“The Other Bennet Sister” - Janice Hadlow

 🪞Janeites, I know we are a skeptical bunch when it comes to retellings, but this is a must-read! It’s not even a retelling so much as an expansion of the scope of “Pride and Prejudice”. Of the five Bennet sisters, Mary, the middle sister is all but ignored in the original PP. She is there, but not really there. TOBS has Mary making a little noise. I think Janeites will be pleased - Mary finally gets the classic Austen heroine treatment in TOBS.

🪞 Hadlow gives us a narrative that takes us back to all of the familiar homes: the old Bennet residence at Longbourn, Darcy and Lizzie’s magnificent Pemberley, and the Bingley home. What’s most interesting, is that she switches between the time period before Jane and Lizzie married, and after Mr. Bennet died. We visit Longbourn while it is the Bennet home, as well as later, when it is occupied by Charlotte and Mr. Collins.

🪞A recap of the Bennet sisters: Jane is sweet and the most beautiful, Lizzie is intelligent and also a beauty, and two youngest are vivacious (and moderately attractive) flirts. Meanwhile, Mary is intelligent if not witty like Lizzie. But she is plain. And according to Mrs. Bennet, it is this one quality, over which Mary has no control, that is her crime against her family (followed of course, by her intelligence).

🪞TOBS depicts Mary’s teenage years at Longbourn (of which we have scant information from PP). Mary is struggling to find a means of distinguishing herself from her sisters. Mrs. Bennet hounds the poor girl incessentanly about her plainness and bookishness, and never misses and opportunity to rub her face in the fact that her future is bleak and a burden to her sisters. We were appalled by Mrs. B’s conniving attempts at securing her daughters futures in PP, but we could understand the motivation. That continues to hold true in TOBS, but there is a streak of cruelty toward Mary, that makes Mrs. Bennet absolutely despicable IMO.

🪞Mary does not fair much better in the eyes of Mr. Bennet. If anything, he ignores her totally. He adores Lizzie for her wit and confidence. Mary is forever trying to please, but lacking that prepossession, Mr. Bennet fails to see her spark of intelligence because it is of a quiet sort.

🪞Mary is slowly shut out by her well-meaning but fairly self-absorbed elder sisters, and as well by her extremely superficial younger sisters. Mary’s invisibility in PP makes sense as Jane and Lizzie only seem to have fleeting awareness of their middle sister in TOBS; they never really notice Mary, unlike Lydia, who forces them to pay attention by her rash behavior that threatens their futures.

🪞 Mary spends her days trying to avoid the wrath of Mrs. Bennet. It is painful to watch Mary try to change who she is entirely is misguided attempts to make herself remarkable. She throws herself into music to an obsessive degree, or carries out harsh self-improvement campaigns by poring over the advice of James Fordyce (Janeites recall Mr. Collins’ ill-advised read aloud).

🪞PP tells us Lizzie’s horrorstruck reaction to Mr. Collins’ proposal. TOBS fills in cringeworthy details about Mary’s attempts to woo him. Hadlow also fleshes out Charlotte-Mr. Collins as we can only assume it must have been in actuality in spite of Lizzie’s horror. We were all probably as shocked as Lizzie when Charlotte quickly accepted those sloppy seconds, but Hadlow gives us a very logical rationale which created sympathy and understanding in the reader for Charlotte. Charlotte had to save herself from spinsterhood and a lifelong dependance on her brothers, by any means necessary. Mr. Collins was an available means for escape.

🪞We feel Mary’s plight as Hadlow draws parallels between her and Charlotte. After Mr. Bennet dies, Mary is trapped between the cruel, scheming Mrs. Bennet, and the generosity of Jane and Lizzie. Here, Hadlow’s depiction of a married Darcy, is superb. We see that he worships his wife, but his disdain for her relatives is palpable. In PP we see him mellow enough to acknowledge his love for Lizzie despite  her rather common family. In TOBS we can see what was probably really the case in PP - his haughtiness remained toward the rest of the Bennets. He doesn’t change so thoroughly that he can completely overlook their roughness. Hadlow suggests his act of bringing Wickham and Lydia together was simply to make his union with Lizzie more palatable. Nothing more, nothing less.

Although Jane and Lizzie certainly care for Mary, they are oblivious to her troubles. For Mary, the looming prospect of an impoverished spinsterhood, forever dependent on the hospitality of relatives, is terrifying.

As much as Mary likes to think she is not at all like Mrs. Bennet, Hadlow includes a scene that shows us that despite being progressive-minded in many ways  (she bemoans a lack of candor in a society oppressed by the rules of etiquette), Mary is also classist. As loathsome as Lady Catherine is, I was baffled by Mary’s unwillingness to even entertain the option of becoming a governess. She keenly feels her precarious position; as it stands she is wholly dependent upon the generosity of her sisters or Charlotte and Mr. Collins. I’d think she’d grab any opportunity to provide a stable life for herself, no matter how distasteful she might find the prospect of educating the offspring of wealthy acquaintances. She claims she doesn’t want to live in another’s house, dependent upon their goodwill, yet that is all she has been doing since her father’s death.

🪞Much as they did in PP, Mary’s uncle and aunt provide a safe haven for Mary in TOBS. The plot slows and grows tedious once Mary arrives at the Gardiners’ London home. However, we do see Mary mature and grow into herself at their home. Mrs. Gardiner acts more the part of a wise, elder sister than either Jane or Lizzie.

🪞 TOBS is an extremely plausible reimagining, with an enjoyably villainous Miss Bingley adding flair. TOBS makes it apparent how much Mary was overlooked, even by our beloved Lizzie. If PP explored the social pressures on aristocratic young women of poor means, like Lizzie Bennet, TOBS shows us they were magnified for women like Mary. There’s a lot to unpack.

If you thought the original Charlotte-Mr. Collins narrative was cringeworthy in PP, just wait until you read about Mary and Mr. Collins. Yikes!