Syrie James on her new novel “Jane Austen’s First Love” – don’t miss out on the giveaways from Austenprose and others on the Blog Tour! Can’t wait to read this – Love Syrie James’ books!
I am very pleased to welcome author Syrie James to Austenprose today to officially open her virtual book launch party and blog tour of Jane Austen’s First Love, published by Berkley Trade. This new Austenesque novel is a fascinating combination of fact and fiction, exploring the first romance of fifteen year-old Jane Austen with the handsome and sophisticated Edward Taylor.
Syrie has generously offered a guest blog sharing her inspiration to write her new book—and to add to the festivities—we will be offering an amazing selection of giveaways including: trade paperback copies of Jane Austen’s First Love, a muslin tote bag stuffed with Jane Austen goodies, and a specially commissioned painting inspired by the novel. Just leave a comment following this blog post to enter. The contest details are listed below. Good luck to all.
Stuart, I do have a question if you do not mind. Since this is fiction based on facts, what percentage is fact and what percentage is fiction? The premise is intriguing.
Stuart answered:
The “fact/fiction proportion” question is a great one, and not that easy to answer. Apart from my fictional Vanessa and her romantic interest, almost every character in the novel is real and could have been when and where I put them. This is especially important, of course, in the case of Lord Moira himself. But the Jane Austen narrative is deliberately put in the years when almost nothing is known of her movements, and although I have appropriated the surviving rumors about her for 1801-1802, I can’t say these, or my narrative is actually “historical.”
One of the best reviews I ever read of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels said that if one of Jane Austen’s nautical brothers had shared her literary gifts, he would have written like O’Brian. I make no such claim for my own writing, of course, but what I think the O’Brian reviewer meant – among other things – was that O’Brian’s books transported the reader to Nelson’s navy and, once there, the reader never felt the anachronistic lurches that turn up in so many would-be historical novels. Readers have complimented my books on their historical accuracy, and if you’ll allow me to include the details of my novel in the fact/fiction equation I think I can safely say the factual side is well in the ascendant.
Thanks for writing!
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The Perfect Visit
Lord Moira’s Echo
Thank you all for commenting; and congratulations to Joy!
I welcome today Stuart Bennett [no relation to our esteemed Mr. Bennet – the difference a “t” can make!], antiquarian bookseller and author of two novels starring Jane Austen. You can read my April 2012 interview with Stuart about his first novel The Perfect Visit here:
As you know I loved this book because of its time-travel intrigue wherein we meet Shakespeare and Jane Austen, as well as its literary and bibliographical adventure through the London and Bath of the 16th and 19th century. Stuart’s new novel, Lord Moira’s Echo, has just been published and has a new and historically fascinating take on Jane Austen’s “lost” years from the spring of 1801 through the fall of 1804. I highly recommend it – it offers a tale of those years when “Jane Austen went missing” as biographer David Nokes writes, that is certainly as plausible and interesting as any of the other various fictional efforts in this vein out there. I cannot say more because the post would be an entire “Spoiler Alert” that would ruin the pleasure of your own reading! Please see below for the book giveaway.
I have been asked if one should read The Perfect Visit first, and I say that while this second book does stand completely on its own, an understanding of Vanessa and her story of being catapulted into Jane Austen’s England would only enhance your enjoyment.
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So in lieu of an all-out review, I have asked Stuart to tell us something about this new work:
Stuart: I discovered references to the Austen family in the unpublished Hastings family archive at the Huntington Library in California. From these, I felt I could introduce this historical character, Francis Rawdon Hastings, the second Earl of Moira, as one who might have met Jane Austen during those lost years. The novel tells its story from two perspectives, Lord Moira’s own, and a young Canadian musician, Vanessa Horwood, who was the protagonist of The Perfect Visit; Vanessa is from our time, caught in a time-travel snafu and stuck in early 19th-century England. The narrative of my new novel shifts back and forth from 1823 to 1801 and 1802, imagining what might have happened if the Earl, about whom Jane’s banker brother Henry spoke bitterly even after Jane’s death in 1817 and who features in Austen family correspondence well into the 1830s, had been more than a just a shadowy figure in the lives of the Austens.
Jane herself plays a major part in the 1801-1802 sections of Lord Moira’s Echo. Lord Moira, whom I first discovered in a glancing reference in Brian Southam’s Jane Austen and the Navy, really could have played the role I give him. The social history of Regency England is full of much stranger tales.
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Thank you Stuart, and also a hearty thanks for offering a copy to commenters. For those in the Vermont JASNA region, Stuart spoke on this novel as a work-in-progress in September 2012, where we were all intrigued to hear of his take on Jane Austen’s mystery love. He just recently spoke at the JASNA-MA and JASNA-SC regions, and is scheduled with the JASNA-Maine group in September. For readers wanting the full historical tale behind the references to the Austen family in the Hastings archive, Bennett’s essay, “Lord Moira and the Austens,” will appear in the next issue of Persuasions – Vol. 35 (2013), due out this May.
