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Jane Austen could be really quite unkind. While Pride and Prejudice tells one of literature’s most famous love stories (the author herself called Lizzie Bennet as “delightful a creature as ever appeared in print”), numerous minor characters are left discarded on the wayside of this generational romance, run down by Austen’s razor sharp wit like a lame fox in front of a horse-drawn carriage.
Take, for example, poor old Mary Bennet. “The only plain one in the family,” Austen barely mentions Mary in the book, making only brief asides to remind readers that Lizzie’s sister possesses “neither genius nor taste,” or note how she “wished to say something sensible, but knew not how.” Pedantic, conceited, and not particularly bright, Mary Bennet is, writes Charlotte Jones, “neglected by her parents and unmarriageable, her silent and futile presence … the best testament possible to the ranks of unremarkable women she stands for.”
Well: unremarkable no more! Rescuing this most forgettable of characters from the infamy of irrelevance, the BBC has announced a new Pride and Prejudice spin-off, based on the life of none other than plain Mary Bennet herself. The Other Bennet Sister, based on a novel of the same name by Janice Hadlow, will be making its society debut on our screens at an undisclosed date. If the synopsis is anything to go by, this new period drama might take a leaf out of Bridgerton’s book and give a spikier take on the classic novel.
“Unlike her sisters, Mary isn’t your typical period drama heroine,” it reads. “She is awkward, anxious, preachy, full of facts, a terrible singer… overlooked by her mother and seemingly destined to an empty dance card for the rest of her life… until Mary takes matters into her own hands.”
Following in the footsteps of fan-favorites like My Lady Jane, it seems that The Other Bennet Sister is in the business of iconoclastic revision, turning an oft-forgotten figure into a modern-day heroine. Mary, says Variety, will trade dusty old Meryton for the glamorous intrigues of cosmopolitan London.
Writer Sarah Quintrell said how excited she was to work on this upcoming period drama. “I’m thrilled to be telling the story of Mary—the other Bennet sister—exploring what it is to come of age when you’re the odd one out,” she explained.
