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ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Normally I hate novels where contemporary writers take characters from classic books and imagine a life for them beyond the pages of the original. So I'm not sure why I picked this one up, as it follows the life of Charlotte Lucas, Lizzy Bennet's best friend in Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice - but it was a surprisingly fine read! I've always had a sneaking sympathy for Charlotte, who married the bumbling Rev. Collins in order to have a place of her own, if not actually a life of her own. This novel picks up her life a few years after her marriage, when she has a daughter but has lost a son, when the numbing incompatibility with her husband is slowly wearing her down. Charlotte decides to take a more active role in the parish, and in doing so meets Mr Travis, a tenant farmer. Travis is quiet and thoughtful, and they begin to appreciate each other's company. Sensible Charlotte will never be anything but, yet in this friendship she begins to understand there is another way the heart may live… The voice of Charlotte is rendered believably, the dreadful Lady Catherine de Bourgh is further realised, and even Mr Collins is given some depth. I enjoyed this very much (and it gave me an excuse to go back to the beloved original!) Lindy Jones
Molly Greeley earned her bachelor's degree in English, with a creative writing emphasis, from Michigan State University, where she was the recipient of the Louis B. Sudler Prize in the Arts for Creative Writing. Her short stories and essays have been published in Cicada, Carve, and Literary Mama. She works on social media for a local business, is married and the mother of three children but her Sunday afternoons are devoted to weaving stories into books. The Clergyman's Wife is her first novel.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Normally I hate novels where contemporary writers take characters from classic books and imagine a life for them beyond the pages of the original. So I'm not sure why I picked this one up, as it follows the life of Charlotte Lucas, Lizzy Bennet's best friend in Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice - but it was a surprisingly fine read! I've always had a sneaking sympathy for Charlotte, who married the bumbling Rev. Collins in order to have a place of her own, if not actually a life of her own. This novel picks up her life a few years after her marriage, when she has a daughter but has lost a son, when the numbing incompatibility with her husband is slowly wearing her down. Charlotte decides to take a more active role in the parish, and in doing so meets Mr Travis, a tenant farmer. Travis is quiet and thoughtful, and they begin to appreciate each other's company. Sensible Charlotte will never be anything but, yet in this friendship she begins to understand there is another way the heart may live… The voice of Charlotte is rendered believably, the dreadful Lady Catherine de Bourgh is further realised, and even Mr Collins is given some depth. I enjoyed this very much (and it gave me an excuse to go back to the beloved original!) Lindy Jones