About the author: Stuart Bennett was an auctioneer at Christie’s in London before starting his own rare book business. He is the author of the Christie’s Collectors Guide How to Buy Photographs (1987), Trade Binding in the British Isles (2004) which the London Times Literary Supplement called “a bold and welcome step forward” in the history of bookbinding, and many publications on early photography, auctions and auctioneers, and rare books, and of course these two novels on Jane Austen. He currently lives and works near Boston, Massachusetts.
Book Giveaway!
Please leave your questions or comments for Stuart in the comment section below to be eligible for a free inscribed copy of Lord Moira’s Echo by Monday April 21, 2014, 11:59 pm. Winner will be announced on Tuesday April 22nd. Open to US respondents only (sorry, but postal rates are now over-the-top!)
2. I’m adding here two questions from the comments with Stuart’s very thoughtful answers, as they give a little more insight into the writing of this tale of Jane Austen in love, and I didn’t want them to get lost in the comments……:)
*What made you be inspired to write the book? [Patricia Finnegan]
Dear Patricia Finnegan,
Thank you for writing. The inspiration to write the Lord Moira novel came in the same odd way that it did for my first novel, The Perfect Visit. I imagined a character in a situation (it was one of the time-travelers for the first novel) and, once imagined, the character wouldn’t let go of me. Other characters appeared to join him and they all started doing things, and waking me in the middle of the night with their conversations (this is true, and I had to write the conversations down right away because by morning they were gone).
When I discovered Lord Moira in a glancing reference in Brian Southam’s Jane Austen and the Navy, he intrigued me, and when I discovered the Hastings archive at the Huntington Library and started reading his letters, and the repeated references to the Austen family, that did it. Lord Moira came alive, started reminiscing, and one thing led to another. As Deb Barnum says in her blog, if I give you more than that I’ll have to cry “spoiler alert.”
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*Stuart, I do have a question if you do not mind. Since this is fiction based on facts, what percentage is fact and what percentage is fiction? The premise is intriguing. [Joy King]
Dear Joy King,
The “fact/fiction proportion” question is a great one, and not that easy to answer. Apart from my fictional Vanessa and her romantic interest, almost every character in the novel is real and could have been when and where I put them. This is especially important, of course, in the case of Lord Moira himself. But the Jane Austen narrative is deliberately put in the years when almost nothing is known of her movements, and although I have appropriated the surviving rumors about her for 1801-1802, I can’t say these, or my narrative is actually “historical.”
One of the best reviews I ever read of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels said that if one of Jane Austen’s nautical brothers had shared her literary gifts, he would have written like O’Brian. I make no such claim for my own writing, of course, but what I think the O’Brian reviewer meant – among other things – was that O’Brian’s books transported the reader to Nelson’s navy and, once there, the reader never felt the anachronistic lurches that turn up in so many would-be historical novels. Readers have complimented my books on their historical accuracy, and if you’ll allow me to include the details of my novel in the fact/fiction equation I think I can safely say the factual side is well in the ascendant.
Gentle Readers: I welcome today one of our very own JASNA-Vermont members, Heather Brothers, to talk to us about her very own, just published, novel! – The Introduction of a Gentleman. A long-time Jane Austen fan, Heather has been coming to our meetings for the past several years – she loves the Regency period and this is her first go at a Regency historical romance – it is a great read, full of all the things you expect from the genre – good guys, bad guys, a naïve heroine, an estate in jeopardy, a bit of a mystery, and a fine Scottish setting both in the country and in Glasgow. Heather has graciously offered to tell us a little bit about herself and how she came to write this first book, and she will provide a free copy for a giveaway – see below for the giveaway details.
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Deb: Welcome Heather! All of us in Vermont are very excited for you, about this, your first published book! Tell us something about The Introduction of a Gentleman and what set you on the path to writing it…
Heather: The seed that grew into my love of the Regency Era was planted – as many others may have experienced themselves – when I saw the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. I lived in Australia at the time and was visiting my best friend’s family. Being proper members of the Commonwealth, they were shocked that I had not seen P&P. The first day at their house we sat and watched it from beginning to end – I was so enraptured by it, I didn’t want to leave my seat for anything!
Being your typical enthusiast, I proceeded to throw a Pride and Prejudice New Year’s Eve party the following year – complete with country dance jammed into a most decidedly un-Pemberleyan dance hall (i.e. the living room of a cape house.) I had movie-viewing parties, read through each novel, connected with other Janeites, and after a trip to Scotland in 2008 for a friend’s wedding, I began the story that is The Introduction of a Gentleman.
