“Ingenious . . . Mary B is a tribute not just to [Jane] Austen but to defiant women of any era.”—USA TodayThe overlooked middle sister in Pride and Prejudice casts off her prim exterior and takes center stage in this fresh retelling of the classic novel.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLEWhat is to be done with Mary Bennet? She possesses neither the beauty of her eldest sister, … to be done with Mary Bennet? She possesses neither the beauty of her eldest sister, Jane, nor the high-spirited wit of second-born Lizzy. Even compared to her frivolous younger siblings, Kitty and Lydia, Mary knows she is lacking in the ways that matter for single, not-so-well-to-do women in nineteenth-century England who must secure their futures through the finding of a husband. As her sisters wed, one by one, Mary pictures herself growing old, a spinster with no estate to run or children to mind, dependent on the charity of others. At least she has the silent rebellion and secret pleasures of reading and writing to keep her company.
But even her fictional creations are no match for the scandal, tragedy, and romance that eventually visit Mary’s own life. In Mary B, readers are transported beyond the center of the ballroom to discover that wallflowers are sometimes the most intriguing guests at the party. Beneath Mary’s plain appearance and bookish demeanor simmers an inner life brimming with passion, humor, and imagination—and a voice that demands to be heard.
Set before, during, and after the events of Pride and Prejudice, Katherine J. Chen’s vividly original debut novel pays homage to a beloved classic while envisioning a life that is difficult to achieve in any era: that of a truly independent woman.
Praise for Mary B
“Charming and smart . . . a heedless downhill pleasure—plush, ironic and illuminating.”—Newsday
“Watching [Mary] come into her own is a delight.”—People
“A new, wholly original perspective on the classic . . . This is the ultimate Austen adaptation for our time.”—Real Simple
“The best part about Mary’s star turn is that it bears little relation to the fates of her sisters. She’s a simmering, churning, smart woman determined to concoct an independent life.”—The Washington Post
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Katherine J. Chen has dipped into Pride and Prejudice to pluck out and celebrate the seemingly most unpromising of the Bennet sisters. In giving Mary Bennet a resonant voice of her own, Chen has fashioned a luminous and enlightening novel that will entrance even, or especially, those who have not read Jane Austen’s masterpiece.
This book turned two P&P characters so far away from canon I would have thrown the book across the room, but I read it on my Kindle. The writing was excellent and the premise–up to a point–was intriguing; but the absolute destruction of those two characters was too much.
If you are a fan of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, you will enjoy this new version, the story as told from the viewpoint of Mary Bennett, the plain bookish daughter of the Bennett family.
Being a Jane Austen fan, I’ve read a lot of spinoffs from her books. Some I like, some are disappointing. This book I thought was disappointing and sad.
The author Katherine J. Chen wrote very well and used great language to match the time period.
Mary is the sister that most have forgotten because she is not very memorable. This is her story. In the beginning it overlaps some with Pride and Prejudice, but through her eyes and adding her story. It then continues and expands on the story. I honestly disliked her love story in part two and three of the book. It just wasn’t believable behavior from her, to me.
I really disliked what happened with Darcy and Lizzie. I’m too much of a die hard fan for it to go down like that. I wasn’t too surprised by Lydia or Jane’s story.
I was disappointed there was talk of sex in this book and a few crude words. 18+.
I received a free uncorrected proof e-copy through Net Gallery and Random House New York for my opinions and reviews.
I’m sorry, I really wanted to like this book. I love Pride and Prejudice, but this author took most of the beloved characters and fundamentally changed them. This story is from Mary’s view point, which is very depressing. Her family never loved her, Lizzie and Jane are self-absorbed. Lydia and Kitty are mean. Since I really love P&P, this disturbed me.
The writing style is reminiscent of Jane Austen, but the story line is not. In fact, the story was very slow. It wasn’t until I was maybe 50% into the book before I started to get into the story. Then events happened and I absolutely hated the book and I couldn’t wait to be done. The various events are twisted and not anything like what Jane Austen herself would write. Jane pointed out the restricted and dependent life that women of the time lived. This one did too, but in a much more in-your-face way. I also did not like Mary’s character. She also was not the same personality as in P&P. In fact, in some ways she was more like Lydia and Kitty.
If you love Pride and Prejudice, I would not recommend this book. In fact, I doubt I will read another book by this author.
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
As an avid fan of Jane Austen’s books, I was eager to read this untold story of Mary Bennett by Katherine J. Chen.
In Pride and Prejudice we see Mary as that difficult middle daughter who possesses none of the beauty of her elder sisters. Nor is there the spunk found in her excitable younger sisters who seem to find nothing but mischief and the desire to be courted by anyone sporting regimental reds.
This story brings a new twist to Mary’s personality as the men we’ve come to admire in the original seem to look past her plain looks and personality to see the real Mary and her potential. Even Mr. Collins’ plight has had a new light shed upon his toady personality as the author digs deeper into his background and odious behavior in seeking a wife.
