Lizzy Bennet married Mr. Darcy, Jane Bennet married Mr. Bingley - but what became of the middle daughter Mary? Readers of Pride and Prejudice will remember that there were five Bennet sisters. Now, 20 years on, Jane has a happy and large family; Lizzy and Mr. Darcy now have a formidable social reputation; Lydia has a reputation of quite another kind; Kitty is much in demand in London's parlors and ballrooms; but what of Mary? Mary is quietly celebrating her independence, having nursed her ailing mother for many years. She decides to write a book to bring the plight of the poor to everyone's attention. But with more resolve than experience, as she sets out to travel around the country, it's not only her family who are concerned about her. ( )

It is a truth universally acknowledged that no-one truly knows what happened to the Bennet girls after the last page of Pride and Prejudice was written. I can say though, that I don't believe The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet was what Jane Austen had in mind.

A sensible Mary, a mean Mr Darcy, murder, alcoholism, kidnappings and a strange religious sect all appear in this book. The writing is good in comparison to other P&P sequels, but there's little characterisation. The characters speak in a very modern fashion and even swear! (I believe that Mr Darcy doesn't use the 'f word').

Pleasant enough, but this is not THE sequel. Not even close. Colleen McCullough's other books are awesome (On, Off and The Thorn Birds in particular), please read those instead. ( )

Colleen McCullough demonstrates her versatility. She is not a 'formula' writer, you never know what to expect when you open one of her books. I'm not a great Pride & Prejudice fan but this was an interesting 'sequel'. ( )

I wanted to enjoy this book far more than I actually did. Colleen McCullough has a knack for lively writing that brings long-gone times and places to life with vivid color. Unfortunately, my problem likely resides in the fact that this was written as a “Pride and Prejudice” sequel.

Now, I’m not an Austen fan who considers her writing sacrosanct stuff that should never be questioned, have sequels, prequels, homages, etc. written, re-interpreted, or the like. Memorable characters and stories like Austen wrote tend to inspire that sort of effort.

But it’s fairly obvious McCullough has set out to not only prod what she sees as a sacred cow, she’s knocked it square between the eyes and merrily sent it off to the slaughterhouse. She seems determined to write something as far from “Pride and Prejudice” as possible. In some ways, this works. The plot is a cracking good read, humorous and energetic and chock-full of Perils of Pauline-type hijinks. We’re treated to fare including the plight of the ordinary man, highwaymen, and even a religious cult. If “P and P” was a stately comedy of manners, “Mary Bennet” is an irreverent comedy of adventure, and an enjoyable one for that.

Unfortunately, that turnabout falls flat when it comes to the characters. They have a few facets of their original nature taken and augmented to extremes, which, rather than being wittily satirical, unfortunately just renders them to the point of being cartoonish caricatures. Darcy is far more arrogant, humorless, and unyielding than ever before, obsessed with propriety and becoming Prime Minister. Elizabeth has become his long-suffering wife, loveless and forlorn, her jabs of wit turned into feeble prods. Jane is a patient broodmare, Bingley a cheerfully oblivious man who shows up every so often to impregnate his wife yet again and disappear to his mistress and slave plantation in Jamaica. They’re very one-note in nature until the very end.

Most of all I was bothered by the transformation of Mary Bennet. It’s one thing to want to tell the story of the overlooked and often-forgotten middle sister, who I’ve always believed got the short end of the stick. The original was undeniably a homely, awkward seventeen-year-old mindlessly spouting Scripture and maxims about propriety. McCullough has had Mary cooped up for twenty years as a companion to Mrs. Bennet, and then from that unfortunate, narrow existence, somehow presents her as having become an utterly forward-thinking, iron-willed, independent, daring feminist, who, at the age of thirty-seven (firmly a middle-aged matron by Regency standards), is suddenly far more ravishing a creature than any of her sisters ever was. It’s just a total 180 degree unbelievable transformation, given the base material and the lack of logical opportunity to produce that result.

That, in the end, is my main issue with this novel, although the final pages are cringe-worthy and the last line one of the worst I’ve ever read. If a writer wants to tell the story of any character previously written, whether by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, or JK Rowling, they need to present that character, and others taken from that canon, as believably related to the originals. I don’t see that in “Mary Bennet”: the only solid ties this bunch has to the “Pride and Prejudice” characters are those of name. If McCullough had written this as a straight historical novel with no connections to Austen rather than drastically overshot the mark in writing a tongue-in-cheek sequel, I suspect the characters would have been better developed, and the non-stop adventuresome plot would make their tale worth reading. ( )

I love Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice is on of my all time favorites, but I wasn't pleased with this particular novel.
While I was pleased to learn that Mary had turned from the ugly duckinling into the beautiful swan, I was very displeased with the authors view of life between Lizzie and Fitz. I would like to believe that Lizzie and Fitz had a good marriage, full of love. But the author prefers them to be unhappily married throughout the book, well it did change for the better in the end.
I thought the character of Mary was likeable, but quite unlike the Mary we see in Pride and Prejudice. The book was also not that easy to get into, but got better about halfway thru. ( )