Mary Bennet's Story--The Austening

The Unexpected Miss Bennet by Patrice Sarath
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I recall with fondness the time one of my ESL students--now an English teacher herself!--smiled through her tears at the end of a rather romantic teen movie I showed in class. "That was a pretty movie, Mister," she told me as she exited, still wiping her eyes. :) It was a pretty movie. (Mary Stuart Masterson and Eric Stoltz in Some Kind of Wonderful? "You look good wearing my future." Anyone? C'mon! Classic.)

Well, this is a pretty book, and I hope the author will forgive me for saying so. There is some badassery here, but for the most part the novel is low-key and sweet, and I thought it was great.

It is the quiet story of Elizabeth Bennet's younger sister. No, not the one that ran away. Not the other one that was too much like her, either. And no, not Jane--she's older. Right, the other one. The one at the piano. Mary. There you go!

Lydia and Kitty are here. And Jane, sort of. And quite a bit of Lizzy and Darcy and Georgiana. And Lady frickin' Catherine de Bourgh with her wan and unfortunate and over-protected daughter. And Mr. Collins, paying his elegant little compliments and warning young ladies that they must be humble and they won't go far wrong. And Mrs. Bennet with her nerves.

It is all nicely done, beautifully following up on the characters and character dynamics as they existed at the end of Pride and Prejudice. The author has allowed the characters to grow and to show more than they did in the original Jane Austen novel, but she has not fundamentally altered anyone. Time has passed; the characters are living new lives; they have new preoccupations. And in this new present, everyone wonders what to do with artless, somewhat embarrassing Mary, a young woman who is too serious, too fond of quoting aphorisms, too plain, too poor, and too socially awkward to have much of a future.

The author allows Mary to learn a little from her mistakes and embarrassments as well as from her reading and reflection. She lets her put her foot down, a little, and learn to show a little spirit and wit. Not jarring developments; this is growth, and it is reasonable. Throughout the course of her story, I found Mary easy to root for, to care about, to see as a hero in her own light. It is something of a revelation to discover that the mousy, nerdy girl has thoughts and feelings and hopes that matter as much as anyone else's. When, because of circumstances, she starts attracting the attention of men, you feel both her pleasure and her apprehension, and when she (spoiler? maybe a little...) puts her foot down some, you want to high five her. Or something.

This novel is a lot like an Austen novel, obviously, but it isn't trying to be a copy. The story is an original, and comparatively scaled down. The plot is (intentionally) narrower, more to the point, with a smaller cast of characters inhabiting fewer scenes. I like how that scale works. The tone and diction also only approximate Austen's prose, incorporating enough of that period's cadences and peculiarities to put the reader in the Regency mindset without, in my opinion, drawing too much attention away from Mary's story. The characters are the point, along with their growth and change and development, and the language is just part of what gets you there.

Without summarizing the plot, I'll just say I enjoyed it, and I liked the ending. I liked Mary, too, and I'm glad to discover that. Well done.

So, yes, it's a pretty book. :) And any Austen-type people who haven't read it already should get on it.

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