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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
3.5 really, I enjoyed it! It feels too long because Hadlow doesn't have the Austenian skill of scene setting and half of the book is spent breaking Mary down and then bringing her back up. Plot doesn't feel coherent emotionally but happy to spend time with Mary and intrigued by an adaptation that may iron out these minor flaws. My favourite trope à la A Room with a View is woman reveals passionate personality through music made an appearance which was fun.
“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.
As excited as I was to read this one, until about the halfway point I was ready to DNF this book, and that was a lot of pages getting to that point too, because this is a long book (my edition has 672 pages). But I’m so glad I didn’t give up!
The first part of this Pride and Prejudice retelling sets the stage for Mary by focusing on Mrs. Bennet’s constant harping on her. I mean, for real, Mrs. Bennet is a sharp-tongued shrew in this one! I felt so sorry for Mary; it seemed that everyone disliked her, especially her own mother! Constantly ridiculed by her sisters, ignored by her father, and verbally abused by her mother, Mary has a complete lack of self-esteem and confidence. She retreats into her books and studies and seeks to make herself invisible.
About halfway through the book, Mary makes a visit to her aunt and uncle in London and that’s when the story picks up. Under her aunt’s care and guidance, Mary begins to blossom and her outlook on her situation in life looks brighter.
There are plenty of familiar characters in this retelling and some of them are explored in greater depth, but there are some new characters as well. I really liked the author’s take on this well loved classic, and I think Jane Austen fans will enjoy it.
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.
As excited as I was to read this one, until about the halfway point I was ready to DNF this book, and that was a lot of pages getting to that point too, because this is a long book (my edition has 672 pages). But I’m so glad I didn’t give up!
The first part of this Pride and Prejudice retelling sets the stage for Mary by focusing on Mrs. Bennet’s constant harping on her. I mean, for real, Mrs. Bennet is a sharp-tongued shrew in this one! I felt so sorry for Mary; it seemed that everyone disliked her, especially her own mother! Constantly ridiculed by her sisters, ignored by her father, and verbally abused by her mother, Mary has a complete lack of self-esteem and confidence. She retreats into her books and studies and seeks to make herself invisible.
About halfway through the book, Mary makes a visit to her aunt and uncle in London and that’s when the story picks up. Under her aunt’s care and guidance, Mary begins to blossom and her outlook on her situation in life looks brighter.
There are plenty of familiar characters in this retelling and some of them are explored in greater depth, but there are some new characters as well. I really liked the author’s take on this well loved classic, and I think Jane Austen fans will enjoy it.
This review is lackluster because that's kind of how I felt about the book. The writing and characterization was good, but it was a bit longer than it needed to be, and the love interest was mid.
{5 stars}
I am interested in human happiness, in the better understanding of what it is, and how it can be achieved. I wish to explore whether it is a state which arises from the chance convergence of circumstances or whether it is a condition we may will ourselves to possess. I want to understand how we may recognise it when it is within our grasp and in what ways we can learn to live without it if we are not lucky enough to experience it.
The Other Bennet Sister is a beautiful and well-written "retelling" (and continuation of) Pride and Prejudice from Mary Bennet's POV. It is as much a character study and social commentary of women in the early 1800s as it is a "romance" and as others have noted, Mary is transformed into a heroine of which Austen would be proud.
As you will remember, Mary is the 3rd of the five Bennet girls - the "plain" one who is a bit awkward and unremarkable. She doesn't play much of a role in P&P and actually isn't present for a good bit of the original tale. But...that doesn't mean she doesn't have a story to tell.
Hadlow is an experienced writer/producer in TV for the BBC but this is her debut fiction novel - and wow does she prove herself a force to be reckoned with!
The writing was so faithfully done in the same style used by Austen and others in the early 19th century that I routinely forgot that this was a modern work and written in the last year or so. Hadlow has a great gift for mimicking this style of writing that so few other modern writers writing about this time have. The story, too, feels so very Austen-esque. Jane and Lizzy actually play as little role in Mary's story as she played in theirs. Hadlow paid homage to Jane Austen by peppering many quotes from Austen books - I'm no expert so only caught the main ones but I'm sure there were others: "a single man in possession of fortune must be in want of a wife" ; "you have insulted me and my family in every possible way" ; "us poor females" ; having to rely on one's "sense and sensibility" ; falling down a hill into a suitor's arms as Marianne does into Mr Willoughby's in S&S ; the whole scene with Lady Catherine asking Lizzy if she is engaged to Mr Darcy is mirrored in similar scene here. Even the Lakes trip reminds me a little of Lizzy's trip to Derbyshire with the Gardiners.
