Lydia Bennet's Story

August 11, 2008
In this pleasant addition to the growing microgenre of Austen knockoffs, Odiwe pays nice homage to Austen’s stylings and endears the reader to the formerly secondary character, spoiled and impulsive Lydia Bennet. Odiwe begins partway through the original tale, with Lydia heading to Brighton. Shifting between a third-person narrative and Lydia’s first-person journal entries, Odiwe grants readers unfettered access to Lydia as she flirts with her many beaus and falls hard for George Wickham, with whom she elopes. After the pair is married and settled in Newcastle, Lydia has a hard time keeping her jealousy in check as George, a notorious flirt, does not change his ways. Her marital discontent leads to frequent visits to her sisters, and it’s during one of these visits that a massive scandal befalls the Wickham household. In a pleasantly foreshadowed if too abrupt conclusion, a slightly matured Lydia finds true happiness in the most unlikely of places. It won’t convert anybody who doesn’t already worship at the church of Jane, but devotees will enjoy.

September 15, 2008
Lydia Bennets one goal in life is to be the first of her sisters to marry. That dream seems to come true when dashing regimental soldier George Wickham asks her to elope with him. It takes a bit of timeand some active involvement from one of her sisters suitors, a certain Mr. Darcybefore Lydia and George are actually married. Soon after the wedding, though, Lydia discovers married life is not quite the round of social events, nonstop shopping, and the attention of adevoted husband that she imagined. Snippets from Lydias diary are interspersed in eachchapter as Odiwe re-creates her version of what happened to the wild Bennet sister from Jane Austens classic Pride and Prejudice. While Lydias story might besexier than what Austen would have written, Odiwe emulates Austens famous wit, and manages to give Lydia a happily-ever-after ending worthy of any Regency romance heroine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)