The Unexpected Miss Bennet Paperback – December 6, 2011

A really good Jane Austen fan fiction entry. It's one of only a few that focus on the pedantic middle sister, Mary, and it's done in an engaging manner. Mary becomes much more than a shell character, and her development throughout the novel is a study in perfect writing technique. All of our favorite characters appear, and they're all well done and in tune with the original novel.I won't give away the story, but Mary has unexpected adventures at Rosings and elsewhere, and there is an unexpected suitor. The conclusion isn't so unexpected, and it seemed a bit rushed, but maybe that's because I liked the story so much I wanted more.A definite good read for Jane Austen fans.

I have read any number of different takes and sequels to Pride and Prejudice but I must say this is among my favorites. I loved watching Mary grow into her own and appreciated the depiction of Anne de Burghe. Nicely done!

Mary Bennet is growing more dismayed by the course her life is taking. She does not expect a deeply passionate romance as happened to her sisters Jane Bingley and Elizabeth Darcy, nor does she want the ramshackle impropriety of younger sister Lydia Wickham.But as Kitty goes off to London to visit with Jane and Charles, Mary realizes the life stretching before her as her parents' aging spinster helper is not what she wants, either. But in that case...well, what does Mary want from her life?She's not sure, but when a trip to visit Charlotte and Mr. Collins results in Lady Catherine offering her a temporary position as Anne de Bourgh's companion, Mary seizes this as an opportunity to help both herself and Anne. Lady Catherine secretly wishes to humiliate one of the Bennets, as punishment for Darcy not marrying his cousin Anne.None of Mary's family is completely happy with her taking such a subordinate position (altho Mary refuses to take any money, so she cannot be considered as 'employed'). But they don't know what else to suggest to her in its place, so she is allowed to move to Rosings. We can foresee that she will eventually come to verbal blows with Lady C., and when it happens, her ladyship's reaction is exactly what we would expect from her.This was one of the more unusual heroes for a JAFF. Mr. Aikens is impetuous, horse-mad, and seems to have what we now call ADHD. He cheerfully admits to never reading a book, and tends to blurt out what he thinks without censoring it for propriety's sake. He is, IOW, almost the exact opposite of Miss Mary Bennet.Despite being opposites - or perhaps because of it - neither can forget the other. Their romance is beautifully handled by the author. One can easily imagine these two people will be very good for one another. Another plus was the unexpected behavior of Mr. Collins - now that was a real surprise!Many JAFFs have focused on Mary Bennet; some very good, some so-so. This is one of the good ones, and I enjoyed it very much.

I am a fan of "Jane Austen Variation" novels, books that use the characters from Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion or Sense & Sensibility and spin them off in new directions, while still keeping true to the voice of Jane Austen. I found this novel to be a great example of this niche genre. The story was entertaining, the characters were fresh and Patrice Sarath's voice was close enough to the spirit of Jane Austen that I felt like I was pulling on a set of comfortable old gloves.If you loved Pride & Prejudice and would like to read a continuation of this story as seen through the eyes of one of the sister's of Liz Bennet, then do yourself a favor and purchase this wonderful novel.

