REVIEW: The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley (ARC)

The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley

Genre: Historical fiction

Read: 6th July 2020

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

(publication date: 19th March 2020)

★★ 2 stars

Quite obviously I am not the right audience for THE CLERGYMAN'S WIFE as I found it bland and rather boring. And found myself counting the minutes until I finished it...though I hardly know why I bothered. Absolutely nothing happened in this story and I kind of felt what was the point of it? A friend quite cheekily answered "Just to p*** you off!" Admittedly, I have never read an Austen novel because, although I love the screen adaptions of her books, the writing vernacular is too old style for me to get my head around. THE CLERGYMAN'S WIFE followed that same vernacular and I found myself re-reading the same sentence several times on occasion to understand what was being said. And when a chapter ended rather abruptly I found myself thinking "what just happened?"

Charlotte Lucas married William Collins, a vicar/parson/clergyman, for security and not love, given that she was now 27 and unmarried. I think this is the first thing I didn't like because where would the passion be? Obviously there was none. William had previously asked Charlotte's friend Elizabeth Bennet for her hand first but as she had repugnantly refused him, Charlotte accepted after only two meetings and was content in her decision, for she knew her position as William's wife would give her security. When the Bennet's father died, William would inherit their estate, therefore securing her future as mistress.

After their wedding in Hertfordshire, the couple travelled to Kent where William's position as clergyman under the ghastly patroness Lady Catherine who was so inherently snobbish, looking down her nose at positively everyone. Charlotte took up her position as William's wife and called upon the villagers, though Lady Catherine failed to see the benefit of doing so. When Charlotte produced an heir, it was short-lived for baby Lucas lived just a few minutes, having being hurriedly baptised before his untimely demise. Then she gave birth to little Louisa who gave her much joy, but then the ever interfering Lady Catherine secured a girl from the village to take care of baby Louisa, leaving Charlotte for her more important duties. Such as...what, exactly? Because she didn't seem to do anything.

When she met Mr Travis (no one hardly ever has first names in this book), enlisted by yet again lady Catherine to plant and care for some roses at the parsonage, Charlotte felt she had found a friend at last. I was waiting for something exciting to happen and had this been a re-imagining of D.H. Lawrence rather than Jane Austen, I'm quite sure something would have.

Nothing much actually happened in this book. Charlotte was quite obviously in a loveless marriage which was wholly reflected in the pages but that was about it. I was secretly hoping for a roll in the hay with Mr Travis just for some excitement but alas, no.

I'm not sure I liked anyone in this book. Charlotte seemed flaky and boring. Lady Catherine was snobbish and overbearing. William was so ghastly that the thought of copulating with him gave me nightmares. Though when Elizabeth and Mr Darcy come to visit, I found myself hearing Laurence Olivier's voice in the role of Mr Darcy, as he was in the 1939 adaption of "Pride and Prejudice".

I really don't know what I can say about THE CLERGYMAN'S WIFE because I honestly found it passionless, bland and boring. By the time I reached the last page I found myself thinking "That's it? What was the point?" For me, there seemed to be none.

Lastly, one of my biggest pet peeves is a book that is set in the UK (as THE CLERGYMAN'S WIFE is) was riddled with American English rather than UK English. But I see now that the author is in fact American, so that probably accounts for that.

I guess you need a pre-requisite of being an Austen fan, or at least of "Pride and Prejudice", and as I simply have not read any of them I guess that counts me out. However, there has been plenty of positive feedback about THE CLERGYMAN'S WIFE. It just wasn't for me.

Perfect for fans of Jane Austen.

I would like to thank #MollyGreeley, #NetGalley and #AllenAndUnwin for an ARC of #TheClergymansWife in exchange for an honest review.