"There's more of a bloom about you." page 255 of The Forgotten Sister by Jennifer Paynter
The Forgotten Sister by Jennifer Paynter is definitely a lot more enjoyable than the last Mary B published fanfiction I reviewed. My one critique of this book though is that it really plodded along. I honestly got really bored. I have read this book before, but I remember also being really bored the first time. (Goodreads is an awesome website by the way, because you can filter the reviews by star ratings). I feel like there were way too many intertextual references, and instead of all the author-dropping and excerpts of poetry, Jennifer should have been developing the plot and characters. I just kind of wanted it to end (both times), and that is never a good feeling when you're reading a book.
I do want to focus though on the things I liked about this book.
I do like that Mary had a "commonplace book". If you've read the ASOUE series, you'll know that commonplace books are very important to the Quagmire triplets. But I love the idea of Mary writing down quotes in a notebook. If you read a lot of Mary Bennet published fanfiction (like I do), you'll see a common theme of Mary writing, collecting quotes, and writing stories and books of her own. And this is pretty much canon. Mr Bennet says as much in the original novel:
"What say you, Mary? for you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and read great books and make extracts.”
Volume 1 Chapter 2 page 9
It is canon that Mary copies her favourite quotes from books she's read. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine her writing novels. In this book, unlike in Mary B where she writes a fictional story about "Queen Leonora", Mary's writing is limited to journal entries and extracts in her commonplace book, and letters to her sisters and her friend Cassandra (perhaps a reference to Jane Austen's own sister).
I did enjoy the intertextual references. In my Mary B series book reviews, I will only be talking about the literary intertextual references. And the reason is beause I am very familiar with music and music history, and I don't find Mary's career as an amateur pianist as riveting. I also want to note that I haven't included quotes from the Bible or Scriptures.
So, without further ado, as I did for Mary B, I will make a list of the (many) literary intertextual references that are found in this book. I'm really making Mary B x published fanfiction posts to record the intertual references for posterity on my blog because after I return these books to the library (with the exception of The Other Bennet Sister), I never want to read these books ever again). Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of fun to immerse yourself in published fanfiction, where authors "borrow" Jane Austen's world and characters for a while, (it almost feels like watching Bridgerton in a way), but there isn't a single offering of this "genre" that doesn't have flaws. Kind of makes me want to try writing Mary Bennet fanfic. At any rate, this published fanfic is definitely a lot better than ALP published fanfic. And this may be because Mary B fanfic is geared for an older audience.
Lists of Literary Intertexual References in The Forgotten Sister by Jennifer Paynter
Shakespeare: So just like Disney's Belle, Mary Bennet would be familiar with Shakespeare. In this book, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, The Tempest, Othello, and As You Like It are referenced. In Mary B, Hamlet and Antony and Cleopatra are mentioned.
"My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words
Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound:
Art thou not Romeo and a Montague?"
from Romeo and Juliet
(page 140 of The Forgotten Sister)
"If thou rememberest not the slightest folly
That ever love did make thee run into,
Thou hast not loved."
from As You Like It
(page 307 of The Forgotten Sister)
"Nothing."
from King Lear
(page 371 of The Forgotten Sister)
"O brave new world."
from The Tempest
(page 397 of The Forgotten Sister)
Frances Burney: (Cecilia,) Camilla, Evelina
James Fordyce, Sermons to a Young Woman, often called Fordyce's Sermons: This book comes up again and again in published P&P fanfic, being the one literary intertextual refrence in the original novel.
Mary Brunton: Self-Control
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women
"Children very early see cats with their kittens, birds with their young ones, etc. Why then are they not to be told that their mothers carry and nourish them in the same way? As there would then be no appearance of mystery, they would never think of the subject more." (page 107 of The Forgotten Sister)
In Mary B, The Wrongs of Women is referenced.
I feel like I really need to read Wollstonecraft if I want to write regency fanfic.
Lawrence Sterne: The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman
Robert Burns: "A Red Red Rose",
"Mary Morison": "O Mary, canst thou wreck his peace/ Who for they sake would gladly die?/ Or canst thou break that heart of his,/ Whose only fault is loving thee? (page 284 of The Forgotten Sister)
"What though on homely fare we dine" (pages 198-199 of The Forgotten Sister)
John Milton: Paradise Lost,
Paradise Regained: "Most men admire virtue who follow not her lore."
(page 328 of The Forgotten Sister)
Alexander Pope: Moral Essays, "The Quiet Life",
"True ease in writing comes from art not chance/ As those move easiest who have learned to dance."
(page 126 of The Forgotten Sister)
William Cowper: "God moves in a mysterious way/ His wonders to perform",
(page 65 of The Forgotten Sister)
William Wordsworth:
- Guide to the Lakes
- Lyrical Ballads: Wordsworth and Coleridge - including "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
"The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled."
(page 395 of The Forgotten Sister)
"Water, water everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere
Nor any drop to drink."
(page 396 of The Forgotten Sister)
- "The Affliction of Margaret"
- "My apprehensions come in crowds;
I dread the rustling of the grass;
The very shadows of the clouds
Have power to shake me as they pass:
I question things and do not find
One that will answer to my mind;
And all the world appears unkind."
(page 134 of The Forgotten Sister)
- "Power of Music"
- His station is there; and he works on the crowd,
- He sways them with harmony merry and loud;
- He fills with his power all their hearts to the brim -
- Was aught over heard like his fiddle and him?
- (pages 160 and 196 of The Forgotten Sister)
Sheridan: The Rivals
"Our memories and independant of our wills."
(page 385 of The Forgotten Sister)
M. François Hubert: New Observations on the Natural History of Bees
Discourse of the Preservation of the Sight; of Melancholike diseases; of Rheumes, and of Old Age: This text was referenced to provide context for Mary's poor eye sight, and a historical backdrop for medical advancements in the 17th-18th centuries.
William Blake: Auguries of Innocence, analysis
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent
- (page 260 of The Forgotten Sister)
Mary Bennet + Outfits | ep 01-06 (requested by anonymous)
Lucy Briers as Mary in the 1995 miniseries.
"The gown was silk, the color of pale wheat." page 244
I actually loved this description of Mary's dress. I love Mary's wardrobe in the 1995 miniseries. In the 2005 movie, Mary was dressed in a lot of black. She kind of looks like a 19th century emo goth, which is cute. But of course the 1995 miniseries had a much more accurate wardrobe selection for the Bennet sisters. The Bennet sisters wear bonnets! In the Bridgerton books, the women wear bonnets, but the Netflix series got rid of the caps and bonnets and gave Kate Shama a top hat.
Bridgerton (2020- ) | Kate’s hunting dress in “Victory” | 2.04
This post is starting to get away from me, so I'm going to end Part 1 here. I have included intertextual references, links to source material, page numbers where excerpts are quoted in The Forgotten Sister, and I have included gifs from various adaptations that illustrate how the depiction of regency fashion has changed since the late 90s.
Tomorrow (or whenever I have time to make a post), I am hoping to talk about how Jennifer Paynter has reworked several scenes in Pride and Prejudice - scenes in particular where Mary has speaking lines. I am giving the book a tag, because, while not a perfect retelling/prequel/sequel to P&P, there are a lot of good things in this book. *Hoping all of this will fit in the post lol*