Reading this essay reminded me that, yes indeed, Austen comes down pretty hard on sanctimonious bookworm Mary, sister #3 in Pride and Prejudice. The essay quotes some of that. It also mentions a new novel, told from Mary's perspective, the BBC series is adapting for a 10-part series.
Plain women finally get their say!
by GardenPeep
12 Comments
Why do we need a retelling of a of minor character that the book doesn’t even spend that much time on? Lydia gets much more negative attention so I could see *her* getting a retelling but Mary is pretty forgettable throughout the story. If it was a book about a man and this was a feminist retelling of the forgotten sister sure, but… it isn’t!
I don’t know if I ever paid much attention to Mary when reading the book but I like continuations and re-workings of Jane Austen so this could be fun. I enjoyed Lost in Austen and the adaption of Death Comes to Pemberley and I do love a Regency day dress!
Ooh I was just looking for a new read and this book seems exactly what I needed!
There were TWO novels about Mary a couple of years ago and one was good. Hope the BBC thing is based on that one.
Mary should have ended up with Mr Collins. They were suited in temperament and the home would have stayed in the family. Everyone should have been busy giving her a glow up instead of mooning about Bingley Bingley Bingley.
I read this book and didn’t think much of it. I felt it wasn’t really true to any of the characters’ personalities, and the author sort of implies that we, the reader, only have that impression because Elizabeth is an unreliable narrator.
Maybe if this Mary had been less obsessed with men I would have liked it better. I quite liked when she was into the optician guy and felt it would have been more interesting if she’d ended up with him than blah boring what’s his name.
It’s not that she was a bookworm that was negative, it’s that she didn’t actually understand the books she read but considered herself superior because she read.
That’s what I always understood to be the issue with Mary, idk if others have different opinions.
Oh excellent, I really loved The Other Bennet Sister. It was well-written and very introspective. It’s good to see the way this book went, because I think in the beginning Mary was going down the path of bitterness but then was able to turn it around for herself.
Eh, rather than trying to make the pretentious and sanctimonious Mary anything other than a caricature and foil, we could just appreciate that Austen herself became more interested in the inner lives of quiet, bookish wallflowers as her career progressed. *Mansfield Park*’s Fanny Price feels like an attempt to get inside the head of someone who probably, from an outside perspective, seemed to have a lot of Mary’s qualities – the tendency to moralize and the social awkwardness – but drawn with a lot more sympathy. *Persuasion*’s almost-spinster Ann Elliot is also a sympathetic heroine even though she isn’t as sparky as Elizabeth Bennet or Emma Woodhouse. I’d rather see someone take a crack at either of those underrated Austen novels in a way that doesn’t try to change their understated heroines’ fundamental personalities (cf the 2022 Netflix *Persuasion*).
Ahh I’m happy to hear this, I loved The Other Bennett Sister
I hope this doesn’t turn into another case where people quote the fanfiction as canon, the way they do with *Jane Eyre* and *Wide Sargasso Sea*.
I found this book mean spirited, there are way better Austen riffs, like “the scandalous confessions of Lydia Bennet, witch.”
I realized that Mrs. Bennett never actually directly addresses Mary at any time in the book. This made me feel sorry for her. She was annoying, but she wanted to at least get a little attention for SOMETHING.
(Am I wrong about this? It’s been a long time since I’ve read the book, but I don’t think Mrs. Bennett talks to Mary at all.)