yay for mary, i always feel bad for her, the forgotten middle child who is nothing but the butt of jokes in other iterations. but i really admire her character

This is really good. I can only hope that you have plans to expand on this for the rest of the P & P book as it pertains to our couple. Keep up the good work.

Thank you! I always wished this would happen. In the book, Charlotte is capable of making marriage to Mr Collins tolerable by spending as little time with him as possible (though they manage to get round to having sex at some point), but Mary is the only character who specifically wants to marry him (Charlotte just wants to be able to leave home), and who hopes that she can be a good influence on him. I'm glad that she's succeeded so well.

At the same time, she's still got some convincincly Mary-ish blind spots, such as not realising that 'you play with great force and rapidity' is not intended as a compliment, and liking Herbert's poetry because it isn't 'mawkish sentimentality about love'. From my point of view, Herbert's poems are some of the most beautiful and moving love poems I have ever read; the fact that they are about loving God, and about God's love for us, rather than about love between two humans, is just a detail.

I can see that Mary would appreciate it if their number of visits to Rosings are reduced, but I'd be interested to see how she gets on with Anne, and whether she can become a sort of supportive sister figure to Anne, as Elizabeth is to Georgiana. We don't learn much about Anne's feelings and preferences in the book - probably she is barely more enthusiastic about being pushed into an arranged marriage with her cousin than he is, but on the other hand, if she has been brought up to believe that this is the only future open to her, suddenly learning that she isn't going to get married to cousin Darcy after all because he's marrying someone else, and Mama is very angry about it, is going to be hard on her. She needs a friend.

I honestly felt in story, that yes, Mary would have been fine with this

All right! All right! I really like this beginning. I appreciate seeing Lady Catherine being put in her place. Perhaps Mary should remind him that we are all equal in the eyes of God and that he will judge us according to our actions and that social position and wealth mean nothing to him. After all, he is above all humans, even though Lady Catherine seems to think she is above him. It would be better if she discovered her mistake.
I always regretted that Mary was so abused. It does no credit to Mr. Bennet's intelligence to have neglected her in this way. She deserves to be treated with more respect. I think she will change Mr. Collins' character by pushing him to show more dignity and stop singing Lady Catherine's praises as if she were the Messiah. I look forward to hearing his reaction when Darcy and Lizzie come in. And how Mary will react. I hope she will support her sister. She should ask Lady Catherine for her opinion on Wickham. She probably heard his slander about Mr Darcy and should be shocked. Even if she prefers to live away from her sisters, she certainly doesn't want anything to happen to them.
What about Charlotte? Do you have any plans about him? I'm glad she's not marrying Mr. Collins, but she deserves to meet someone nice. I hope it will end well for her. Congratulations again. I look forward to reading more.

This is one of the few times I've read a fic that treats Mary with kindness and respect. I loved it. I hope you write more because I would love to see more of their life together.
I've always thought that she would make a great couple with Mr. Collins.
btw..amazingly written :)

Please continue with this story. I really enjoyed how you wrote Mary...her handling of both Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine, along with her references to her shrieking mother and silly, younger sisters.

Mary having to deal with Lady Catherine, after Darcy & Lizzy marry would be very interesting. So would a visit from Mrs. Bennett.

...but why isn't there more of this?

Great job! I loved the back and forth between Mary and Lady Catherine.

I like this a lot. I like that Mary was able to remain form in her beliefs and who she is even as she built up her husband.

Your Mary is glorious ) thanks for this delightful text!

good on Mary

Yay Mary. Thanks for sharing this awesome story.

What a lovely, satisfying piece of fiction! Mary is so often ignored, and when she is not, is changed so much as to be unrecognisable. An excellent characterisation, and a happy ending for all the important characters involved!

I like it that Mary managed to secure Mr Collins and the way she handled Lady Catherine was rather nice.