Rather than remounting the “Pride” story in genre dress, Chen’s skillfully roots out blind spots in Austen’s perspective, the way “Pride” celebrated integrity and honesty but was often stingy with empathy or respect for contrarian women pursuing an intellectual life. I had to give up feeling affronted and just give in to the Jane Eyre-like, romance-rooted, independent-and-spirited Lizzy-like sister who takes her character but refuses to live her life.

I had always felt a little sorry for Mary Bennet so the premise of a novel from her viewpoint was intriguing. Sometimes the disparity between the opinions of professional reviewers and ordinary readers is huge, and that has certainly been the case here. And I smiled and laughed at the subtle humor Jane Austen used in portraying Mary's opinions, her unattractiveness, and sullen behavior in social situations in comparison with her other four sisters. I read a lot of Austen variations and I appreciate one that goes all in and makes some real changes to the canon.Austen's script and, although I really enjoyed the book, I did not approve of the behavior of most of the characters. Synapses are strengthened in response to their own activation by a process termed "synaptic plasticity. I'm guessing because he was the only eligible bachelor left standing at the end of Pride and Prejudice, since there's really no other convincing reason given as to why Mary is attracted to him or why he would even look twice at Mary. However, it was difficult for sailing ships to adhere to this straight line, particularly in the stormy conditions, common in the Bay of Biscay.

Elder sister Elizabeth and Darcy got their happily ever after, while Mary was doomed to be the Jan Brady of Regency romance.It is now the new guilty pleasure in the Austenesque genre, outpacing Colleen McCullough’s irreverent The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by ten lengths.