The Other Bennet Sister starts off with a young Mary growing up happy and healthy - until something changes and her mother seems generally unhappy with her. It takes some time before Mary realises that it is because she is "plain" while her sisters are "great beauties." Mrs Bennet ruthlessly berates, mocks and punishes Mary for her plainness, battering her spirit down in what could only be called psychological abuse today (and would definitely get a social worker to call on the house...). But it's circa 1815 so no such thing happened, instead, Mary retreats inwards and pretty much gives up any hope at joy or happiness. She retreats into books, and there finds solace - until she realises she needs glasses. Imagine the abuse her mother throws at her plain bookish "boring" daughter who is now asking to wear glasses! As a shy, bookish girl who had to get glasses at about age 7/8, my heart was crying out to Mary - particularly as I, too, often felt outshone by my own sister.
Then Mr Collins enters the scene and just as she resolves to take one for the team and marry him, she is beaten to the punch by Charlotte Lucas. Charlotte, who had spent a good bit of the Book One telling Mary the horrors of being a plain woman, a single old maid lacking looks, charm or fortune, a burden to their families. Well, poor lonely Mary nearly does not recover from such a blow. To not even catch the attention of Mr Collins! But when the Bennet family disperses, Mary is shunted from home to home, feeling very much like a burdensome old maid at the ripe age of about 25. My heart wrenched. I completely understood. I remember being a young awkward teenager watching all the other prettier, more confident girls pairing off with the sporty, attractive, more confident boys and I remember how it felt to be the odd one out. Like Mary, after every break-up, you start to feel like there was something wrong with you. I remember asking myself what was I doing wrong, why were the other girls prettier than me, why did the boys like the other girls but not me? Being shy + awkward + bookish is recipe for loneliness in a young person and is remedied only with age and maturation.
We later return to a married Mr and Mrs Collins and - lo! It turns out marriage based on necessity does not always work out well. Mr Collins shows an intellectual interest in Mary - discussing history, philosophy, even teaching her Greek (in a scene that conjures images of the potential suitor Saint John teaching Jane Eyre a foreign tongue) before poor Mary is berated for having the gall - imagine! - of wanting to learn, and to be taught by a man.
Without too many anachronisms, this book quietly attacks the injustices women faced, from Mary expressing her frustration at the impropriety of being schooled by a man, to being unable to express her true feelings to a man unless he has first expressed his, to women being forced "to do no more than wait" for men. Women could not call at the home of gentlemen unless directly invited, they could not start a correspondence to men (only allowed to answer a letter a man sent), they could very rarely have a career and usually these women were to be pitied, and they were supposed to discuss and think about nothing but clothes. Women often had their decisions made for them (they are treated "little better than children"), and often could not even inherit property.
In the end, Mary goes to London to live with the Gardiners - my new favourite people! These are also the aunt and uncle who took a distressed Jane in after Bingley abandons Netherfield Park AS WELL AS the same people who took Lizzy to Derbyshire and made sure to visit Pemberley and spend a few days with My Darcy and Georgiana OH AND the same Gardiners who attempted to find the eloped Kitty and Wickham, all in the background...and now they also had a hand in Mary's happiness too. IS THERE ANYTHING THEY CAN'T DO?? They are the unsung heroes of P&P!! Mrs Bennet is awful but her brother and sister-in-law could probably apply for sainthood!
Anyway, away from everyone she knows (except evil Caroline Bingley, she changes not a whit and is the Big Baddie of this book), in the great city of London, and later surrounded by the thunderous poetic beauty of the Lake District, Mary re-invents herself, coming out of her shell and learning to balance expected societal convention with her own strong character and desires from life. Mary, still our loveable, awkward, bookish Hermoine Grainger-type, prudent Mary slowly becomes an amazing, mighty force...and this attracts the attentions of the Londoners. In the end, we watch Mary grow from a lost, unhappy little girl into a smart but lonely teenager into a brilliant and beautiful (in her own way) woman worthy of any great Austen story. I only wish that Hadlow had expanded on Mary's idea of writing/publishing like her hero historian Mrs Macauley (the first female English historian and the world's only female historian during her life) - I think Mary would be perfectly suited for this.