Inspired by names such as Carrick and Strathclyde (both of which my husband has refused to name any future children), I began thinking and working on who these characters would be. And being fairly recently graduated from that tumultuous match-making time of life myself, I wanted to create that time and those feelings in Laura’s life.
After two years, I had created a rough draft and then fell victim to the precursor to the most glorious blessing one can possibly experience in life. Morning sickness led to hospitalization. Thank heaven for anti-nausea medication. And incidentally, if you throw up in the waiting room, you’ll get a hospital bed really fast. Keep that in mind.
My daughter being born was so amazing and during the nursing phase I was able to read a ton of books – the first being re-reading Emma. I learned so much about writing from that intense reading-filled timeframe.
I found that self-publishing really relies on your network of friends and family members. I got three critical reviews from friends – one who is a published writer, one who is an award-winning writer and Regency Era subject matter expert, and one who has a PhD in the Classics and is qualified to teach writing at the college level. My husband was also an invaluable help since, in self-publishing, you have to do all the formatting yourself (i.e. become a software expert.) I would really recommend Createspace, though. They have a lot of tools and all the channels set up for you.
And this is how I come to be where I am now. I really hope you enjoy The Introduction of a Gentleman. It doesn’t compare to the works of Jane Austen, but I think it’s a good read if you like that era.
Deb: What sort of reading have you done to prepare you to write a Regency historical novel?
Heather: Reading Jane Austen’s novels are in themselves a tutorial on many levels. I have also read some great books about the era – most recently The Jane Austen Handbook by Margaret Sullivan. I have done online research as well as learned a lot from the JASNA-Vermont meetings.
Deb: How long have you been reading Jane Austen? And what is your favorite book? Your favorite thing about her?
Heather: Interestingly, I ordered Sense and Sensibility from the Scholastic Book Club when I was in 9th grade. I tried to read it but couldn’t understand who everyone was, so gave up. Fortunately, through increased brain development and a more keen interest, since that time, I have been able to enjoy each novel.
My favorite book is Persuasion. What I love about Jane Austen is how funny she is and how brilliant she was in weaving everything together in these books. I’ve written an essay on the book Persuasion called “Might I Persuade You?” which I hope to record in an audio format. After listening to the audio version so wonderfully performed by Juliet Stevenson, I was struck by just how hilariously and wonderfully Jane Austen wrote. The other aspect of Persuasion that is so great is the theme of redeemed love and second chances – which is just irresistible.
Deb: Are you working on another novel? And if so will it be set in the same time period as The Introduction of a Gentleman? Will you continue with any of the characters?
Heather: I am working on another novel – but it is a present-day story set in Vermont about a 10-year old girl who wants to figure out a family mystery amidst her quirky aunts, uncles and grandparents: Your typical Vermont family.
Deb: Sounds like Cold Comfort Farm in Vermont! Can’t wait! What other kinds of books do you enjoy reading?
Heather: My favorite books right now are Alexander McCall Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie series and the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.
Deb: You mention a trip to Scotland and the reason why it is the setting for your book, but have you travelled to other places in the UK as well, specifically to Jane Austen country in England?
Chatsworth House and Bridge [Wikimedia Commons ]
Heather: My travels in Scotland helped me decide the general areas that I wanted things to take place. Sir William Blair’s country home, for instance, is based on a castle that my husband and I visited. Other scenes were inspired by a prior trip to England. One of my aunts used to live in Nottingham. When visiting her, she took me to some amazing sites like Chatsworth, but this was before I became an Austen fan – so I didn’t realize what I missing out on! I actually had no idea what Chatsworth was prior to her taking me there. I was 18 at the time – with so much to learn! So another trip to England is definitely a hope.
Hope Greenberg
Deb: You dedicate the book to your sister, and also “To my husband, who came with me to my first Jane Austen Society meeting…on fashion.” Was that at a JASNA-Vermont meeting, or another meeting somewhere else?
Heather: Yes – the dedication refers to my first JASNA meeting – the one where Hope Greenberg spoke in Montpelier at the Vermont College of Fine Arts! I loved it and actually mentioned it to Hope at the Christmas tea when she wore her wonderful dress and hat to that meeting. I have been coming to JASNA meetings – when I could (i.e. not when Claire was tiny…) – since that meeting. [Ed. This meeting was on June 7, 2009 – with our very own regency fashionista Hope Greenberg on “Fashion in Jane Austen’s World” and a great intro to JASNA-Vermont for Heather! (and her husband!)]
Thanks so much for having me here Deb!
Deb: Thank you Heather! – and wishing you a great deal of luck with your first publishing endeavor.
