Book of the Week: The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet

I, like many others, love Pride and Prejudice, so when I happened on The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough, I couldn't resist. The novel is a sequel to Jane Austen's classic, set twenty years after the romantic double wedding of Darcy and Bingley to the two eldest Bennet sisters. Needless to say a lot has changed over the years. And what about Mary? I was intrigued by McCullough's premise, that perhaps the middle Bennet sister had been misunderstood and overlooked in the original.

First let me say that McCullough can write. I adored her Masters of Rome series where she brought historical figures like Julius Caesar and Marc Antony to glittering life. Independence is no different. The novel opens with the death of Mrs. Bennett, who Mary has been charged with looking after for the past seventeen years. Finally free, and much more beautiful than in her youth, Mary decides to seek out adventure and meaning in her life, despite the fact that people discourage her. There is a lot of Lizzie Bennet in the new Mary, she's determined and smart and headstrong.

So what about Elizabeth and Darcy, or Fitz as he's now called? McCullough imagines them at the top of society, with Fitz a leading force in Parliament with ambitions to be Prime Minister. They have five children and a passionless marriage. In McCullough's imaginings the initial strong feelings they shared haven't managed to overcome their fundamental differences--his pride and her dysfunctional family. It was kind of hard to swallow, but truthfully, not out of the realm of possibility. Most novels and movies finish when a couple get together and don't show anything that happens after. What happens after, of course, is real life and reality is always messy.

"Now that I am free, I have no wish to experience any of those things. All that I want is to be of use, to have a purpose. To have something to do that would make a difference. But will I be let? No. My elder sisters and their grand husbands will descend upon Shelby Manor within the week, and a new sentence of lethargy will be levied upon Aunt Mary." - Chapter One

Jane and Charles Bingley, always so sweet natured, are as in love as ever, although Jane's health is in peril due to being constantly pregnant. Lydia is still married to Wickham, currently in America as a solider, and she hasn't stopped her boozing and flirting; while Kitty married well, to a rich older man, and now lives a considerably shallow but happy existence as a widow. Which leaves Mary, the only Bennet not to have married, her life spent in sacrifice of her family.

Sure, the changes in Mary are drastic. It is also somewhat far fetched that so many eligible bachelors would be all over a thirty-eight-year-old spinster in the days of Georgian England, but these are all things I could easily suspend disbelief on. Mostly because this book makes you like Mary, makes you want to see her happy. I found that the story foundered somewhere in the middle, its intrigue a little strange and hard to swallow. There are secrets and crimes and a whole lot of drama until the final dénouement.

Ultimately, I found the novel satisfying. It was fun to play with the possibilities for these beloved characters and I enjoyed seeing the ending that McCullough gave them.