review; the pursuit of mary bennet

The Pursuit Of Mary Bennet
by Pamela Mingle

For most of her life Mary Bennet has been an object of ridicule. With a notable absence of the social graces, she has been an embarrassment to her family on more than one occasion. But lately, Mary has changed. She’s matured and attained a respectable, if somewhat unpolished, decorum. But her peace and contentment are shattered when her sister Lydia turns up-very pregnant and separated from Wickham. Mary and Kitty are bustled off to stay with Jane and her husband. It is there that Mary meets Henry Walsh, whose attentions confound her. Unschooled in the game of love, her heart and her future are at risk. Is she worthy of love or should she take the safer path? In her journey of self-acceptance, she discovers the answer.

Review:

This is actually everything I wished for in a story centred around Mary Bennet from Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.

I have recently – and by recently, I mean in the past few years – come to realisation that Mary Bennet is severely wronged in the course of P&P. Considering the fact that the novel is pretty much in the point of view of Lizzy, it is biased towards those she looks on with disdain. And she looks on her younger sisters with disdain, sadly enough. Yes, Lydia especially is wild and untamed, but Kitty and Mary are not formed characters enough for the reader to truly judge them.

We are simply meant to go along with Lizzy’s conclusion. However, when one stops and thinks about it, poor Mary gets the short end of the stick. Jane and Lizzy are paired off, best friends and sisters. Lydia and Kitty are much the same. Mary is stuck in the middle on her own, and all she has to try and gain some sort of attention from her family are her books and her musical abilities. She goes about things the wrong way, but I do believe it is a misguided attempt to get some sort of affirmation from those around her.

This novel focuses on Mary a few years after the marriages of her three sisters. She is older, a little wiser, and a little more bitter. She has also mellowed out enough to let her older sisters in – I believe due to the positive attention she sometimes receives from their father. I enjoy the fact that she still behaves a little abruptly, a little awkwardly, and that she has insecurities and flaws. Her journey in the novel is not just falling in love, but also finding herself. A journey to understanding herself, her family, and the man in her life.

I do not want to go into detail, I am not sure I can, but I absolutely adored this novel. I wish there were more like it.