REVIEW: The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
- Alice Rickless
- Aug 7, 2021
- 3 min read
A short review of The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow.
I have always adored Jane Austen. I read Pride and Prejudice in middle school when I was definitely too young to fully understand it, but have now read it so many times that most of the text is embedded in my brain. I can hear the voices of the characters when I read (although they tend to be the voices of the actors from the 1995 BBC series version. Colin Firth will always be Mr. Darcy to me). And although my favorite Austen book now is Emma, Pride and Prejudice holds a special place in my life as my first foray into writing from the late 18th century and 19th century.
Janice Hadlow’s The Other Bennet Sister is an attempt to capture the magic and romance loved by readers of Jane Austen’s novels. It follows the life of Mary, the lesser known Bennet sister. The sister who loves Fordyce’s sermons, and doesn’t like fashion or knitting. The only sister who got along with the odious Mr. Collins, and the one who believes she plays the piano and sings better than she actually can. In sum, the only uptight Bennet sister. In the original Pride and Prejudice, Mary serves as an entertaining background character. She’s mostly there to push the plot along as a piece in Elizabeth Bennet’s story of how she is embarrassed by her family. Mary is the butt of jokes from the other sisters and Mrs. Bennet, and she is not meant to have much depth.
The Other Bennet Sister takes the flat and entertainingly boring Mary we know and turns her into a new three-dimensional person. This concept is different and innovative, and Austen fans are willing to lap up anything that is written within her universe (the popular novels Death Comes to Pemberley and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies come to mind). But The Other Bennet Sister falls a bit short for reasons similar to those that appear in criticisms of the previously mentioned books.
Hadlow’s story is split into five parts, the first part being a short retelling of a few of the relevant events from Pride and Prejudice but from Mary’s point of view. The Bennet family that Hadlow imagines is different from the one that Austen describes in the original which is why this beginning part of the book is where I had the most issues. I don’t particularly like Hadlow’s changing of such beloved and iconic scenes, trying to insert Mary and her deeper feelings into places where I’m not sure she belongs. Here, Hadlow’s Mary wasn’t quite believable. I understand that she tried to give Mary a sort of redemption arc (not from a villain but from a sort of bumbling sister), but by embedding this into the story we know and love and that is not centered around her, it ruined the magic in a way.
Starting with Part 2, I began to enjoy the book more. I liked seeing Mary in her own space, even though I don’t quite believe Austen’s Mary would have the ability to grow in the same way. The writing was very articulate and the romance was very engaging. Without too many spoilers, let me just say that I appreciated the ending, and I was pleased with the new characters Hadlow introduced.
I understand that Hadlow wanted to use Austen’s world and the incredible characters she had already created, but I honestly think that I might have enjoyed this book better if it had had nothing to do with the Bennets. I found the romance in the later parts to be very strong, and Hadlow’s Mary a very enjoyable heroine to follow and root for. I think that if you are not a die-hard Austen fan, this book may be more enjoyable; and if you are a die-hard Austen fan, I would read the first two parts with a grain of salt. I do hope that Hadlow continues to write and publish her own stories, as I believe she absolutely has the ability to create her own beautiful worlds, and the second half of this novel is a testament to that.
4 STARS
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