The Other Bennet Sister

by Janice Hadlow

I do not care to be told what to think at every turn of a page. And I do not agree that they have nothing to tell us. Is Charles Grandison to be thus dismissed? Tristram Shandy? Tom Jones? Works in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature is displayed? The greatest powers of the mind described? No, I cannot sit by and leave the novel undefended.”

Revisiting the house had not proved as painful as she had expected. Although there were moments when she found herself almost unbearably moved, as some small corner or chance encounter brought back to her such a strong sense of the past that it almost overwhelmed her, this had happened less often than she had feared. Charlotte’s improvements had scrubbed away so much that was familiar about Longbourn as she had known it, had so efficiently erased the life the Bennets had lived there, that little remained to prompt regret for what had gone.