The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch, by Melinda Taub is a spinoff of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. Anyone who knows me will tell you I geek out over the original story. Taub’s book tells a much different story from Lydia’s perspective, where she’s a witch, and her (reckless) actions from the original are rationalized.
As a child, Lydia finds out she’s a witch when the devil tries to steal her soul. To spare her life, she promises the devil a boon, which horrifies the coven she later joins. Lydia takes the reader on a journey as she navigates her identity as a Bennet witch and a despised Bennet while also finding a way to get out of her agreement with the devil.
Despite some striking differences, I loved how Taub maintained the same timeline from the original, and incorporated Austin’s iconic opening in her writing. Tipping her hat to the original, she writes, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter must be a witch”(page 1).
In the original Pride and Prejudice, Lydia is a silly character who causes a lot of distress and shame to her family. In her version, Taub gives Lydia depth and a voice; a voice we would not have heard through Elizabeth’s perspective because no one respects Lydia.
I deeply enjoyed how Taub’s Lydia felt like the original even though she’s telling a completely different story. She writes in the first person, giving Lydia the power to write the story. This works to her advantage because it makes the book very engaging and allows Lydia’s sense of humor to shine. As Lydia writes to the reader as if they were a friend, it brings the reader into the story as if they, too, are part of the adventure while also relating to Lydia’s feelings and perspectives.
We join Lydia intimately as she meets demons, joins a coven, creates Kittie (who, in this version is a cat, her chosen familiar), and falls in love with Mr. Whickham, the original’s infamous rake. Here are some quotes that underscore Lydia’s humor and relatability:
“Lord, travel is a curse. So are friends, and love, and mornings.”
“At the public ball in Meryton in May, I stood in a corner complaining to a few friends. They had heard it all before, but what are friends for, if not to listen to the same complaints over and over?”
“If you were to tell Lizzy’s story, or Jane’s, I suppose you would begin with when they met their husbands…. Ah well! At least I’ve known such fun as they will never come within a hundred yards of.”
Even though Elizabeth is quippy, intelligent, and strong-willed, I found Lydia to be more relatable as she makes mistakes, deals with the consequences of her actions, and undergoes strong emotions.
Taub handles “respectable” society’s rejection of shunned women in a very poignant fashion. She portrays how women are constantly trimmed and sculpted to fit the mold of what society believes they should be. She writes, “Becoming a young lady is a bit like being a topiary bush. You start out wild and unformed, and highly paid experts snip away at you until you’re beautiful and thoroughly tamed. Only then are you considered proper company.”
I think a lot of women would find this quote to be relatable. When we’re young we are wild and free; “one of the boys”…. We climb trees, scrape our knees, and speak as loudly as we’d like… until someone (usually a care-taker) teaches us how we ‘should’ be, while men, for the most part, have the privilege of remaining free. Women who do not abide by those rules are shunned.
Taub also makes Lydia use self-deprecating humor to convey how Lydia doesn’t fit in, keeping her personality consistent while showing that respectable people look down on her.
“The look [Mr. Darcy] gave me was that mixture of exasperation and pity that I seem to so often bring out in respectable people.”
“People are forever getting cross with me for doing things they wish they could do themselves.”
Lydia’s self-awareness and casual tone give the reader authentic insight into how it would feel to walk in her shoes.
On brand with Taub’s representation of society’s attitude towards shunned women, the following quote wraps up the novel:
“Goodbye, Lizzy. I will see you again, of course—but you will not see me. Not really. You never have. It is too bad.”
I love that the story ends with Lydia writing a letter to Lizzy, which emphasizes once again the stark difference between how each respective character is treated. In the original story, no one truly sees Lydia even though she’s often the center of attention. As a result, the viewer and reader also don’t ‘see’ Lydia. We were never meant to see her. After reading this novel, it’s hard to watch the movie without paying closer attention to Lydia and even applying this story to the original. Imagining that she’s a witch in love with Mr. Whickam (who’s a demon, by the way), makes the story much more interesting. I’d recommend this book, with a rating of 4.2 /5.