Jane Austin’s Mary, a well read young woman who seeks no dance partners nor special ribbons to adorn her plain looks is the same Mary Bennet in Mary B. The difference is that in Mary B, we get more than a superficial glimpse into this young woman’s life. If you find you haven’t had your fill of the Bennet family, you will probably enjoy adding this book to your collection. It is written in the style faithful to Pride and Prejudice.
Elegant, imaginative, and empathetic, Katherine J. Chen’s novel reimagines Austen’s universe with humor and heart.
Mary Bennett begins her story with, “A child does not grow up with the knowledge that she is plain or dull or a complete simpleton until the accident of some event should reveal these unfortunate truths,” later adding “It was therefore acknowledged” that all beauty and goodness and intelligence had been given to Jane and Lizzie, while Kitty and Lydia had ignorance, and Mary herself plainness.
The child Mary saw her future as an old maid, dependent on the charity of her married sisters, unloved and lonely, living in the shadows of life–like Miss Bates in Jane Austen’s Emma.
In Mary B, author Katherine J. Chen often mirrors some of Jane Austen’s most well-known epigrams and she uses the characters from Pride and Prejudice, but reader beware: this is not Jane Austen’s Bennett family.
And that’s alright with me. As much as I love Austen–and my adoration goes back 40 years–I enjoyed Mary B on its own merits.
Mary Bennett in the 1940 movie version of
Pride and Prejudice
Society finds Mary a boring, untalented, and an ugly object of derision, expanding on Austen’s comic scene where Mr. Bennett stops Mary’s public entertainment. I felt the instances of people bullying and denigrating Mary were too frequent at the beginning.
Jane and Bingley barely figure in this retelling, but Lizzie and Darcy are key characters. Just as Cassandra and Jane Austen spent time at the home their brother Edward Austen Knight, Mary spends months with Lizzie after her marriage to Darcy.
I thought the idea of Lizzie being a slob hilarious. She does, after all, walk through the dirt and rain to see Jane when she became ill while visiting the Bingleys. She had lack of pride and vanity in that scene, sisterly love more important than making an impression. In Chen’s imagination, Lizzie is just a slob strewing clothes and jewels across the floor of her room.
Chen gives Lydia and Lizzie endings that will offend some Austenites. The married Lydia and Lizzie both become examples of the real world evils left out of Austen: Sexual relations = pregnancy = potential for maternal illness and death and/or the death of the baby. Lydia’s ending is actually quite probable.
At times we see a hint of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre in the action, particularly in scenes between Mary and Col. Fitzwilliam.
We–as well as several menfolk in the novel– discover that Mary is observant, thoughtful, and creative. Several men confide in her and we learn their back stories. She is a voracious reader and writes to entertain herself.
Mary relates a life that is fuller than she could have imagined as a child. She has loved three times. She has a fulfilling sexual romance. And she finds a way to be independent. Her story becomes a Feminist bildungsroman.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Mary B is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of one of Elizabeth Bennet’s sisters. It is a retelling for our time—bold, provocative, and thrilling. Bravo!
Perhaps not even a newly discovered Austen manuscript could exceed the delicious pleasure of Mary B. From an unswept corner of literature, Katherine J. Chen has conjured a heroine whose story is heartbreaking, hilarious, and, finally, thrilling. Mary B is a delight.
Katherine J. Chen, Author of “Mary B” An Untold Story of Pride and Prejudice, writes her novel on Mary Bennet the middle sister. The author deals with “What if”about Mary using a unique and fresh perspective. In the original “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austin, there is very little input about Mary. The other sisters overshadow Mary, and with their mother’s aggressive approach to marrying well, is basically ignored. In Katherine J. Chen’s novel, Mary is set stage and center. The Genres for this novel are Fiction, Women’s Fiction, with a touch of Historical Fiction. The story takes place in England in the nineteen century, and is set in the past, present and future around the other Bennet sisters’ stories.
At this time in history, women’s roles were to marry to someone well established. It is a male dominated society. Men who had lesser titles also wanted to marry well. This was a time was it was important for the wealthy to have heirs, and often the real estate was left to the nearest male relative.
The author describes Mary as complex and complicated. The sisters appear to be jealous, immature, selfish , and at times mean. Some of the men in the story seem to be very shallow, and insecure.There are betrayals, and false promises.
Mary has been regarded as a “wallflower”. She doesn’t like balls, or groups. Often it is like Mary is invisible, and her family is not sure if she is there or not. Family and others often joke or put Mary down. Mary’s escape is reading books. Soon Mary starts to write books. My favorite part of the story is when Mary seems to be “modernized” and more independent and seeks her own path. What is to become of Mary Bennet?
I would recommend this book to readers that like fiction and historical fiction of this time period. Although this book is referenced to “Pride and Prejudice” it is a stand alone.I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review..
I enjoyed this book but might find myself in the minority here.
The writing is simply beautiful. However there are some tweaks to some of the characters that some may find disconcerting or even sacrilegious to some die-hard fans of P&P. Me? Yes, I was surprised (and not always pleasantly so) by some directions the author decided to veer, but ultimately it is fiction and the way one author saw things develop following P&P. And her version happens to be heartbreaking, poignant, but ultimately victorious. Mary finds her voice…as a sister, as a daughter and as a woman. She’s amazing here.
