Book Review

Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel

I have been spending this year giving presentations on, and writing about, Mary Shelley, and when I haven’t been doing that I’ve been giving presentations about Jane Austen. Thus I was thrilled that the book Pride and Prometheus was coming out. I didn’t even read the book description. I just looked at the cover and thought:

“This will fix everything.”

Frankenstein, the novel by Mary Shelley, does not end well. The estimated body count comes to ten people, not counting an unspecified number of sailors and sled dogs, and not counting random corpses. Pride and Prejudice ends just fine, except for poor Mary Bennett, that precious Ravenclaw, whom no one appreciates. Mary loves talking about philosophy and literature! You know who else is into that? The Creature (from the book, not the movies)! The romance writes itself! Go appreciate each other, my Ravenclaws! Fly! Be free!

Pride and Prometheus doesn’t go like that.

The story begins thirteen years after the events of Pride and Prejudice. Of the Bennet sisters, Mary and Kitty remain single and are staring “spinsterhood” in the face. Over the course of time Mary has grown out of being pompous and preachy, but she remains devoted to books and has an interest in fossils. Mary has become friends with Mary Anning, the paleontologist. At this revelation, I wrote a whole other book in my head but we don’t get that book either because Mary Anning disappears after the first chapter.

Mary and Kitty go to London to visit the Gardiners and possibly find a husband for Kitty. At a party, Mary meets Victor Frankenstein, or, as I call him, Shithead. I had a moment of absolute horror thinking that maybe this was a romance between Mary and Shithead. “Book,” I said, “Don’t even think about trying to redeem Shithead.” It doesn’t. He’s awful and even when she’s drawn to him Mary is smart enough to figure out that something is Not Right.

At this point, we see how the two very different stories are moving parallel to each other. Some artistic license from the author makes this not only possible, but weirdly probable. Of course, Mary is still living in a drawing-room story while Shithead is in Gothic Hell, so there’s a fabulous dissonance every time they try to converse. The general tone is one of gloom, but gothic gloom, not boring gloom.

Shithead turns his puppy eyes (figuratively) in Mary’s direction and starts talking to her about science and his super lonely soul and how he’s super sad. Mary is helpless against this but not so helpless that she doesn’t start putting clues together when Shithead comes to Pemberley to visit and things get weird in the cemetery. Eventually she runs head-on into the Gothic Horror genre, leaving behind her entire drawing-room life (temporarily). Adam (The Creature), Shithead, and Mary have a convergence of plot lines and we learn many valuable lessons such as:

  • The Love of a Good Woman is not always enough to fix the Bad Boy
  • When in carriages, hide your money in your shoes.
  • Nurture has the ability to overcome Nature.
  • Men are idiots.

My favorite thing about this book is that it stayed true to the essence of the characters. Mary’s character development is realistic. Shithead lies about exactly the things I’d expect him to lie about (everything). Adam is a sympathetic character but his horrible crimes are not glossed over. Even poor Darcy remains as Darcy as possible:

Two weeks later Darcy arrived once again to save Mary from herself. He had become accustomed to this role with his wife’s sisters over the years, and although he was weary of it, he did not reprove Mary any more than she did herself.

The atmosphere of the book is perfect, and the locations richly drawn. The book ends on a hopeful note for Mary but still left me sad, as it was intended to do. The book turned out to be neither satire nor romance, but still a thoughtful exploration of Mary and the things she has in common with, and different from, Shelly’s iconic characters. I think that someone who hasn’t read the original novels would understand this book, but it’s much richer if you’ve read Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein.

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Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel

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  1. Rachel says:

    Thank you for the review; this is rocketing to the top of my TBR list. Mary Bennett is one of those loose endings from literature that I always want more for. The juxtaposition of her and the Shelley characters is something that I never knew I always needed.

  2. Ashley says:

    I love you so much for calling Victor Frankenstein Shithead. I hate him so much and people never get it.

  3. hng23 says:

    I’ve been on the fence about reading this. I’m very skeptical about books that are pastiches, because it seems to me that they for the most part add nothing to the original story, indeed they often diminish it, but this sounds like it might be worth checking out. Thanks for a thoughtful review.

  4. Darlynne says:

    The other comments sound so knowledgeable about this and so much else. I seem to be the only one thinking, “Wait, isn’t Prometheus the guy who keeps losing his liver?”

    (I know the story, but “liver” was my first thought, not one usually encountered in romance AFAIK.) Carry on.

