The Other Bennet Sister

I finally saw it!

I read the book last year and really enjoyed it. It captured Mary Bennet's struggle within her family very well and being the middle child, there's was so much internal relation with her. So, when I found out there was going to be a television production, my period drama loving self was excited. Unfortunately, it took me forever to view it but while I was in surgery recovery I was able to binge watch the series in two days.

L-R: Mary Bennet, Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth, Jane, (front) Kitty and Lydia

The story begins in the same way that the original Pride & Prejudice did but only told from Mary's POV. In the OG story Mary is portrayed as an overbearing know it all who despises gatherings and dances and instead devotes herself to the reading of great thinkers and philosophers. Yet, the reader is never told why Mary is so withdrawn from social life and her reasoning for constant study. Because Mary is never given much material she has often been downgraded to the boring, plain middle sister whose sole purpose was to be the family joke. The Other Bennet Sister took that narrative and breathed some life into it.

Beauty, grace, wit, charm, these are the essential components to finding a good husband and (hopefully) a happy and fulfilling life. Four out of the five Bennet sisters possess all of these. Unfortunately, Mary possesses none. Instead, she is plain, clumsy, serious and disagreeable, at least according to her always demanding mother. Time and again Mary has tried to please her mother and measure up to her glorious sisters but seems to fail at every turn. 

Finally, when her one true chance of happiness is upended Mary gives up. She disregards dancing and dresses and turns her full attention to books and learning. Forging her own identity that will not be found in charming smiles, but intellectual mindset.

Mr. William Ryder and Mary

Over the years, Mary watches as each of her sisters marry and leave their childhood home. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and comfortable in the knowledge that Mary will never marry and will spend the rest of her life with them. However, a sudden death changes the course of everyone's futures and Mary soon finds herself taken to front steps of her beloved Aunt and Uncle Gardner, right in the heart of London.

While there Mary discovers, friendship, kindness, excitement, poetry, love and most of all herself. No longer overshadowed by her own family, Mary is finally free to navigate her life as she sees fit; with a great a deal of thanks to aunt and uncle who love her in the way her own parents never could. As Mary finds herself caught between the affections of two very different men (something she never thought she'd see) she must find the balance between logic and love if she is to create her ultimate happiness. 

Mr. Tom Hayward and Mary

With the book being so good I was hoping the movie would measure up and it certainly did. The story was streamlined considerably, and I was quite glad for that. I really didn't want to put up with either Charlotte Lucas Collins (she was insufferable in the book), and Caroline Bingley any more than I had too. The casting was the true backbone, and they could not have picked a more perfect cast. Ella Bruccoleri was excellent as Mary, a perfect choice given her simple and subtle prettiness. Indira Varma as the stunning Mrs. Gardner, the real MVP, who had everyone completely in love with her. Donal Finn and Laurie Davidson were the stuff of true Austen gentlemen as they vied for Mary's affections.

The Bennet sisters were as beautiful as you expected them to be and were the perfect amount of comic relief. Mary and Elizabeth didn't have a close relationship in the book; however, they created that for the mini-series which added so much more to both characters and made some for some wonderful tender moments. And of course, this had to be the most detestable portrayal of Mrs. Bennet I have ever seen. A great deal about her hit close to home for me and I found myself despising her more and more every time I saw her. 

The success of The Other Bennet Sister has been a breath of fresh air for entertainment. Someone took one of the most overlooked characters in literature and gave her a purpose, a meaning, an identity that is more real and accurate than any heroine Jane Austen herself could have created. Like with Edith Crawley, the stereotype of the boring, overlooked ugly sister isn't always easy to ignore. There's so much more than being invisible and unheard and sometimes you need to break away from what you know to find who you are.