The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet

This is not your mother's Colleen McCullough novel, though it is a far cry from The First Man in Rome. But I just ate up the very clever novel that takes us 20 years into the future after the end of Pride and Prejudice. Darcy, proud as ever, is a Member of Parliament, Elizabeth is his unhappy wife, Lydia is a drunken sleeze, Kitty is a wealthy widow, and Jane is a baby factory. Mary, a spinster, is an independent woman now that her mother has died, and she wants to do something "useful."

Yes, there are parts that stretch the imagination - Father Dominus and his Children of Jesus were hard for me to believe - but I think McCullough does an excellent job of capturing the personalities of Austen's very interesting characters.

The title belies the action of most of the book - let's just say that Mary isn't entirely "independent" for a large section of the novel - but that doesn't detract from this being a really great story. And McCullough is nothing if not a great storyteller.

Now I'm either going to reread some of my Austen favorites, or I'm going to reread some of my McCullough favorites... or both.

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet: A Novel