  5. OMG this sounds amazing!!! I’ve been on a major Frankenstein kick. I’m so excited about this book. Eeeep!

  6. EC Spurlock says:

    Thank you for this review. This sounds like a book I never knew I needed.

    @Darlynne, the subtitle of Frankenstein is “The Modern Prometheus”.

  7. RebeccaA says:

    Yes about the liver, but the reason Prometheus was punished was the theft of fire for humans. “Prometheus is a Titan, culture hero, and trickster figure who in Greek mythology is credited with the creation of man from clay and the theft of fire for human use, an act that enabled progress and civilization.”

  8. Hazel says:

    Sounds lovely, Carrie. Thank you.

  9. Rose says:

    Shithead Frankenstein is my new riot grrrl band name.

  10. Maite says:

    This sounds like it’s “Total catnip is more than the sum of sub catnips”. Your review probably has something to do with it, what with that line:
    ” Of course, Mary is still living in a drawing-room story while Shithead is in Gothic Hell, so there’s a fabulous dissonance every time they try to converse.”

    And the other two books you wrote while figuring out this one: (“Go appreciate each other, my Ravenclaws! Fly! Be free!”.)
    Because, oh God, do I know that feeling. There’s this story in front of you, but your mind keeps distracting you with other possible plotlines

    (I *might* have a fic for every movie I’ve watched in the past month. Regardless of my actual liking of the movie.)

  11. Jill S. says:

    I’ve been binge-watching Penny Dreadful, which weaves together Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Picture of Dorian Gray in this season. Philosophically it works, as all of these books pondered questions about life and death and the dreadful things that people will do to extend their lives.

    Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein? Yup, I can see that working, too.

    Frankenstein is such a brilliant novel. It’s a shame that so many people are more familiar with the movies, which don’t do justice to the monster.

  12. BellaInAus says:

    People do such weird things when they write Austen sequels. I’ve read one where every. single. couple ended up miserable. Characters have complete personality transplants. And they kill off Austen’s HEAs. So I’m very, very wary about any book that messes with the originals.

    On the other hand, I always thought Victor Frankenstein was a total douche.

  13. Akaleistar says:

    This is going on my TBR list!

  14. Ren Benton says:

    @Darlynne: I get all the literary references but will never again be able to see Prometheus without my first thought being “that movie in which Charlize gets crushed by a giant toilet seat because people in space can run only in straight lines.”

  15. GraceElizabeth says:

    @Jill S. I’m also binge watching Penny Dreadful again now! Can’t help but feel there will never again be a show that has so much of my catnip.

    This is on my to-read list but I can’t quite bring myself to hit purchase because of my dislike for Austen sequels that follow Mary. One too many Buzzfeed articles about how she’s, like, every bookish teen girl ever and didn’t get her due, I think.

  16. Megan M. says:

    Wow wow wow this sounds like everything I never knew I always wanted! Thank you for bringing this book to my attention.

  17. Lisa F says:

    Whelp, this sounds interesting. Onto the TBR pile it goes!

  18. Louise says:

    Mary has grown out of being pompous and preachy, but she remains devoted to books

    Say no more. Every time I read P&P, probably going back to the very first time, I want to like Mary, but she’s just so ### boring.

  19. Giddypony says:

    I always suspected I was Mary of the Bennet Girls. (Regarddless of how desperately I wanted to be Jane.) Anyway I’d like to request the alternate books be written. The idea of Mary running off with the Creature is too deliciousl.

  20. Hazel says:

    One of the difficulties in writing about other authors’ characters must be that you either have to reproduce them faithfully, set in stone, as it were, or else show how they changed from the original iteration. In Kessel’s story, Mary is 28 and, although she recalls her teenaged interests and behaviours, (sometimes with regret) Kessel doesn’t fully explore how she developed from there to here. I thought it was very promising, and Carrie’s description of drawing room meeting gothic hell is spot on. But the book is shorter and not as meaty as I would have liked. It started well, but proved to be an interlude in the characters’ lives rather than a full story. I would have loved something more.

  21. Pen says:

    Argh – SAME!! I too had that pang for Mary Bennett but mine was totally satisfied by reading “Becoming Mary” by Amy Street.

    It’s the ONLY P&P sequel I read that I ever enjoyed and now I can relax that bookish Mary got her realistic HEA and we got to see her wake up from her preachy, complacent ways and become a better person ! I cried and found peace. : )

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