Free (Kindle Novel) The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet [OFFER ENDED]

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The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough

Product Description

Everyone knows the story of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. But what about their sister Mary? At the conclusion of Jane Austen's classic novel, Mary, bookish, awkward, and by all accounts, unmarriageable, is sentenced to a dull, provincial existence in the backwaters of Britain. Now, master storyteller Colleen McCullough rescues Mary from her dreary fate with The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet, a page-turning sequel set twenty years after Austen's novel closes. The story begins as the neglected Bennet sister is released from the stultifying duty of caring for her insufferable mother. Though many would call a woman of Mary's age a spinster, she has blossomed into a beauty to rival that of her famed sisters. Her violet eyes and perfect figure bewitch the eligible men in the neighborhood, but though her family urges her to marry, romance and frippery hold no attraction. Instead, she is determined to set off on an adventure of her own. Fired with zeal by the newspaper letters of the mysterious Argus, she resolves to publish a book about the plight of England's poor. Plunging from one predicament into another, Mary finds herself stumbling closer to long-buried secrets, unanticipated dangers, and unlooked-for romance.

Meanwhile, the other dearly loved characters of Pride and Prejudice fret about the missing Mary while they contend with difficulties of their own. Darcy's political ambitions consume his ardor, and he bothers with Elizabeth only when the impropriety of her family seems to threaten his career. Lydia, wild and charming as ever, drinks and philanders her way into dire straits; Kitty, a young widow of means, occupies herself with gossip and shopping; and Jane, naïve and trusting as ever, spends her days ministering to her crop of boys and her adoring, if not entirely faithful, husband. Yet, with the shadowy and mysterious figure of DarcyÕs right-hand man, Ned Skinner, lurking at every corner, it is clear that all is not what it seems at idyllic Pemberley. As the many threads of McCulloughÕs masterful plot come together, shocking truths are revealed, love, both old and new, is tested, and all learn the value of true independence in a novel for every woman who has wanted to leave her mark on the world.

[MaggieScratch]

Dreadful, dreadful book.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

Dreadful, dreadful book.

Well, shoot. Really? I just downloaded it, thinking it sounded interesting.

[Susan Crealock]

Is this one of those now-you-see it now-you-don't freebies? It's $7.99 for me.

[texasnightowl]

Apparently it changed really fast. I managed to grab it at $0 but it now shows $7.99 on the page for me too (but I confirmed $0 on my order)

[koland]

Yep, only lasted three hours, not even the 4 of W.E.B.

[Moe The Cat]

There have been several of these drive-by-freebies lately. Some I snagged, some I did not. I got this one at work.

[lene1949]

$16.06 in Australia..

[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Well, shoot. Really? I just downloaded it, thinking it sounded interesting.

Well, see what you think, since it was free (I guess you got it for free). I got it from the library (in hard copy!) and didn't get through the second chapter.

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

Dreadful, dreadful book.

Bummer. I usually like Colleen McC.

[bjones6416]

I did get it free, so I read it. Not the worst thing I've ever read, but it took the story in kind of an unusual direction, at least in the beginning. Things kind of got wrapped up in the end, but the writing was pretty strange -- not at all like the Colleen McCullough I remember from The Thorn Birds.

[MaggieScratch]

I had high hopes for it, but she seemed more interested in tweaking the tea-sipping, cat-stroking, bonnet-wearing uptight spinster purist Janeites* than in taking the character--created by Jane Austen, not Colleen McCullough--in a direction that made some sense.

Interestingly, the furor in Janeiteland over this book was interrupted by a different, more lasting one--P&P & Zombies. We all pretty much forgot about Colleen McCullough after the zombie invasion hit.

*meant ironically, of course