Brown Bag Book Discussion

Sharon Livingston will lead a discussion of Janice Hadlow's novel The Other Bennet Sister. Participants are encouraged (but not required) to read the book in advance. Ask for a copy at the library’s information desk.

In order to allow for social distancing, seating is limited. Please register to reserve your spot. 

From Booklist:

Mary Bennet could never compete with her beautiful older sisters, and Pride and Prejudice presents her as a priggish foil to Lizzie's wit and intelligence. Hadlow gets justice for Mary in her debut novel, revealing a girl who is constantly told that she is wrong (directly, by her mother, and indirectly by everyone else), who seeks to rectify that misperception through a deep study of history and philosophy.

It doesn't help, as she is ill-equipped to express the feelings stirred by her reading; and, on top of that, she requires glasses. She has a childhood ally in Bennet-family servant Mrs. Hill, but it is not until all of her sisters  are married and she stays in London with her aunt and uncle that she is empowered to bloom. Hadlow smartly skips over the bulk of Austen's plot, though devotees of the original will be intrigued by Mary's time with the Darcys, the Bingleys, and the Collinses. The  writing is dense, but captures the esprit de Austen, immersing the reader in Mary's internal world as she keenly (though, at first, awkwardly) observes those around her The result is a page-turning coming-of-age story of an overlooked woman slowly accepting her zest for life.