“It is a sad fact that if a young woman is unlucky enough to come into the world without expectation, she had better do all she can to ensure she is born beautiful.”
Does this remind you of another book beginning? Janice Hadlow has taken on quite a challenge to write about the sister in Pride and Prejudice who is mainly ignored in favour of concentrating on the four who have beauty, or wit, or a sense of fun that appeals to a certain type of man.
Anyone who has read Pride and Prejudice will know that Mrs Bennet’s focus in life is finding husbands for her daughters, as there is no son for the family house and money to be passed on to, and therefore no security for the women should Mr Bennet die.
Mary lives in ignorance of her plain looks until she is ten, when she overhears a conversation between her mother and her aunt which leaves her in no doubt. Up till then she doesn’t understand why her mother looks at her in a different way to the way she views her sisters. When she realises that her failing is not to have any redeeming features in her looks she covers the bedroom mirror with a shawl.
As Jane and Lizzy grow closer to each other, Mary withdraws into herself. When the two younger ones come along, Kitty and Lydia, she hopes against hope that one of them will grow up plain like herself, then she will have a companion who understands. When it becomes obvious that this isn’t going to happen, and Kitty and Lydia form an alliance as the oldest two do with each other, Mary is left lonely in the midst of a large family, no-one understanding how bereft she feels.
Whilst having no talent for needlework or painting, the one thing she does excel at is playing the piano. She applies herself assiduously to scales and arpeggios, and it is important to her that she plays correctly. When she hears Lizzie playing with gay abandon – leading to wrong notes – Mary realises that even though she is the more talented on the instrument, people would be more likely to prefer Lizzie’s playing because she injects happiness into it, regardless of correctness.
She decides to focus on something else: reading. Her father shuts himself away in his office, only letting Lizzy, his favourite, in on occasion, but Mary plucks up the courage to ask if she may borrow his books. She hopes – in vain, as it turns out – that this will bring her closer to her father, engendering literary conversations. After spending hours reading, she finds that her eyesight is failing her, and when the oculist comes to the house to see if spectacles would help, he brings his son, who is learning the trade. John Sparrow is slightly younger than Mary, and they get on well together.
When the first ball of the season is looming, four of the sisters are looking forward to it with eagerness. Mary really doesn’t really want to go, as she knows that it is unlikely that anyone would dance with her, and her dresses are all, like herself, plain. When Mrs Hill, the housekeeper, offers to take her shopping for material and do her hair for her, she caves in. Material is chosen, a dress is made, and Mrs Bennet and the five girls go to the ball.
Who approaches Mary for a dance but John Sparrow, and they dance two dances together, Mary feeling happier than she has felt in a long time. Alas, this does not last, as Lizzy’s friend Charlotte Lucas warns her against accepting any more dances with John; even two consecutive dances will have got people talking.
Throughout the book we see that Janice has kept close to Jane Austen’s original characters; Mrs Bennet’s shallow view of life, Mr Bennet’s wry wit, practised at every opportunity, the differing characters of the five girls – all are adhered to faithfully. We meet the characters from Pride and Prejudice who added so much colour to the story; Mr Collins, the Gardiners, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr Darcy, Charlotte Lucas, and the Bingleys, with Caroline Bingley having lost none of her talent for pointed insults couched in apparent politeness.
Once Mr Bennet is dead, Mary spends her time between the houses of her sisters Jane and Elizabeth, and ends up with the Gardiners, her Aunt Gardiner being her father’s sister. As Mary develops her character throughout the book, she becomes a more attractive person to be around, with her quick and enquiring mind. Enter two men: Mr Hayward, a lawyer, and Mr Ryder, his friend, whose outlook on life is somewhat frivolous and who is not obliged to work for a living.
Mary’s journey of self-discovery isn’t an easy one; bound by the conventions of the time her feelings and needs have to be reigned in when she longs to speak her mind. We find ourselves rooting for her, feeling her pain and her triumphs, and cheering her on from the sidelines. I got to a point in the book where it was hard to put down; I willed Mary on to the finale, urging her to be true to herself despite what convention dictated. I feel Jane Austen, whose books mocked the conventions of her time, would have approved of Mary’s journey and been happy with its outcome.
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