I am fifteen years old today, and this journal was a present from Mary.
To me, Pride and Prejudice is the one book to rule them all. Elizabeth Bennett is the utter dream (I wish I was her!) and Mr Darcy is the love interest all other love interests look up to as far as I am concerned. In Austen’s classic, these two are finally brought together through a family scandal – the disappearance of Elizabeth’s younger sister, Lydia. The whys or wherefores of Lydia’s unexpected departure from Brighton with the unsavoury Wickham is only touched upon in Austen’s classic but Lydia by Natasha Farrant aims to fill in the blanks and unmask the mystery once and for all!
Written in the style of a diary, Lydia is a fun first-person narrative that offers an insight to the inner-workings of the spoilt, selfish Bennett sister as Farrant gives Lydia a voice and a platform on which to perform. The story is both familiar and unfamiliar, starting off in the Bennett household, mirroring Austen’s narrative, then following Lydia to Brighton where details of her escapades have always eluded P&P fans.
Now obviously, due to popularity of P&P, spin-off titles are inevitable – got to ride that train! – but I have managed to avoid pretty much all of them bar one ( PD James’ not so inviting Death Comes to Pemberley). I’m not a huge advocate for spin-offs, they are very rarely done well, but Lydia surprised me. Farrant managed to bring life to the youngest Bennett sister, encompassing the character traits created by Austen and develop her into a more rounded literary figure. She finds a depth to the otherwise childish Lydia, maturing her within the tale to a character worthy of attention. The plot and reasoning behind Lydia’s behaviour is credible, the narrative is witty and fast-paced and the titular character is finally able to come out of the shadows of her siblings and shine.