Mary finds her own happiness - she makes her own happiness, as Aristotle would have said - and fulfilment at the end of a beautiful homage to Jane Austen and a lovely story that brought tears to my eyes. Long though it may be, if you're an Austen fan, it's well worth it!
I am interested in human happiness, in the better understanding of what it is, and how it can be achieved. I wish to explore whether it is a state which arises from the chance convergence of circumstances or whether it is a condition we may will ourselves to possess. I want to understand how we may recognise it when it is within our grasp and in what ways we can learn to live without it if we are not lucky enough to experience it.
The Other Bennet Sister is a beautiful and well-written "retelling" (and continuation of) Pride and Prejudice from Mary Bennet's POV. It is as much a character study and social commentary of women in the early 1800s as it is a "romance" and as others have noted, Mary is transformed into a heroine of which Austen would be proud.
As you will remember, Mary is the 3rd of the five Bennet girls - the "plain" one who is a bit awkward and unremarkable. She doesn't play much of a role in P&P and actually isn't present for a good bit of the original tale. But...that doesn't mean she doesn't have a story to tell.
Hadlow is an experienced writer/producer in TV for the BBC but this is her debut fiction novel - and wow does she prove herself a force to be reckoned with!
The writing was so faithfully done in the same style used by Austen and others in the early 19th century that I routinely forgot that this was a modern work and written in the last year or so. Hadlow has a great gift for mimicking this style of writing that so few other modern writers writing about this time have. The story, too, feels so very Austen-esque. Jane and Lizzy actually play as little role in Mary's story as she played in theirs. Hadlow paid homage to Jane Austen by peppering many quotes from Austen books - I'm no expert so only caught the main ones but I'm sure there were others: "a single man in possession of fortune must be in want of a wife" ; "you have insulted me and my family in every possible way" ; "us poor females" ; having to rely on one's "sense and sensibility" ; falling down a hill into a suitor's arms as Marianne does into Mr Willoughby's in S&S ; the whole scene with Lady Catherine asking Lizzy if she is engaged to Mr Darcy is mirrored in similar scene here. Even the Lakes trip reminds me a little of Lizzy's trip to Derbyshire with the Gardiners.
The Other Bennet Sister starts off with a young Mary growing up happy and healthy - until something changes and her mother seems generally unhappy with her. It takes some time before Mary realises that it is because she is "plain" while her sisters are "great beauties." Mrs Bennet ruthlessly berates, mocks and punishes Mary for her plainness, battering her spirit down in what could only be called psychological abuse today (and would definitely get a social worker to call on the house...). But it's circa 1815 so no such thing happened, instead, Mary retreats inwards and pretty much gives up any hope at joy or happiness. She retreats into books, and there finds solace - until she realises she needs glasses. Imagine the abuse her mother throws at her plain bookish "boring" daughter who is now asking to wear glasses! As a shy, bookish girl who had to get glasses at about age 7/8, my heart was crying out to Mary - particularly as I, too, often felt outshone by my own sister.
Then Mr Collins enters the scene and just as she resolves to take one for the team and marry him, she is beaten to the punch by Charlotte Lucas. Charlotte, who had spent a good bit of the Book One telling Mary the horrors of being a plain woman, a single old maid lacking looks, charm or fortune, a burden to their families. Well, poor lonely Mary nearly does not recover from such a blow. To not even catch the attention of Mr Collins! But when the Bennet family disperses, Mary is shunted from home to home, feeling very much like a burdensome old maid at the ripe age of about 25. My heart wrenched. I completely understood. I remember being a young awkward teenager watching all the other prettier, more confident girls pairing off with the sporty, attractive, more confident boys and I remember how it felt to be the odd one out. Like Mary, after every break-up, you start to feel like there was something wrong with you. I remember asking myself what was I doing wrong, why were the other girls prettier than me, why did the boys like the other girls but not me? Being shy + awkward + bookish is recipe for loneliness in a young person and is remedied only with age and maturation.
