Sisters in Literature

I have been enjoying the early episodes of ‘The Other Bennet Sister’ (on Foxtel and Binge), based on a novel by Janice Hadlow. It’s about Mary Bennet, the plain one of the five Bennet sisters, and it is very well done. I’m not usually a fan of Jane Austen sequels, but this one is good.

Watching that has made me think about sisters, so I was delighted to get hold of a copy of a new book by Janet Phillips called Great Literary Sisters, which looks at various sisterly combinations from fiction. There’s many familiar favourites – Jane and Lizzy Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, Elinor and Marianne from Sense and Sensibility, the March sisters from Little Women, Bobbie and Phil from The Railway Children, Fanny and Amy in Little Dorrit and Kate, Jeannie and Effie Deans of Sir Walter Scott’s The Heart of Mid-Lothian and Kate and Olivia from Rosamund Lehmann’s gorgeous Invitation to the Waltz. Each sisterly relationship is cleverly analysed – in some, the elder sister is forced to control, organise and protect, in others, there is huge rivalry, in others, very little in common.

But what I most enjoyed about the book is that it introduced me to some sisters I knew little about – Isabel and Nina in Helen Dunmore’s Talking to the Dead, Nigerian sisters Ejima and Kainene in Half of a Yellow Sun, Katniss and Primrose from The Hunger Games and Hasina and Nazneen in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane. I loved meeting new fictional heroines, and of course, my ‘To Read’ list is now longer than ever. It also made me wonder about which sisters I’d have liked to include – Judy and Meg in Seven Little Australians, Kezia and her sisters Isabel and Lottie in Katherine Mansfield’s superb The Doll’s House, the two fascinating sisters in Trollope’s Ayala’s Angel and Katy and Clover Carr of What Katy Did are all contenders.

This is a beautifully produced book and would make a lovely gift – for yourself, or any friend who loves to read. In a previous newsletter, I wrote about Janet Phillips’ Great Literary Friendships, published in 2022.