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Lydia Bennet's Story: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Odiwe

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1726157,104 (3.43)3
Fiction. Romance. Historical Fiction. HTML:

Lydia Bennet is the flirtatious, wild and free-wheeling youngest daughter. Her untamed expressiveness and vulnerability make her fascinating to readers who'll love this imaginative rendering of Lydia's life after her marriage to the villainous George Wickham. Will she mature or turn bitter? Can a girl like her really find true love?
In Lydia Bennet's Story we are taken back to Jane Austen's most beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice, to a Regency world seen through Lydia's eyes where pleasure and marriage are the only pursuits. But the road to matrimony is fraught with difficulties and even when she is convinced that she has met the man of her dreams, complications arise. When Lydia is reunited with the Bennets, Bingleys, and Darcys for a grand ball at Netherfield Park, the shocking truth about her husband may just cause the greatest scandal of all ...
"A breathtaking Regency romp!"-Diana Birchall, author of Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma

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In this story we see Pride and Prejudice from Lydias's eyes, her acts and thoughts. Which then continue with her life after with Wickham. With this story we have the introduction of quite a few new characters which are very welcome.
I have not been a fan of Lydia (she and Kitty are much too silly for me) but you can certainly start to feel sorry for this Lydia.
A well-written and enjoyable story. ( )
  Vesper1931 | Jul 29, 2021 |
Synopsis: In Lydia Bennet's Story we are taken back to Jane Austen's most beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice, to a Regency world seen through Lydia's eyes where pleasure and marriage are the only pursuits. (from Barnes & Noble)

Jane Austen has become quite a valuable commodity within the last decade or so, both in the literary and movie worlds, and reading about a new (or relatively new) Austen sequel has become par for the course.

I found Lydia Bennet's Story interesting and original precisely because Jane Odiwe took a secondary character from Pride and Prejudice and elaborated on her own very twisted and dramatic plot. If you are familiar with Pride and Prejudice, you know that Lydia is Lizzy's youngest sister, and a very spoiled one at that. Due to her recklessness in running away with Wickham, she seriously jeopardizes the potential future marriages of her sisters and very nearly sullies her family's good name.

As she was a secondary character in Pride and Prejudice, we heard briefly about her exploits but not from her point of view; nor did we know what Wickham said to her to cause her to throw caution to the wind with a foolhardy elopement or exactly what happened with the couple during those weeks in London before their hastily arranged marriage or, outside of their return to Longbourne, of their lives as a newlywed couple.

Lydia Bennet's Story alternates between Lydia's diary and a third person accounting, showing Lydia as flirty, flighty, immature and petulent. Ms. Odiwe stays faithful to Jane Austen, both in her portrayal of Lydia as well as Wickham, who naturally reveals himself to be as spoiled and flighty as Lydia.

I enjoyed hearing a portion of Pride and Prejudice from Lydia's viewpoint, as well as having the gaps filled in for portions of the story we were not privy to in Ms. Austen's rendition. Ms. Odiwe's descriptions of the period, the dress, the language, is spot on and a true compliment to both Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. The introduction of new characters move the story along fluidly and seem as natural as Lydia ogling a new bonnet.

In a market saturated with Austen sequels (not that I'm complaining, mind you, because the more the merrier, in this Austen-obsessed reader's opinion), Lydia Bennet's Story stands out and makes an excellent reading choice.

http://psychoticstate.blogspot.com/2009/09/review-of-lydia-bennets-story-by-jane... ( )
1 vote LoriHedgpeth | Sep 14, 2009 |
I must admit that I have been getting pretty sick of the Austen books. I have read all the ones that cross my hand and very rarely, VERY RARELY, do I find one that I enjoy. It seems that some of these authors get so caught up in continuing the story of the Jane and Darcy and Lizzy and Bingley that they don’t take the time to create a thoughtful and entertaining story. At least to me.

On that note, I loved this book.

I fully expected to hate this book. I expected to finish it and thank my lucky stars that I only had one Austen related book on my desk. I was sad when this book ended.

Of all the Bennet sisters I always liked Lydia. She seemed like she would be fun to be around. What young girl doesn’t like to party every once in a while? However, we never really learned much about her. She was given to the reader as a silly, thoughtless and self-concerned girl who didn't warrant much consideration by the original Austen. What Odiwe has given us, in this go round, is a girl like any other. She is young, naïve, trusting and foolish. She doesn’t understand consequence at all. At the end of the book the reader is left with a woman, a woman who knows her own heart and goals.

This book started slow. The first thirty pages were torture but once past the introductory pages it picked up pace. The reader travels all over England with Lydia as she straightens out her life and tries to free herself from Wickham. Wickham is everything he is in Pride and Prejudice and a really delicious character to hate.

It is with great reluctance that I pass this book on to a friend. Lydia Bennet’s Story is a book that I would love to be able to revisit whenever I needed a fun book on a rainy afternoon. ( )
2 vote scarlettbrooke | Dec 8, 2008 |
Lydia Bennet's Story by Jane Odiwe is a different type of sequel to Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice; it does not retell the lives of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, their children, or modernize their story as a 20th century romance. Lydia Bennet's Story transports the reader back to 19th Century England to tell Lydia's woeful and headstrong tail of romance and intrigue, rather than the tales woven by Jane Austen for Lizzy and Jane Bennet.

