The Forgotten Sister, Jennifer Paynter
The Forgotten Sister, Jennifer Paynter
List: $42.99 | Sale: $30.10
Club: $21.49

The Forgotten Sister
Mary Bennet's Pride and Prejudice

Author: Jennifer Paynter

Narrator: Jennifer Paynter

Unabridged: 9 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 02/25/2014

Synopsis

The third Bennet sister, Mary, steps into the spotlight in this graceful retelling of Pride and Prejudice.As a middle child flanked by two pairs of closely bonded sisters, marginalized by her mother, and ridiculed by her father, Mary Bennet feels isolated within her own family. She retreats to her room to read and play the pianoforte and, when obliged to mix in society, finds it safer to quote platitudes from books rather than express her real opinions. She also finds it safer to befriend those who are socially “beneath” her. When wealthy Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley glide into her sisters’ lives, Mary becomes infuated with an impoverished young musician, the son of her old wet-nurse, who plays the fiddle at the Meryton assemblies.It is only after her sisters tease her about her “beau with the bow” that Mary is forced to examine her real feelings and confront her own brand of pride and prejudice.An elegant accompaniment to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, The Forgotten Sister plucks the neglected Mary from obscurity and beautifully reveals her hopes and dreams.

About Jennifer Paynter

Jennifer Paynter is the author of the plays God’s People, Balancing Act, and When Are We Going to Manly? , the last being nominated for a Sydney Theatre Critics’ Circle Award and the NSW Premiere’s Literary Award. Her plays have been produced in Sydney and Canberra and for ABC Radio, and her short story “The Sad Heart of Ruth” is an ABC Bicentennial Award winner. The Sydney Morning Herald hails the Australian edition of The Forgotten Sister as an “impressive literary achievement and a delightful read,” and the Brisbane Courier Mail says it “succeeds in inviting us back into the world of Longbourn and the Bennet family and their preoccupation with marriage, money and social class.” Paynter lives in Australia with her family.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Meredith (Austenesque Reviews)

“Poor, Obscure, Plain, and Little” Mary TYPE OF AUSTENESQUE NOVEL: Alternate Point-of-View, Minor Character TIME FRAME: From Mary Bennet’s early childhood to 3-4 years after the close of Pride and Prejudice MAIN CHARACTERS: The Bennet Family, The Long Family, The Lucas Family, George Rovere, Peter Bush......more

Goodreads review by Sandra (LadyGrey Reads)

Thanks Cecilia for this book! So this was an interesting take on Pride and Prejudice. Personally I've always wondered about the two Bennet sisters who are "left without husbands" at the end of the original story and what might happen to them later - particularly Mary since she hardly features in Jane......more

Goodreads review by QNPoohBear

Mary Bennet is the forgotten middle sister. Her mother is neglectful, her father and sisters unkind and neglectful and she suffers post-traumatic stress from being farmed out to a wet nurse with an alcoholic husband. When poor Mary tries to get some attention, no one understands. Mary is the quiet,......more

Goodreads review by Jaylia3

With only half a dozen speeches in Pride and Prejudice Mary Bennet still manages to make an impression. Bookish, socially awkward, and prone to moralizing, it’s hard to picture her as the heroine of a romance novel. Though I’d laugh along at her cluelessness Mary has always had my sympathy, so when......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List