We later return to a married Mr and Mrs Collins and - lo! It turns out marriage based on necessity does not always work out well. Mr Collins shows an intellectual interest in Mary - discussing history, philosophy, even teaching her Greek (in a scene that conjures images of the potential suitor Saint John teaching Jane Eyre a foreign tongue) before poor Mary is berated for having the gall - imagine! - of wanting to learn, and to be taught by a man.
Without too many anachronisms, this book quietly attacks the injustices women faced, from Mary expressing her frustration at the impropriety of being schooled by a man, to being unable to express her true feelings to a man unless he has first expressed his, to women being forced "to do no more than wait" for men. Women could not call at the home of gentlemen unless directly invited, they could not start a correspondence to men (only allowed to answer a letter a man sent), they could very rarely have a career and usually these women were to be pitied, and they were supposed to discuss and think about nothing but clothes. Women often had their decisions made for them (they are treated "little better than children"), and often could not even inherit property.
In the end, Mary goes to London to live with the Gardiners - my new favourite people! These are also the aunt and uncle who took a distressed Jane in after Bingley abandons Netherfield Park AS WELL AS the same people who took Lizzy to Derbyshire and made sure to visit Pemberley and spend a few days with My Darcy and Georgiana OH AND the same Gardiners who attempted to find the eloped Kitty and Wickham, all in the background...and now they also had a hand in Mary's happiness too. IS THERE ANYTHING THEY CAN'T DO?? They are the unsung heroes of P&P!! Mrs Bennet is awful but her brother and sister-in-law could probably apply for sainthood!
Anyway, away from everyone she knows (except evil Caroline Bingley, she changes not a whit and is the Big Baddie of this book), in the great city of London, and later surrounded by the thunderous poetic beauty of the Lake District, Mary re-invents herself, coming out of her shell and learning to balance expected societal convention with her own strong character and desires from life. Mary, still our loveable, awkward, bookish Hermoine Grainger-type, prudent Mary slowly becomes an amazing, mighty force...and this attracts the attentions of the Londoners. In the end, we watch Mary grow from a lost, unhappy little girl into a smart but lonely teenager into a brilliant and beautiful (in her own way) woman worthy of any great Austen story. I only wish that Hadlow had expanded on Mary's idea of writing/publishing like her hero historian Mrs Macauley (the first female English historian and the world's only female historian during her life) - I think Mary would be perfectly suited for this.
Mary finds her own happiness - she makes her own happiness, as Aristotle would have said - and fulfilment at the end of a beautiful homage to Jane Austen and a lovely story that brought tears to my eyes. Long though it may be, if you're an Austen fan, it's well worth it!
Delightful! It has everything an Austen fan could want… including agonizing miscommunications between characters that made me yell out loud at them. Watching the transformation of Mary throughout this book actually may have made her my favorite Austen character…
3.5 I am not usually drawn to story continuations or retellings, but I was curious to read a novel by Janice Hadlow. I read her bio of George III and thought it was terrific. Contrary to a lot of reviewers, I liked the first half of this book the best...the retelling of P & P from Mary's point of view, followed by her round of visiting. Mary is played in the film versions as comic , indifferent to her own ridiculousness. Experiencing her actual thoughts was most interesting, as was new light shed on other characters. Although it was odd to feel hostility towards characters like Elizabeth and Charlotte that I always of course, liked before. After Mary arrives in London, though, and begins to "blossom", the book for me became quite predictable. Of course she's going to met a perfect man, of course there will be a complication, of course it will end happily ever after, because it would be a bummer if Mary ended up a sad old maid. Those were the only options, so it wasn't a surprise. The last half was also way too long, it could have lost 100 pages and been none the worst for it, as you know what is going to happen, there is no actual suspense.
My second time reading this was just as good as the first. I think Hadlow has captured the feeling of Austin so well. It's fascinating to see these characters we know so well from another angle. Realizing we each have our own story. Mary is a dynamic character with so much to offer any reader. Wonderful!
I loved this book! It beautifully balances truthfulness to the original story of pride and prejudice with a rich new story. The characters all feel authentic to the p&p and yet you’re also getting to know them in new lights and in new contexts. Mary bennet is a character that is so often forgotten and this book puts her at centre stage and really allows her to develop outside the rest of the family. Definitely worth a read if you’re a p&p fan. Great new spin/new direction on the classic