📖Mary B by Katherine J. Chen📖
So....I actively dislike this book.
I hate this book because the author imagines a horrific fate for almost all of the characters in Pride and Prejudice.
Lydia dies alone. Her baby has died, and Wickham has left her to handle his debts. She is horribly disfigured when she dies, and even loses her front tooth.
Elizabeth's son dies - he is stillborn - and she blames Darcy for his death. Elizabeth and Darcy remain married but in title only - they become strangers to one another. Elizabeth loses her wit and vitality for living and succumbs to ridiculous jewels and clothes, because that is the only way she can find happiness.
Charlotte becomes extremely fat, and when Mr. Bennet dies, the Collins' move into Longbourn, and the servants make fun of her behind her back. They have a child who is always sickly and screams a lot.
I seem to recall Jane and Bingley and Kitty being happy enough, but mostly everyone in the original book ends up being miserable in this sequel.
Also, Darcy falls in love with Mary. They become good friends, he edits her novel manuscript, and their connection becomes stronger. I guess this upset me the most. Why break up Darcy and Elizabeth? Why not give Mary her own romantic interest?
"Lydia was dead and there was nothing [that could be] done to save her." page 245
Funny thing is, in a lot of these " published fanfictions", the authors imagine a miserable, horrific, and painful fate for Lydia. And I guess I sort of wonder why that is. Lydia did have some unlikeable qualities. She was rash and flighty and impulsive. She didn't really think of the consequences for her actions. She was boastful and prideful when she had no footing (i.e., in the orginal book, she tells Jane to walk behind her because she is now a "married woman"). But I don't understand why these authors want to see her die of a horrific disease, or be murdered.
Mary's reading list:
"...I began my first novel in earnest." page 141
I did like the bits of the book that were Mary's "novel-in-progress", and it is really neat that her books about Queen Leonora were published in the end, but I think what was most upsetting for me was that I couldn't recognize the original characters. Especially Elizabeth. It made me feel like the author of this book, Katherine J. Chen either (a) didn't understand the characters in Jane Austen's original novel; or (b) has a kind of kink for subjecting well-known, if not beloved literary characters to misery and despair. I understand that she wanted to portray Mary in a happier light, but she didn't need to make everyone else miserable to do so.
This isn't my most disliked Mary Bennet published fanfiction (I can think of a book I hate even more than this one), but I can understand why there are so many 1 star ratings on goodreads.
I hate this book because the author imagines a horrific fate for almost all of the characters in Pride and Prejudice.
Lydia dies alone. Her baby has died, and Wickham has left her to handle his debts. She is horribly disfigured when she dies, and even loses her front tooth.
Elizabeth's son dies - he is stillborn - and she blames Darcy for his death. Elizabeth and Darcy remain married but in title only - they become strangers to one another. Elizabeth loses her wit and vitality for living and succumbs to ridiculous jewels and clothes, because that is the only way she can find happiness.
Charlotte becomes extremely fat, and when Mr. Bennet dies, the Collins' move into Longbourn, and the servants make fun of her behind her back. They have a child who is always sickly and screams a lot.
I seem to recall Jane and Bingley and Kitty being happy enough, but mostly everyone in the original book ends up being miserable in this sequel.
Also, Darcy falls in love with Mary. They become good friends, he edits her novel manuscript, and their connection becomes stronger. I guess this upset me the most. Why break up Darcy and Elizabeth? Why not give Mary her own romantic interest?
"Lydia was dead and there was nothing [that could be] done to save her." page 245
Funny thing is, in a lot of these " published fanfictions", the authors imagine a miserable, horrific, and painful fate for Lydia. And I guess I sort of wonder why that is. Lydia did have some unlikeable qualities. She was rash and flighty and impulsive. She didn't really think of the consequences for her actions. She was boastful and prideful when she had no footing (i.e., in the orginal book, she tells Jane to walk behind her because she is now a "married woman"). But I don't understand why these authors want to see her die of a horrific disease, or be murdered.
Mary's reading list:
- Sermons to a Young Woman by James Fordyce
- The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe
- Shakespeare: Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra
- The Last Rose of Summer by Thomas Moore
- Memoirs of Modern Philosophers by Elizabeth Hamilton
- The Wrongs of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
- Clara Howard by Charles Brockden Brown
- Thaddeus of Warsaw by Jane Porter
- The Wild Irish Girl by Sydney Owenson
- Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist by Charles Brockden Brown
- The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons
- The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott
- Horrid Mysteries by Carl Friedrich August Grosse
- Frances Burney: Cecilia, Camilla, Evelina
"...I began my first novel in earnest." page 141
I did like the bits of the book that were Mary's "novel-in-progress", and it is really neat that her books about Queen Leonora were published in the end, but I think what was most upsetting for me was that I couldn't recognize the original characters. Especially Elizabeth. It made me feel like the author of this book, Katherine J. Chen either (a) didn't understand the characters in Jane Austen's original novel; or (b) has a kind of kink for subjecting well-known, if not beloved literary characters to misery and despair. I understand that she wanted to portray Mary in a happier light, but she didn't need to make everyone else miserable to do so.
This isn't my most disliked Mary Bennet published fanfiction (I can think of a book I hate even more than this one), but I can understand why there are so many 1 star ratings on goodreads.