The Other Bennet Sister

The scholarly ugly duckling of the five Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice, Mary, comes out of the shadows to become a wanted lady with independent decisions.

What if Mary Bennet's life did not follow the course that Pride and Prejudice outlined for her? What if the middle daughter, the plain girl who hides in her books, the frustrated intellectual of the Bennet family, eventually achieved the fulfillment experienced by her prettier, more self-assured sisters? The Other Bennet Sister is a debut novel with just the right amount of compassion and authority to please admirers of Jane Austen. This is its plot.

In the end, Mary's journey is identical to every Austen heroine's. She discovers that happiness is only possible if she has come to terms with her own identity. She needs to let go of the incorrect notions and false expectations that have masked her actual self and kept her from experiencing happiness. She won't be able to achieve contentment until she goes through this development. It's only then that she will be able to see her partner clearly when he shows up, and only then will she truly deserve to be loved.

Mary's fate is different from her sisters'. There are no vast estates or landed nobility involved. However, a guy is involved, and just like in all of Austen's books, Mary has to determine if he is actually the one for her. Mary, the protagonist of an incredibly fulfilling debut novel, is a fully realized character in The Other Bennet Sister. She is complicated, conflicted, and frequently uncertain, but she is also vulnerable and incredibly sympathetic.