Book Review: The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet

Posted on | November 10, 2009 | No Comments

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet
Colleen McCullough
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleen_McCullough

Pride and Prejudice sequels seem to have become a minor epidemic in the romance novel genre. An acclaimed multi-genre author, McCullough seems aware of this, as she’s written a sequel that refers to and incorporates certain romance novel clichés even as it subverts others. I can also see why it ended up thoroughly alienating many romance readers.

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet catches up with the cast twenty years after the events of Jane Austen’s novel. Mary, the ugly, shrill, unpopular Bennet sister is now an old maid, having spent the last two decades in virtual isolation taking care of her ageing mother. Meanwhile, there have been both roses and thorns for her sisters. Elizabeth’s marriage is loveless (a point on which I’m sure many romance fans stopped reading), Jane is bearing so many children it’s endangering her health, Kitty has become the model society hostess, and Lydia… We’ll get to Lydia in a moment. When Mrs Bennet dies at the start of the novel, Mary decides to go out into the world and make charitable use of the independence she has gained through her inheritance, Mr Darcy’s allowance and the grace brought about by age. It proves a disastrous venture.

I found the characterisation and indeed the whole novel not without merit, but uneven. Mary’s behaviour is wonderfully cantankerous. Her intention of writing a book on the subject of England’s poor and her habit of giving mothers child-rearing advice both are such stereotypical old maid traits that it makes my heart glad to see them in a heroine. Mr Darcy has not been magically cured of his aristocratic ways through marriage, and the dark side of his habit of authority and lack of sense of humour is explored, even as he is still shown to be essentially a good man. The moral integrity of Jane’s complacent nature is questioned. Lydia, alcoholic and wanton as she is, is shown to be clever and resourceful in the end, and is unjustly punished for attempting to take what she wants. It all wraps up with satisfying premarital 40-something sex. All of this is excellent and just the sort of thing I was looking for when I set out to find an Austen sequel dealing specifically with Mary Bennet.

Then there is the flipside. Mary and Elizabeth look alike. In fact, Mary has turned beautiful! She is also a modern woman now, one who talks about contraception and won’t have a maid because it would ruin a plot device. (To be clear, her progressive idealism is a negative point in my books because it’s a standard romance heroine trait that is not sufficiently explained by character development.) Elizabeth’s children are much too adorable. The only black character in the novel was semi-evil and was described in demeaning terms towards the end. I could go on.

While some romance tradition elements I don’t mind – having Mary imprisoned in classic gothic romance style is a fun literary allusion – some were just jarring and out of place, and no more impressive than they would have been in any novel published by Harlequin.

For people wanting to dissect the novel further, I’ve compiled these clearly defined incidents of win and fail:

Win:
- Mr Darcy is a dreadful lay.
- Lydia uses the C-word and calls Mr Darcy a bugger. At an important dinner.
- The f-word is used.
- So are Austenish run-on sentences.
- Mary, the heroine, has “spinstery” traits such as wanting to write a book on “the ills of England”, wearing dreadful clothes and giving everyone stern advice on education.
- Caroline Bingley finds a useful occupation.
- This novel is definitely not above character assassination.
- The poker up Mr Darcy’s arse didn’t just magically disappear at the end of Pride and Prejudice, and still doesn’t.
- The poker gets mentioned by one character.
- Mr Darcy is somewhat sinister and certainly not likeable (though he gets better).
- Gay people and premarital sex exist.
- Mary’s love interest, while sort of handsome, is not perfectly so, and rather funny-looking. I actually liked him, which is not usually the case with love interests.
- Jane’s character is flawed.
- Mr Bingley owns sugar plantations in the Caribbean, i.e. keeps slaves, i.e. is far from a perfect modern man.
- There was a scene with the Bennet sisters with birch rods and aprons vs 50 rowdy uneducated children.
- Good or at least interesting characterisation.
- 40-something romance with no 20-something romance to upstage it.
- Some good banter, like between Mary and Angus in the end.
- Not really a comment on the novel, but at the end of the book you had adverts for the author’s other books, and one of them was a thriller. It could be evidence of the author’s wide interests or a ruthless attempt to corner all markets; either way, I approve. It makes me think some of the fail listed below might instead be a deliberate attempt to court romance novel enthusiasts, though, quite frankly, I think the author lost them at “Mr Darcy is a terrible lay.”

Fail:
- The only non-white character in the novel, Ned, while intelligent and articulate, is somewhat evil, slavishly devoted to Mr Darcy, and described in the end by Elizabeth as being like a “great, black loyal dog”. I’m not, shall we say, entirely comfortable with that going unchallenged by the author.
- A murder is blamed on someone innocent of it who conveniently turns out to be guilty of other murders.
- Mary, in addition to having become beautiful, is (I suspect to suit contemporary fashion) elegantly thin and, oh god, has lavender eyes.
- Elizabeth also has lavender eyes.
- Elizabeth’s daughter has somehow grown into a “headstrong minx”, i.e. someone who in the 1830s would be likely to be treated for hysteria, but who in the world of romance fiction tends to get swept away by a dashing hero.
- Mr Darcy and his son’s rift is rather conveniently and clumsily smoothed over. Then they talk about it.
- The romances and marital issues are also resolved rather too conveniently.
- Elizabeth in one scene walks to Mr Darcy on her knees, so we can get a good romance novel cover pose with her at his feet. What.
- There’s a proposal on a flowering field in the first scene in which Mary actually wears a nice dress.
- Minor issue, but the author’s punctuation. Disturbed me. Sometimes you just should use a comma. Instead of a full stop.
- At the end of the book there was also an advert for another book by the author, and this one was about the love of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. This is my bias talking again, but that makes it a little bit harder to respect the author. Then again the thriller advert sort of negates it.

It really was like reading two novels packed between the same covers. I couldn’t help both liking it and disliking it in turns. If you can stand the somewhat schizophenic effect and want jolting out of candy-coloured romance land, The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet is worth a read.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

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Category: 3 Stars, Reviews, Reviews - Books

Book Review: The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet

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