“Gloom, despair, and agony on me… Deep, dark depression, excessive misery…” GLOOM, DESPAIR AND AGONY ON ME From the TV show “Hee-Haw” (1969 – 1992) Buch Owens & Roy Clark
Warning: To those who love P&P and Austen’s characters… this could be hazardous to your blood pressure. What was I thinking? Apparently, I wasn’t. Reading a story that features secondary and even tertiary characters of a popular book is iffy at best. This story focused on Mary, the middle child of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Within a few minutes of starting the story I was impressed with the Regency style of writing. The use of words and the attempt to mimic the Austenesque style was impressive. However, that soon bogged down as if I were walking six-inches deep in mud. As I continued reading… I was forced to put the book down several times in order to lower my blood pressure. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a good story with Mary, as I have read several that left me smiling and I was glad I read them.
This work was in three parts. Part 1 ended at 42% on my reader and I was ready to slit my own throat. If I were to categorize Mary… I’d say she suffered from Middle Child Syndrome. In birth order, she was sandwiched between Jane [the beauty], Lizzy [the lively wit and her father’s favorite], and the two younger, silly, sisters Kitty and Lydia [her mother’s favorite]. She felt overlooked, unappreciated and neglected.
This was not a happy reading. It was dark, everyone abused and taunted Mary. She was the butt of a cruel joke by the neighbor boy as he tried to garner Jane’s attention. Even in the presence of their mother, the younger sisters would taunt her. Many times, their father was nearby and would simply shake his head and smirk… doing nothing. And that mother… she was quick to scrutinize Mary looks, appearance, her body and lack of enticing features… it was horrid. There were moments when Jane tried to comfort her but even then… Mary couldn’t overcome her abused feeling and wounded heart.
By the time Part 1 ended, Collins had married Charlotte, leaving Mary with a broken heart. Lydia had reached her youthful and silly goal of marrying before her sisters. Jane and Lizzy married their hearts desire and Mary was invited to visit Pemberley.
We were in her head for the POV… it was self-reflecting, self-evaluating and a rather dismal place. All the negative emotions known to man were experienced by our Mary and thought upon ad nauseam. To be honest… I didn’t like her one bit. At times she was cruel and vindictive and just plain nasty. Just when I wanted to chuck the whole thing, she would have an endearing conversation with Darcy. I liked him… until I started to suspect something wasn’t just right. Since Part 1 followed the Austen timeline, I knew that Part 2 would be uncharted territory as Austen ended with only a shadow of future felicity between the older married sisters and their younger siblings.
Part 2: ended at 89%: This was certainly not Austen… this was more Brontë with its dark reflection and soul shriveling, dejected angst. Mary was a series of contradictions and a far cry from Austen’s character. Who was this woman? What was her purpose in the story except to pull the reader down into her world of being bullied, neglected and ignored by everyone around her. With every ray of sunshine, our author provided a cloud or pouring rain. With every compliment, we were given a resounding negative feature of her person or character. Why am I still reading this book?
OMG!! The unthinkable has happened at Pemberley on more than one level and I am so disgusted. This is not Mary and certainly not Elizabeth. Our dear Colonel is no longer so dear or so nice. Oh-My-Gosh! I have an idea where I think this is going. Surely this author will not breach that trust. I think our author is on a quest to see how many ways thing can go horribly WRONG in Austen’s universe. Everything that could get screwed… did. Was this a ruse to squash the love the JAFF community has for Austen’s characters? Was this a treatment to diminish their behavior to the uncanny and ridiculous? What was the purpose of this story? Where was the love… this was a pale and thinly veiled impression of love? I didn’t see it.
OMG! It happened as I thought and then the author took this beyond… to the ridiculous… the inexcusable… the unthinkable… and finally, the unforgivable. I am so mad… I want to scream, to throw something, to cuss [I don’t curse but I might take it up], I want to burn this book [except it is an e-book], I am so upset I can’t breathe. This is not our beloved Austen characters… this is Dickens, Brontë and all those that write dark twisted and nefarious stories where the sun NEVER shines on our characters. Everything that could go dark did. Who is this Lizzy? Who is this Darcy? OMG! No-no-no-NO!!!
I am so disgusted. I hate this and wonder why I continued reading this… horrid, horrid story. I have NEVER seen this twisted plot-line before and I certainly hope I never see it again. I do not recommend this to my fellow JAFF readers unless you want a Twilight Zone type of story. I hate not finishing a story but I may do myself harm if I continue with this depressing dark story. Read it at your own risk. Famous last words… like a train wreck… I had to look. I did finish it with shock and amazement at what the author did to this ending. DANG!!
I volunteered to read an uncorrected proof via the publisher and NetGalley… and now wish I hadn’t. The views expressed are my own. I barely finished this with my jaws clinched so hard I may need to see my dentist. I wanted to choose 5-stars but chose 2-stars for the creativity and the writing style. It was beautifully written for such a horrid outcome to our beloved characters. I am seriously displeased. [Estimated publication: July 24, 2018]