So the first book I read for my Women Unbound reading challenge was The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough. I quite like Colleen McCullough, as one of my favourite short novels is The Ladies of Missalonghi. And this one sounded great as it was picking up where Pride and Prejudice left off. Well, actually it picks up 20 years later; Darcy and Elizabeth have 5 children but are not happily married, Kitty is a rich widow, Jane and Bingley are happy enough, Lydia is a drunken whore basically, who is widowed during the story, while Mary has been left to look after Mrs Bennet, since the death of Mr Bennet.
The story starts off rather brusquely. Mrs Bennet dies in the first couple of pages, and Mary is immediately taken with the idea of being independent and doing her own thing. I think one of the problems I have had with this book is that we don't have enough of an idea of how miserable Mary's life has been. A chapter on life with mother would have been a good idea to remind us of how detestable Mrs Bennet had become. And then a general realisation for Mary that she could change her situation was needed. But instead, we end up with what amounts to a girl's adventure story.
If you are looking for a light read, and like Jane Austen and happy endings, then you may like this story. I think it is perfectly entertaining should you want to be entertained. But because I had higher expectations, which came from the title of the book, I was slightly disappointed. Most of the characters are not recognizable. There are too many things which are simply unbelievable and too many coincidences, and too much of a nice wrapped up ending.
Elizabeth and Darcy appear to hate each other, Darcy regretting ever marrying her and detesting their only son. But in the end they love each other again and have even discovered a happy sex life for the first time in their marriage. Darcy realizes that he has a worthy grown up son and realizes he loves his family so much that he gives up his ambitions to become Prime Minister. Jane doesn't mind that Bingley has a 'mulatto' lover and child when he goes away to the West Indies to see to his business. Actually, we never see him in the story. Darcy has a black half brother (Ned) whom he loves but does not acknowledge until the end. Turns out his father was really a blaggard and a thief (literally) whose gold turns up in the end of the story, having been hidden in the hills by a crazy zealot who just happens to kidnap Mary. Of course the kidnapping of Mary is perhaps the most OTT thing about this book. She sets off on her adventures, to travel and to write a book about the poor and immediately gets robbed and left for dead, then found by Ned, only to be kidnapped by the crazy zealot (forget his name and book has gone back to the library); but it is all ok because there is subsidence which means she can escape from her cell at just the right time. Oh, and then she can go and marry the man who has fallen in love with her, Angus, who just happens to be the same man she reads in the newspaper who writes anonymously about radical ideas. All too neat and tidy, in spite of the inappropriate lanquage and actions, ie Mary and Angus having sex before they were married and after she says she wouldn't mind getting married if they didn't have to have sex. Oh yes, and the 4 Darcy girls are all cured of their little annoying habits as well.
I suppose the book was very Jane Austen in the happy ending bit, but not very Jane Austen as it definitely was not a story of manners. There were lots of references to sex and sexuality which made it more modern, but it wasn't even a book about sexual independence or sexual awakening, like Kate Chopin's The Awakening. They just said rude things and behaved in ways that didn't go with their characters. I was rather hoping for a more introspective novel, about womens situations, about poverty and class, about identity. I wasn't expecting it to be more Jane Austen, but rather an evolution from Jane Austen's characters. Instead it left all the good bits of Austen, and went off somewhere rather odd.
Read it on holiday, but not if you want something revelatory or thoughtful.