Like most Janeites who go in search of fan fiction, I look at each new work with some trepidation. Most of them aren't written in anything close to Miss Austen's style, and I've gotten used to that and consider myself lucky if the typoes, spelling mistakes, and blatant anachronisms are kept down to a minimum. In all those respects and more, _The Unexpected Miss Bennet_ was a very welcome surprise.No linguistic anachronisms here, and no historical ones that I could catch. What's more, the author goes one better by maintaining some of Austen's personal literary conventions. The speaking style is, if not quite Austen's, as close as anything I've seen by a modern author. The restraint that confines the setting and subject to the immediate families and avoids going into historical themes such as the war or the servants' plight has been maintained (I actually don't mind the Austen fanfiction which *does* go into those themes, but it's refreshing to see what can be done when an author stays closer to Austen's own subjects). The scenes which are played out are those in which a woman is present; anything which involves solely men is abstracted in the retelling to the ladies when the men return to them.And, in addition to all these stylistic features, Sarath makes Mary, her subject, actually interesting. She gives plausible reasons for Mary's overblown behavior in P&P which, while foolish, do not irrevocably require that she remain a fool. Her Mary has her older sisters' basic decency and intelligence, and wants to be recognized for these things -- but Jane and Elizabeth are so naturally recognized by all who know them and she isn't. And she has no idea how to go about becoming so.So if I'm impressed in all these ways, why do I give the book only four stars? Two reasons. First of all, while Sarath paints Mary with plausible detail and character structure, she's less successful in doing so with many of the other characters. Elizabeth is rather forced by authorial decree into unhappiness with the situation into which she married (not her husband, but her setting), when there is absolutely no evidence in P&P or in Austen's later recorded comments to her family about what happened to them afterward to suggest that this might be the case. The young man who courts Mary is never drawn with enough detail for us to get a real sense of his character, only his style -- he is almost caricatured, the way a Mr. Collins would be (and is -- the caricature of Mr. Collins also being something Sarath does beautifully, by the way), but in a more sympathetic manner. I would have liked to see as much realism in the way Mr. Aikens is portrayed as in the way Mary is.The other reason I'm downgrading the book is that the author introduces a bunch of unnecessary details to the plot and then drops them when they become inconvenient. Mr. Wickham shows up in London determined to make trouble, and then the trouble is whisked away so easily by offstage characters that one wonders why on earth it was every brought up in the first place. Kitty mentions early in the book that she is laying plans to go see Lydia, which naturally leaves the reader waiting for the explosion which this will bring... and all that happens is someone discovers the plan (again offstage) and nothing every comes of it. More seriously, because it is a significant focus of the plot and is never resolved even with the basic handwave of these other issues, it is implied through Mary's observation that Anne deBourgh is "simple" (Regency English for intellectually disabled); and that this is an enormous piece of why her mother Lady Catherine behaves as she does. Two chapters later, Anne and Mary are happily chattering about books, and no mention of Anne's disability is ever made again. This is unpardonable carelessness, and completely unnecessary. It reads as if the first draft of the book had intended to make use of some of these plotlines and they were written out of the final version... but not all the references were caught and removed properly.Despite those caveats, it's one of the better Austen pastiches out there, and I'll settle willingly. I've always found Mary more interesting than Kitty as a subject for future storylines, so it's nice to see her handled well, even if not all the other characters are done as nicely. And it's lovely to see the language and customs handled well; that's a rarity in any Austen pastiche.

A used book in great condition, reasonably priced, plus speedy shipping

I enjoyed this- and, although Mary Benneett is definitely unexpected, the author has a real empathy with the spirit and style of the original. I preferred this to another, famous P&P sequel which I felt laboured too hard to be Austen

Mary Bennet, decisamente ordinaria e senza alcuna particolare dote a raccomandarla, diviene eroina di una sorta di romanzo di formazione, che è soprattutto una piacevole commedia di maniera. Protagonista che, non convinta del sentiero che ha davanti a sé, incomincia a mettersi in discussione: pianoforte e sermoni sembrano non donarle più il genere di conforto di cui ha bisogno e intraprende un'avventura che da Longbourn la condurrà a Pemberly e a Rosings, facendo nuove conoscenze e soprattutto scoprendo di più se stessa quale giovane donna con delle aspirazioni tutt'altro che irraggiungibili.All'apertura del libro pare che tutti siano convinti che il destino di Mary sia segnato: rassegnarsi a rimanere zitella, fare da compiacente pianista alle festicciole danzanti organizzate dai Lucas, prendersi cura della madre e, in un prossimo futuro, finire di trascorrere i propri giorni presso una delle sorelle maggiori (Jane, con tutta probabilità). Con una Mrs. Bennet che la considera la meno promettente delle figlie e un Mr. Bennet che la trascura, la stessa Mary sembra arrendersi alla sorte... sembra, perché una vena ribelle comincia a farsi strada in lei. Proprio a proposito, quindi, arriva un invito di Elizabeth-Mrs. Darcy a trascorrere l'estate a Pemberly.Mary Bennet sperimenterà una società più ampia di quella a cui è abituata e troverà grandezza, orgoglio, altezzosità, ma anche semplicità, spontaneità e una sferzata di energia - nella convivenza con la famiglia Darcy, nell'amicizia con Anne de Bourgh e nel 'destabilizzante' rapporto con Mr. Aikens - che risveglieranno in lei emozioni mai provate prima e la porteranno a domandarsi se non sia il caso di dare una svolta alla propria esistenza e incominciare a vivere seguendo le proprie inclinazioni e i propri desideri.Patrice Sarath riprende le atmosfere di Orgoglio e pregiudizio con garbo e senza strafare, dando vita a un racconto delicato e ironico, con uno sfondo romantico e un lieto fine assicurato.

Delighted to become reaquainted with one of the lesser known Bennet sisterd

Ms Sarath has produced a thoroughly delightful sequel here. She has produced a very fair likeness of Miss Austen's style, and told a believable story in a manner fully in keeping with the original. There is no attempt to modernise any of the characters or attitudes, and it is all the better for that.