“Dark and gripping and tense and beautiful.” —Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club and Pulitzer Prize finalist for We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves Pride and Prejudice meets Frankenstein as Mary Bennet falls for the enigmatic Victor Frankenstein and befriends his monstrous Creature in this clever fusion of two popular classics. Threatened with destruction unless he fashions a wife for his Creature, Victor Frankenstein travels to England where he meets Mary and Kitty Bennet, the remaining unmarried sisters of the Bennet family from Pride and Prejudice . As Mary and Victor become increasingly attracted to each other, the Creature looks on impatiently, waiting for his bride. But where will Victor find a female body from which to create the monster’s mate? Meanwhile, the awkward Mary hopes that Victor will save her from approaching spinsterhood while wondering what dark secret he is keeping from her. Pride and Prometheus fuses the gothic horror of Mary Shelley with the Regency romance of Jane Austen in an exciting novel that combines two age-old stories in a fresh and startling way. “As a book-loving girl myself, I’ve worried for years over the treatment and fate of Lizzy Bennet’s sister Mary in Pride and Prejudice. Finally! Along comes John Kessel to give her this splendid book of her own, her own quick mind and her own stout heart. Mary’s adventure occurs in just that place where Austen meets Shelley and, in the end, more will be required of her than of any Austen heroine before her. Dark and gripping and tense and beautiful." -- Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club and Pulitzer prize finalist for We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves " Pride and Prometheus is not just a single joke repeated for 200 pages, as 2009’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was. It’s a carefully thought-out crossover that shines with affection for both its sources, one that never goes for the cheap joke when it can go for the gut punch." ― - Vox “The shifting viewpoints between Mary, Victor and the tragically conflicted creature help make this a nuanced novel of character.” ― - The Chicago Tribune "For readers who enjoy new takes on classic stories—and don’t mind a few gothic elements thrown into the mix—this novel offers a surprisingly nuanced interpretation of characters readers may have nearly ­forgotten." ― - Library Journal "A nicely elaborated dance of viewpoints, of sensibilities, of ironies, and of genre conventions and tropes." ― - Locus " Kessel sets his readers’ expectations and then twists them as far as he can go—and then just a little bit further." ― - Bookpage John Kessel lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, novelist Therese Anne Fowler. He is a professor and the director of creative writing at North Carolina State University. He is the author of The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories , Corrupting Dr. Nice , The Moon and the Other , and Pride and Prometheus. Pride and Prometheus ONE When she was nineteen, Miss Mary Bennet had believed three things that were not true. She believed that, despite her awkwardness, she might become interesting through her accomplishments. She believed that, because she paid strict attention to all she had been taught about right and wrong, she was wise in the ways of the world. And she believed that God, who took note of every moment of one’s life, would answer prayers, even foolish ones. Thirteen years later, below the sea cliffs at Lyme Regis, among the tangled driftwood and broken shale exposed by the retreating tide, Mary found a flat stone plate that, when broken open by a tap of her hammer, revealed four Devil’s Fingers. “Mr. Woodleigh!” she called. Three days of rain had softened the cliffs above Pinhay Bay, and a recent avalanche had scattered heaps of shale across the stony beach. Behind her the early March surf broke continually upon the shingle. Seabirds cried. A cold offshore wind rustled the stunted trees on the verge of the cliff above. Mary’s hair came loose from her bonnet and fell into her eyes; she brushed it away with the back of the gloved hand that held the hammer. At her call, Charles Woodleigh, bent over the rocks some twenty feet away, raised his head. “What is it, Miss Bennet?” “See what I’ve found!” He laid down his hammer and came to stand beside her as she crouched over her discovery. In the face of the stone plate were four slender conical shells, the shortest an inch or so, the largest, completely intact, at least four inches. It looked not so much like a finger as the point of a spear. She rubbed her thumb over the hard, smooth surface, whose color ranged from rusty brown to dark gray. “Lovely,” Woodleigh said. “I believe you have discovered something, Miss Bennet.” “I have!” Mary said. The rock containing the fossils was roughly a foot across. Together they pulled it from