MJ Stratton is visiting the blog today with a book which focuses on one of Jane Austen’s secondary characters; Mrs Hurst, formerly Miss Louisa Bingley, sister of Charles Bingley from Pride & Prejudice.
We don’t see a huge amount of Mrs Hurst in P&P, and what we see isn’t necessarily to her advantage, although we have met her through the eyes of an unreliable narrator, so there is scope for her to be different to our perception. This is the heroine of A Far Better Prospect. Let’s look at the blurb and then I will hand over to M Stratton for an except from the book and a giveaway opportunity.
Louisa Bingley had never defied her mother in her life, until she found something she wished to fight for. In love with a man with close ties to trade, Louisa refuses to give him up when her mother demands it.
But Mrs. Bingley is not to be reckoned with and through despicable means manages to force her daughter into a much more ‘appropriate’ marriage to a gentleman named Mr. Hurst.
Married to a man she does not love, the newly wed Louisa Hurst must learn to navigate her husband's expectations and demands while still holding on to the threads of herself. Through all of this she must also survive the malice of her younger sister Caroline, a responsibility thrust most unwillingly upon her.
Convinced contentment in life is all that she can expect, Louisa finds herself quite unexpectedly free to pursue her own happiness. But does she dare take the chance at allowing herself to feel again?
Along with Jane and Lizzy and all our favorites, Louisa Hurst gets her own happy ending in this Pride and Prejudice Vagary.
