This is possibly the oddest P&P fanfiction I have ever read.

The synopsis of this is that Mr. Bennet has a much-older sister he is not close with who married into title and wealth, Lady Fetton. She crashes into the established Pride and Prejudice story like some kind of insanely overpowered MCU superhero, bringing a truly wild amount of self-insert Mary Sue energy. Only the fact that this is fanfiction makes it believable that someone would write this, honestly.

In creating this original character, the author gave her:

• Not one but TWO titles

• Not one but THREE estates (one of which is Netherfield!)

• A vast, fabulous fortune dwarfing any P&P character including Darcy

• The power of being preternaturally right about everything

• Lifelong old friends with Anne Darcy and the Countess Matlock, Darcy's mother and aunt

• THE most conscientious landlord in the whole wide world

• A secret identity. Not only is Lady Fetton all of the above things, but somehow she goes by a secret identity and in Hertfordshire is known only as "Mrs. Fetton." While many of the neighbors from back in the day know of her wealth and titles, somehow Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Phillips, and all of the Bennet daughters are completely in the dark.

As you can see by Lady Fetton's position as the wealthiest and most powerful person around, the landlord of Netherfield, and her old connections with Darcy's family, she is well-placed to jerk the other characters in the book around like puppets on strings. This is basically the Regency equivalent of giving your self-insert character laser eyes, mind-reading powers, and super speed. She is a demigod among mortals.

When Lady Fetton sees the Bennet family's uncouth behavior at the assembly, she makes it her mission to forcibly civilize all of them. To do this, she yoinks them out of Hertfordshire to seclusion on one of her other estates, where they all undergo what seems to be an intensive period of finishing school/family therapy time, before reentering society.

I'm not against this plot concept. I love the idea of someone taking the family in hand. My issue with this, beyond the transparent superpowers given to Lady Fetton, the out-of-character way several of the Bennet characters respond to this. Lady Fetton has several talks with Mrs. Bennet throughout the story, all coming to naught until after a specific come-to-Jesus moment. At that point, Mrs. Bennet somehow "snaps out of it" and becomes a completely sane, reasonable, intelligent person.

Here are some of the speeches Mrs. Bennet gives after she sees the light:

"I did not grow up on an estate, but your grandmother Bennet was still alive when I married your father and she taught me what an estate mistress needs to do. She also coached me on proper behavior in public. She died before Kitty and Lydia were born, and by the time all of you had been born I began to worry about the entail. My fears began to overwhelm the newer skills and knowledge, so I became steadily sillier and more vulgar."

And another:

"I am so sorry. I truly was worried that you would never marry, Lizzy, indeed I still worry, for pretty as you are, it is your wit and knowledge that are frightening. There are very few men who think an intelligent wife is a good thing. It is sheer foolishness on their part, for having a wife who understands the estate and can be a full partner would probably be a blessing for them. Instead they marry women like me, who are beautiful but know nothing and then they complain when we cannot do all that is needed, when we overspend, or when we raise our children poorly."

All I can say about this is the biggest UHHHHH?

It's not that I believe people can't change. The previous P&P fic I read delivered probably the best gradual Lydia character growth I have ever seen, and Lydia even in this one is a much more realistic portrayal of change. But Mrs. Bennet over the course of seemingly one afternoon becoming capable of delivering speeches like THIS? I'm sorry, that's just not going to happen. I'm afraid I must conclude that she's been possessed.

In addition, these excerpts should give you a little sample of the tone of this book. Lady Fetton spends the entire middle of the book, probably more than half, sitting on the Bennets like a thousand-pound gorilla and delivering moralizing speech after moralizing speech. Each member of the family gets one-on-one set-downs about their behavior multiple times, and the whole family together more than once. Then she goes to town and puts Mr. Bingley and Darcy into the same blender.

These discussions, while I must say they are not void of entertainment value, get kind of repetitive. I do love a good "character in the wrong forced at gunpoint to understand the repercussions of their actions" moment. But Lady Fetton repeats her own backstory at least six times using almost exactly the same words. Characters hear very similar-worded lectures and then give very similar-worded apologies. By the time the Bennets were finally fit to go to London, I was weary of it all and ready to be done.

There are also some other characters that show out in oddly OOC ways. Georgiana yells at Darcy and Bingley. While this could happen after some character growth, I don't think Georgiana as we first see her is equal to this. Jane yells at the whole family, using the word "whore" in her speech twice. Even quoting someone else, as she is, I don't think this is reasonable. Elizabeth yells at her father. Mr. Darcy is not only rude in the ways we already know him to be rude, he is considered arrogant even by his own family members.

In totality, this was a wholly strange read. I did enjoy a lot of it, but it ultimately failed to pass the plausibility test.