Helpful Score: 8
As someone who is a HUGE fan of Jane Austen I had high hopes for this book. But as soon as I got to the part where Mr. Bingley keeps Jane knocked up all the time and Mr. Darcy regrets marrying Lizzy, I just stopped reading. It totally was ruining everything Jane Austen had set up in her books. I don't care if it supposedly is taking place 17 years after Pride and Prejudice ends. I want to keep my happy ending!!! LOL!
I won't finish this book because it makes me mad.
If you like Jane Austen and love her characters...especially in Pride and Prejudice, DON'T READ THIS BOOK!
I won't finish this book because it makes me mad.
If you like Jane Austen and love her characters...especially in Pride and Prejudice, DON'T READ THIS BOOK!
Helpful Score: 5
I LOVED this book. If you're a dyed-in-the-wool Jane Austen fan and have to have your "happily ever after" preserved from Pride and Prejudice, you may be disappointed. If you have a more open mind and love a very well written book that keeps you absorbed from beginning to end, give this one a try.
Helpful Score: 3
I approached this book with a certain amount of dread because I had read several scathing reviews of this book, but you know what? I liked it! It bears little resemblance to Jane Austen or "Pride or Prejudice" other than the use of the characters...instead it is a rollicking, swashbuckling tale, reminiscent to me, of Marion Chesney's "Traveling Matchmaker" series of lighthearted Regency romps, like "Yvonne Goes To York" or "Deborah Goes To Dover". This could be "Mary Goes To Manchester." If you are not expecting a letter-perfect re-creation of Jane Austen, you too might enjoy it. I found it lighthearted and hugely entertaining -- great literature it is not, but fun entertainment? Yes it is!
Colleen McCulloughs, The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet (2009) brings you 20 years into the future following Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice and the effect is jarring.
Why McCullough chose to write about what could be the most overlooked and possibly the most undervalued of Austens characters, well never know. She must have known there was potential for a deeper story.
In the years that have passed, Elizabeths marriage has fallen on hard times, Jane is naught but a baby factory, Kitty is a widow and Lydia is well Lydias stripes and spots are ever the same.
We find Mary caring for her ailing mother and when she passes within the first chapter of the book her adventure begins. Refusing the offer of staying with either the Darcys at Pemberley or the Bingleys at their Manor, Mary sets off un-chaperoned to the North to investigate the atrocities inflicted on the indigent.
McCullough could be criticized for not truly adhering to the idea of a sequel mainly because she brings too many elements of the real world to the forefront in this Austenian scene. Mary travels alone and is set upon by ruffians. We hear details of Bingley and Darcys possibly dealings with slave trade in the New World. Child labor and exploitation are main themes the entire second half of the novel.
The rest of my review is here: http://www.examiner.com/x-45045-Jane-Austen-Sequel-Examiner~y2010m4d27-Review-The-Independence-of-Miss-Mary-Bennet
Why McCullough chose to write about what could be the most overlooked and possibly the most undervalued of Austens characters, well never know. She must have known there was potential for a deeper story.
In the years that have passed, Elizabeths marriage has fallen on hard times, Jane is naught but a baby factory, Kitty is a widow and Lydia is well Lydias stripes and spots are ever the same.
We find Mary caring for her ailing mother and when she passes within the first chapter of the book her adventure begins. Refusing the offer of staying with either the Darcys at Pemberley or the Bingleys at their Manor, Mary sets off un-chaperoned to the North to investigate the atrocities inflicted on the indigent.
McCullough could be criticized for not truly adhering to the idea of a sequel mainly because she brings too many elements of the real world to the forefront in this Austenian scene. Mary travels alone and is set upon by ruffians. We hear details of Bingley and Darcys possibly dealings with slave trade in the New World. Child labor and exploitation are main themes the entire second half of the novel.
The rest of my review is here: http://www.examiner.com/x-45045-Jane-Austen-Sequel-Examiner~y2010m4d27-Review-The-Independence-of-Miss-Mary-Bennet
Clearly this is a novel that people either love or loathe. I am in the camp that found it to be a very absorbing read. It begins as a sort of dissection of the romantic myth of Pride and Prejudice, with its depiction of disintegration and deterioration of people and relationships 20 years after P and P ends. It then takes a left turn into abduction, melodrama and murder, but toward the end turns back to restoring relationships and reconciling characters to each other. I found it a real page-turner, but I can see why people who sentimentalize P and P couldn't stand it. For my part, I enjoyed it and would recommend it.
I enjoyed this take on Mary and hrr desire for adventure, independence, and a meaningful life!
