The Other Bennett Sister by Janice Hadlow
What if Mary Bennet’s life took a different path from that laid out for her in Pride and Prejudice? What if the frustrated intellectual of the Bennet family, the marginalized middle daughter, the plain girl who takes refuge in her books, eventually found the fulfillment enjoyed by her prettier, more confident sisters? This is the plot of The Other Bennet Sister, a debut novel with exactly the affection and authority to satisfy Austen fans.
Ultimately, Mary’s journey is like that taken by every Austen heroine. She learns that she can only expect joy when she has accepted who she really is. She must throw off the false expectations and wrong ideas that have combined to obscure her true nature and prevented her from what makes her happy. Only when she undergoes this evolution does she have a chance at finding fulfillment; only then does she have the clarity to recognize her partner when he presents himself—and only at that moment is she genuinely worthy of love.
Mary’s destiny diverges from that of her sisters. It does not involve broad acres or landed gentry. But it does include a man; and, as in all Austen novels, Mary must decide whether he is the truly the one for her. In The Other Bennett Sister, Mary is a fully rounded character—complex, conflicted, and often uncertain; but also vulnerable, supremely sympathetic, and ultimately the protagonist of an uncommonly satisfying debut novel.
Review: In this novel, author Janice Hadlow takes the character of Mary Bennett from Jane Austen's beloved Pride and Prejudice and imagines her life with a happy ending. Mary, the bookish ugly duckling, middle sister seems overlooked by everyone in her family. Happier at home with a book, Mary does not have a happy ending in Austen's original work. In this book, Hadlow explores Mary's thoughts and feelings and lets her be the heroine of her own story.
The first half of this book faithfully follows the plot of Pride and Prejudice, but the second half is Hadlow's imaginings entirely. In it, she envisions life as it might have been for Mary as the only unmarried Bennett sister, with no real home of her own, forced to accept the generosity of family and friends. I have such immense empathy for Mary as Hadlow portrays her. In the original novel, Mary is dour, sullen, rather unlikeable. But in Hadlow's imaginings, she becomes someone with a deep inner life but no confidants. Socially awkward, she is snubbed or overlooked by everyone around her and feels deep shame and worry when she missteps or is reprimanded for her social mishaps. In short, Hadlow changed my opinion on Mary as a character. I desperately longed for Mary to be accepted, to receive one kind word from her father, or be noticed and understood by someone!
A turning point for Mary is when she realizes that she must actively choose to be happy and reach for a life she wants, rather than wait for it to find her: "The difference was that the Gardiners worked hard at the business of happiness, exerting themselves tirelessly to coax it into being. They did not consider happiness a matter of chance or destiny. Instead, they did everything in their power to cultivate it, prizing generosity over petulance, preferring kindness to umbrage, and always encouraging laughter rather than complaint. The result was the happiest home Mary had every know. If anyone might be said to have made their own happiness, she concluded, it was her uncle and aunt."
I loved that Hadlow turns Mary into a heroine in this novel. I did think she went a bit overboard trying to deliberately recreate similarities between the original story's plot and this one regarding the love story, although I won't describe them in order to avoid spoilers. Also, I was a bit taken aback that in this novel, Miss Bingley has been turned from a condescending snob into someone totally malevolent, plaguing Mary and going out of her way to be cruel at every turn.
I loved this novel even more than I had anticipated. Partly it was returning to the beloved world of Austen's original novel. But the other part was Hadlow's character study of Mary. I really enjoyed getting to know and understand Mary more through Hadlow's interpretation. The audio version of this book was very well done.
Stars: 4.5
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