Jennifer Paynter

Mary Bennet is probably the least developed character in Pride and Prejudice, but Jane Austen gives us enough of her to set an expectation of who she might be. Paynter takes that expectation and develops a full-blown, believable version of Mary, who sees the events of which we are so familiar in a much different light.

Paynter does not focus on simply retelling Austen's story, but departs from it into the things that are central to Mary's life and separate from her sisters. This allows for reading the book with both a sense of the familiar that the characters provide but also a sense of the undiscovered that is necessary to keep an interest. Of course, no one can really retell Pride and Prejudice, Austen has achieved perfection--nothing else required.

By a short distance into the book, this becomes Mary's story and hers alone. Paynter has done a good job of imagining what that story would be and weaving Mary into a character that has depth. If I had any complaint it would be with the departures that she makes from the original character traits that we feel we KNOW about both Jane and Elizabeth. The other characters are not vastly changed, although Mr. Bennet is given a less kindly demeanor...but then it isn't unreasonable to think that different daughters might view their father differently. I am sure that there were sides to my father that my sisters failed to see or appreciate in the same way that I did.

While not an exciting or phenomenal read, this was a bit of fun and not entirely disappointing. I would like to see what Paynter is able to do with an original subject that does not have a background story upon which to build. Her writing style is quite nice and her ability to describe places and people vividly drew me into the story when it departed from the original.… (más)

This re-read of a P&P variation concerns the life of Mary Bennet. Not close to the two oldest or the two youngest Bennet sisters, Mary feels her isolation, compounded by her distance from her parents. We see the society of Longbourn and Meryton from another viewpoint as Mary's feelings, hopes and her dreams are revealed to us. From her early life, through the story of P&P, and then several years beyond.
An enjoyable and interesting well-written read of a story from one of the overlooked characters from Pride and Prejudice.… (más)

What an odd book. It's a truth universally etc. etc. that Jane Austen continuations and retellings are hit or miss – mostly miss – and heaven knows that Pride & Prejudice especially has been told from every point of view except the horse that draws the Bennets' gig. I was intrigued by this one because it focuses on the forgotten sister: Mary. Come on, Goodreaders, admit it – we all want to be Lizzie or Jane, but when you get right down to it how many of us are probably more Mary than we'd like to admit? Poor Mary, inept and mocked. I wanted to see the story from her point of view.

This… was not what I expected. It begins with a childhood filled with "there's something wrong with that girl", doctors and Edwardian psychological treatments that might as well have been medieval (s&m therapy: "and he moved to dripping hot wax onto my palms in the hope that the pain thus caused would distract me from the pain within my mind").

In this story there is yet another girl victimized by Wickham, to whom Elizabeth et al are oblivious because of their focus on their own dramas. The problem with that is that it means yet another person knows what Wickham is and does nothing, so what happens with Lydia actually manages to be even worse. (And then of course Mary blames Elizabeth, and just lost any sympathy I might have scraped up for her.)

Elizabeth does not come off well in this telling. "She did not like people to know how hard she worked, either at her music or her Italian, and would turn away compliments with self-deprecating humor" – she spends hours practicing, then lies about it to make herself look more gifted? That's terrible.

The author has to go through some calisthenics to bend the story to Mary's point of view. After all, quite a bit of the tale involves only Elizabeth and Jane, or Elizabeth and Darcy. But Lizzy carelessly puts Darcy's letter in a book, and Mary finds it.And all of the extra passages – about Edwardian psychiatric treatment, and where Mary ends up in the end … it wasn't credible. Pity.… (más)