This is an auction for THE INDEPENDENCE OF MISS MARY BENNET by Colleen McCullough.

Amazon.com review:

"Everyone knows the story of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. But what about their sister Mary? At the conclusion of Jane Austen's classic novel, Mary, bookish, awkward, and by all accounts, unmarriageable, is sentenced to a dull, provincial existence in the backwaters of Britain. Now Colleen McCullough rescues Mary from her dreary fate with a page-turning sequel set twenty years after Austen's novel closes. The story begins as the neglected Bennet sister is released from the duty of caring for her insufferable mother. Mary has blossomed into a beauty to rival her famed sisters. Her violet eyes and perfect figure bewitch the eligible men in the neighbourhood, but though her family urges her to marry, romance and frippery hold no attraction. Instead, she is determined to set off on an adventure of her own. Fired with zeal by the newspaper letters of the mysterious Argus, she resolves to publish a book about the plight of England's poor. Plunging from one predicament into another, Mary finds herself stumbling closer to long-buried secrets, unanticipated dangers, and unlooked-for romance. Meanwhile, the other dearly loved characters of Pride and Prejudice fret about the missing Mary while they contend with difficulties of their own. As the many threads of McCullough's masterful plot come together, shocking truths are revealed, love, both old and new, is tested, and all learn the value of true independence in a novel for every woman who has wanted to leave her mark on the world."

More very favourable reviews on Amazon.com.

Hardback 2011.

467 pages.

Previous owner's names. Otherwise, good condition.

The cost of shipping is $8.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.