The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
Lonely and lacking connection, Mary turns to the only place she feels safe: books. Determined to be “right” since she can never be “beautiful”, she prepares for a life of solitude at Longbourn.
One by one, the other sisters move on but Mary is destined to remain single, at least until her father dies and the house is bequeathed to the reviled Mr Collins. But when that fateful day finally arrives, the life Mary expected is turned upside down. In the face of uncertainty, she slowly discovers that there is hope for the “plain” sister after all . . .
GUIDE
THEMES
A reimagining of the life of Mary Bennet.
SETTING
Set in England during the Regency period.
SERIES
Not part of a series.
Review
The Other Bennet Sister examines the life of the least liked of the Bennet sisters and attempts to redress the balance by showing how Mary’s judgemental behaviour is a result of the emotional abuse she received from her mother for not being as brilliant as her sisters. At this point, Hadlow retells large chunks of Pride and Prejudice, albeit from Mary’s point of view, to help us understand why she behaves as she does, however it failed to engender my sympathy as I never believed growing up in the Bennet family was as bad as portrayed.
The problem is Mary decides if she can’t be as vivacious as her sisters, then she is going to be the opposite and it leads her to choose a rather austere life that only serves to make her appear to act superior. Too much time is spent on contrasting Mary’s actions to those of her sisters and all it does is emphasise how unlikeable she has become as she gets trapped in her own ideology. The first part of the book, told within the Pride and Prejudice timeframe, is way too long and could have been cut down drastically.
Once the author moves ahead a couple of years, all of Mary’s sisters have settled into married life and the unexpected death of Mr. Bennet means Mary and her mother have lost their home. Mary is forced to spend her time moving from one sister to another until they grow tired of her and she finds herself at a loss until she decides to stay with her maternal aunt. Mary basks in the sudden attention she receives within the Gardiner family as her aunt refuses to let her hide behind the facade she has created. As Mary begins to realise her earlier decisions were poor ones, she starts to shine and even finds herself having to choose between two suitors.
The Other Bennet Sister was a nice idea but it didn’t really make me feel like I understood Mary any better and probably made me find her even more irritating at times. Of course, like all Jane Austen heroines, Mary gets her reward in the end but it was a long time coming.
