Book review - Mary Bennet by Jennifer Paynter

ATTENTION all Jane Austen fans. The fascinatingly addictive world of Pride And Prejudice has now been recreated.

ATTENTION all Jane Austen fans.

The fascinatingly addictive world of Pride And Prejudice has now been recreated in Mary Bennet by debut novelist Jennifer Paynter.

Plain and bespectacled, Mary is the middle Bennet sister, alienated from both her sensible older siblings and her silly younger ones by her position in the family. In the original novel, Mary was regarded as lacking in wit and judgment.

Here, she is perceptive and self-deprecating, but still a little pious.

As the novel progresses, the reader warms towards Mary, despite her occasional criticism of her sister Elizabeth, a bold move as Lizzy Bennet is one of the most popular heroines in English literature.

In Mary Bennet, the author has recreated the original story while weaving in some new episodes and characters.

There is also a presupposition that the reader is familiar with the original novel, given references to future events mentioned in passing by Mary, before they happen in her version.

At times, Mary seems overly perceptive and worldly for her teenage years. There are some risque incidents too.

And yet, Mary Bennet succeeds in inviting us back into the world of Longbourn and the Bennet family and their preoccupation with marriage, money and social class.

In Mary Bennet, Sydney author Paynter has been daring in allowing a love match to whisk Mary away from her neurotic mother, contemptuous father and superior sisters to a new life in Australia. Bravo!