Key Points
Nevermind that Mr Darcy never really took a dip in the Pemberley pond in Austens novelit is literally set in stone today; immortalised by a statue of Colin Firth in a diaphanous shirt rising from a lake in Londons Hyde Park..
Of all Austen adaptations, it is generally considered the most faithful and tonally rightthe 2005 version starring Keira Knightley comes close in popularity but never in authenticity for Austen fandom..
From shifting the perspective of the novel to look at it through its heros eyes instead of its heroines (like Mr Darcys Diary by Amanda Grange and An Assembly Such As This by Pamela Alden, both fun reads) to giving it a subaltern twist by seeing it through the eyes of a person who never even featured in the original work (a housemaid, in the brilliant Longbourn by Jo Baker), it has all been done..
There is a zombie version (Pride and Prejudice And Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith), a minor character version (The Heiress: The Revelations Of Anne de Bourgh, an unexpectedly deep and sombre read), and a murder mystery version (Death Comes To Pemberley by no less than the venerated P.D. James)..
Hadlows book tries its best with the character giving it a tragic backstory of being neglected by her parents, an introvert in a family of extroverts, a plain girl among pretty sistersbut the best it can do is turn Mary sad, because not all the sympathy in the world will turn her into a heroine..
