Reviewed by J. F. Nodar - August 15, 2025, 2024
For me, writing a novel that’s a sequel to Jane Austen’s work would feel like both a labour of love and an immense burden. I’ve always enjoyed Austen’s novels, even though I sometimes find her prose long-winded. After reading Colleen McCullough’s The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet, and while I understand that she’s a bestselling author, best known for her books “The touch” and her controversial novel “The Thorn Birds”, despite the masterful writing, I can’t give her novel a better rating.
My main issue is that it doesn’t feel like an independent story; rather, it’s a narrative that borrows the names of the characters from Pride and Prejudice. I couldn’t connect the story.
Maybe it was me.
While it is a novel about Mary Bennet, she becomes a secondary character in her own story.
The plot seems more focused on Lydia or on the problems between Elizabeth and Darcy
Finally, with its murder (for some reason, shades of Miss Marple popped in my head), the terrible marriages depicted and some pretty crazy sections, I found it to be an okay read, giving it a 3 out of 5 stars.
