Lydia Bennet – the kickable youngest Bennet daughter from Jane Austen’s famous family unit, with an endless penchant for drama – has been the subject of many retellings. Not to mention unofficial sequels to Pride and Prejudice (unofficial in the sense that Austen has been slightly too dead for slightly too long to write one herself). Elizabeth, obviously, was the subject of the original and it is generally felt that Jane got enough of a look in, too. (Though, in firstborn solidarity, I would like the record to show that if anyone wants to do a full-blown rewrite or sequel from Jane’s point of view, I and a kabillion other dutiful oldest daughters would welcome the chance to escape from our life of responsibility and the burdens of innate superiority in all things for 300 pages or so, thank you.) Kitty is popular as a subject of fan fiction – the lure of bringing her out of Lydia’s shadow is pretty irresistible – and stars in a few more substantial works, such as Carrie Kablean’s fun and perfectly titled What Kitty Did Next.
Now it is Mary’s turn. She has had a few already – including Coleen “The ThornBirds” McCullough’s The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet, and Perception by Terri Fleming, another neat titling. But the most popular by far has been Janice Hadlow’s 2020 bestseller The Other Bennet Sister, now adapted into a 10-part series for television by Sarah Quintrell with additional writing by Maddie Dai.