We join Lydia on her journey from the balls at the Assembly in Hertfordshire, England, through Brighton, and Newcastle. Headstrong and willy-nilly Lydia is just as vivid in these pages as she is in Jane Austen's novel. Although her character plays a minor role in Austen's novel, she takes center stage in Odiwe's, but with journal entries sprinkled amidst the storyline, the reader begins to see what motivates Lydia to act as she does in public and with the soldiers. As the youngest daughter in the Bennet family, she seeks acceptance and love in all the wrong places.

Once in Brighton, Lydia is shameless in her pursuit of a husband and begins lavishing her affections on George Wickham. Despite his declarations that he can love no one, Lydia will have none of it, shunning Captain Trayton-Camfield, who seems to truly care for her. Lydia and Wickham run off to London together, and she expects them to get married, though it only materializes when Wickham is pressured by none-other-than Mr. Darcy. This is where Austen's Pride & Prejudice leaves Lydia.

Lydia Bennet's Story does not miss a beat, Odiwe has a strong command of Austen's language, style, and characters, but she puts her own flare on the wild maven that is Lydia. Despite winning her prize--Mr. Wickham--Lydia soon realizes married life to her charming soldier is not all she expected it to be as his gambling and womanizing continue. In a way, Odiwe's Lydia continues to fool herself that Wickham's character is merely misunderstood, but soon his character is undeniable, and she is forced to not only deal with her loveless marriage, but their poor station in life.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from Lydia is on page 290:

"Even in my reckless alliance, I believed I was in love and yes, a state of confusion it might be, but I submitted to it and felt my regard most wholeheartedly. And though I now believe my love was not truly returned, that I was mislead, I still believe in the power of true love."

Here Lydia expresses the evolution of her character and highlights how she has matured on this journey of love, hardship, and growth. She is no longer the silly, younger sister of Lizzy and Jane, but her own mature woman, though more bold than conventions are prepared to handle.

Readers of Jane Austen and Austen enthusiasts will enjoy this novel, but even those readers looking for a fast-paced "romance" will enjoy Lydia Bennet's Story. ( )
1 vote sagustocox | Oct 30, 2008 |
As a true Jane Austen fan, I had until recently shunned all attempted "sequels" to any of Ms. Austen's great works. Fearing disappointment, I did not want to sully what to me is the perfect novel: Pride and Prejudice. As it turns out, I need not have worried. The term "sequel," I am happy to report, has no application whatsoever to Jane Owide's delightful novel, Lydia Bennet's Story.

The novel explores the life of Lydia, the youngest and arguably most insipid Bennet sister. What if Lydia wasn't as vapid as many surmised? What if she was just a silly young girl who made the typical mistakes of the young?

Author Jane Owide, thankfully, makes no attempt to be Jane Austen. Writing in third person with occasional glimpses into Lydia's diary, Owide brilliantly takes a supporting character from a classic tale and uniquely makes it her own. Lydia is presented as a normal teen-aged girl with normal teenage concerns and immaturity and the unfortunate luck to cross paths with that infamous 19th-century player, Mr Wickham. This doesn't mean she isn't endearing: quite the opposite. After all, it's difficult not to identify with thoughts such as

"Mr Wickham will NOT be forgiven for his behaviour, though I can think of nothing else, playing over the scene in my head with a different ending each time. I now know just how I should have behaved and what I should have said which is vexing in the extreme."

By the end of the story, Lydia's actions were quite forgivable in my eyes. She made mistakes many of us can sympathize with, having made many of them ourselves, albeit in a different century. Over-weening pride - an allusion to the novel from which she springs - only compouds her misjudgments.

The underlying seriousness of the follies of youth notwithstanding, the novel is lighthearted enough for enjoyable read and I was quite pleased to discover that it may be considered a stand-alone story, meaning that one need not be an Austen aficionado nor even to have read Pride and Prejudice in order to enjoy this book. If, however, you are a serious Austen fan and are loath to try reading one of the many "sequels," you can safely set aside that fear in this instance and sit down with a very enjoyable tale. Happy reading! ( )
1 vote lookingforpenguins | Oct 27, 2008 |
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Fiction. Romance. Historical Fiction. HTML:

Lydia Bennet is the flirtatious, wild and free-wheeling youngest daughter. Her untamed expressiveness and vulnerability make her fascinating to readers who'll love this imaginative rendering of Lydia's life after her marriage to the villainous George Wickham. Will she mature or turn bitter? Can a girl like her really find true love?
In Lydia Bennet's Story we are taken back to Jane Austen's most beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice, to a Regency world seen through Lydia's eyes where pleasure and marriage are the only pursuits. But the road to matrimony is fraught with difficulties and even when she is convinced that she has met the man of her dreams, complications arise. When Lydia is reunited with the Bennets, Bingleys, and Darcys for a grand ball at Netherfield Park, the shocking truth about her husband may just cause the greatest scandal of all ...
"A breathtaking Regency romp!"-Diana Birchall, author of Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma

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