel – and cheer – for Mary as you never
have before.
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| UK Cover |
The Other Bennet Sister - Review
I
am not the biggest fan of Mary Bennet, although I do feel sorry for her
position, caught between two close sets of sisters. I’ve always imagined that
she would have felt quite alone and that the reason she worked so hard on her
accomplishments was to have a defined role – Jane was the beautiful one, Elizabeth
the clever one, which left Mary to try and distinguish herself another way.
…who having, in consequence of being the only
plain one in the family, worked hard for knowledge and accomplishments, was
always impatient for display.
Pride & Prejudice by
Jane Austen
And
from The Other Bennet Sister:
Learning
would rescue her, not just from boredom and frustration, but from the
likelihood of making any further sad mistakes.
It’s
interesting to speculate on Mary’s perspective, and this is where books like
this come in. This is a book in four parts and it’s quite a mighty tome – the
best part of 700 pages. Part one looks at childhood and the events of Pride
& Prejudice from Mary’s perspective and this was probably my favourite
part of the book. Here, Mary is aware of the deficiency of her looks compared
with those of her sisters, and it isolates her from them:
She
had always been a cautious, watchful girl; now, she thought of little else but
the poor impression she must make upon those around her.
I
felt that the portrayal of Mary in the P&P part was obviously quite
sympathetic to her, as it’s written from Mary’s point of view. I felt it showed
Mrs Bennet as being more unkind to Mary than I got a sense of from P&P. Mr
Bennet is just as insensitive and neglectful though!
The
truth was, she thought bitterly, that there was no one in her immediate society
who considered her worthy of attention; and it this was so when she was still
young, why should it improve as she grew older?
Once
we move past P&P, Mr Bennet has died, the Collinses take possession of
Longbourn and Mary struggles to find her place in the world. I felt extremely
sorry for her at this point, because at Jane’s home, Miss Bingley is still in
residence and basically bullies Mary, and at Pemberley Mary feels like she’s
intruding in the family party. She stays for a while at Longbourn and finally
ends up with the Gardiners where FINALLY she feels accepted and loved for being
herself.
It
was as if a great abyss had opened up before Mary, and in it, she saw nothing
before her but loneliness. In the space of a moment she understood how
fervently she longed for affection.
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| US Cover |
There
were some parts of this story that for me didn’t tie up with Pride &
Prejudice. Some details like Sir William Lucas being a baronet rather than
a tradesman who was knighted. Mr Collins is different too – firstly, he was shown
still acting as a clergyman once he had inherited Longbourn but I think it more
likely that he would have revelled in the status upgrade of being a landed
gentleman. He is also better-educated than P&P Collins, who had an
‘indifferent education’. I felt quite sad for Mr Collins here, who has started
to come to the realisation that his wife doesn’t care for him.
I
didn’t follow some of the facts relating to Lady Catherine either. Here, it is
said that Lady Catherine recognises Darcy as titular head of the family but I
don’t know why that would be. He is head of the Darcy family, but she is either
a de Bourgh or a Fitzwilliam. Also, a character called Mr Ryder is described as
her closest relation but I wasn’t clear on how he was related to her, unless he
is the son of another Fitzwilliam sister and in that case he wouldn’t be any
closer than Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam or one of their siblings. Unless he was
an illegitimate child of hers, which doesn’t seem likely!
Going
back to the story, I thought Mary’s tale seemed quite a typical story of a
person who is completely lacking in self-esteem. If you are a person who has
similar issues I think this could cut quite close to the bone for you, and in
that, I thought it was well done.
“Mr
Wordsworth says elsewhere that nothing of value is to be gained from books. For
him, our affections are the only real guide worth following.”
She
felt tears begin to well up in her eyes.
“And
I’m not sure I have any. Or none strong enough for me to follow with
confidence. Perhaps they are too weak – too frozen – to help me find my way.”
Mary
benefits hugely by living with the Gardiner family who genuinely love her. They
see her for herself and love and value her. She finally finds like she has a
place and begins to blossom. And once she has a greater value for herself she
begins to find other people who value her too.
You
dress as you do because you do not believe you deserve anything better and you
wish to communicate that low opinion of yourself to everyone who sees you.
I
found the character of Mary frustrating, though – while she learns to put a
higher value on herself and becomes less despondent, in other aspects of her
life she doesn’t seem to learn at all. She makes some mistakes through not
trusting her own judgement – realising immediately that it’s a mistake but does
nothing to rectify it, and then when she has a similar feeling in the future
she learns nothing from the previous incident and just follows the same
pattern. I was pleased to see her seize the moment in order to take the advice
that she is trying to live by of being the architect of her own happiness.
In
summary, there was a lot to like about this story, such as Mary’s take on the
events of P&P and her coming to value herself, but I found I that it was
drawn out a bit much for me. I prefer a shorter read. I’d rate it as a 4 star
read.
*
My thanks to Netgalley UK and the publishers of The Other Benent Sister, Pan
Macmillan for the review copy.
You can buy this book in paperback, hardback, ebook or in audio now!
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