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Plot synopsis: In 1797 Laura McCay searches for her path and a husband in the Scottish gentry. When the intriguing Mr. Strathclyde arrives at the May Ball, Laura is captivated by both his stature and his status. Her close friend, Carrick, deplores both the change he sees in Laura and Mr. Strathclyde’s growing influence over her. Heedless of the ramifications, Laura follows after Mr. Strathclyde, leaving family responsibilities and friends behind in the country. Laura disregards Carrick’s admonitions and throws herself into the city life of concerts, dresses and fashionable balls, only to find that not everything is as it seems….
What Amazon says: Heather Brothers is an avid Jane Austen fan and has had the pleasure of visiting Scotland several times. She lives in Vermont with her family.
More detail from Heather: I was born and raised mostly in Vermont, with three years of my childhood spent in Germany. I went to McGill University in Montreal, and spent one year in Australia. I studied Political Science, German and French, and like many with a liberal arts degree, my job doesn’t reflect my studies. I work as a loan analyst at the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, where I have worked for eight and a half years.
I love going to Shelburne Farms in the summer with my daughter and husband. My favorite restaurant is Mirabelle’s downtown – which has the best hot chocolate. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s become an addiction, seeing as I stop there every Sunday before church and am on a first name basis with the staff…
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Book Giveaway
Please leave a comment or a question for Heather at the end of this post and you will be entered into a random drawing for a copy of The Introduction of a Gentleman. Deadline is Tuesday January 21, 2014, 11:59 pm. I will announce the winner on Wednesday January 22nd. US entries only please. [sorry about that – postage rates are sky-high to everywhere else…]
Hello Gentle Readers: I welcome today Karen Doornebos, author of UNDRESSING MR. DARCY, as she travels the web for a blog tour and book giveaway. I had reviewed Karen’s first book Definitely Not Mr. Darcy back in 2011 [click here], and have enjoyed entering her Jane Austen world yet again with her new book, just released on December 3, 2013. Karen joins us today to tell a bit about her trip to Jane Austen country and how it inspired her – you should visit the other blogs on the tour to get the whole travelogue! And please see below for the giveaway info to win one of two copies of Undressing Mr. Darcy!…
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Happy 238th Birthday to Jane Austen…from her writing table at Chawton!
Thank you, Janeite Deb, for hosting me on this very special day for Janeites worldwide. It’s an honor to be here today. Shall we raise a glass of French wine that Austen liked to have when it was offered her?
As an ice-breaker to each leg of my Blog Tour for UNDRESSING MR. DARCY, I’m taking you along for a ride to England, where I traveled during the summer of 2012 to do some research for my book. Yes, I was on The Jane Austen Trail all right!
Where am I on this stop? Jane Austen’s cottage in Chawton and her brother Edward’s inherited estate just up the road, the gorgeous mansion that is now Chawton House Library. I was lucky enough to spend the night on the grounds of Chawton House Library, and you can too, in the renovated stables that serve as the most stunning B&B. You will soon get an insider’s look at that gorgeous estate owned and so lovingly restored by Sandy Lerner.
First, let’s have a cuppa at Cassandra’s Cup…
Across the street from Jane Austen’s cottage is Cassandra’s Cup tearoom, where I can recommend the scones with jam and clotted cream as well as looking up at the ceiling to admire all of the teacups. I had to set part of a scene in my new book here, didn’t I?! How could anyone resist the charm? [I have heard, however, that the shop had recently gone up for sale. Has anyone heard anything further about that?]
A visit to Jane Austen’s cottage and yes…her chamber pot.
Jane Austen in Vermont readers, you’ve seen photos of Austen’s cottage before. But have you seen a photo of her chamber pot? Here it is! You can count on me to point out the offbeat:
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Knowing as I do the distinct hierarchy of carriages, I stood for a long time in front of Jane Austen’s donkey cart. She most certainly did not even have a gig like the lowly John Thorpe, much less a chaise and four like Lady Catherine. Somehow, our Jane deserved more than a donkey cart, did she not? But there it was, a simple, rudimentary, but functional contraption. A distinct reminder of her position in her society.
I had to admire the oak leaf and acorn Wedgwood pattern on the Austen’s china, and there is a moment in my new novel where my heroine and some tourists from Australia discuss the significance of this pattern. Acorns figure prominently in Regency art and architecture, and I found it interesting that acorns can symbolize strength and power in small things. I think Austen herself gathered strength and inspiration from the simple, small things in her life, would you agree? Speaking of simple, I really enjoyed the Austen’s bake house and the range where Austen herself would make breakfast every morning.
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Chawton House Library…a home Austen knew well…
I was lucky enough to spend a night at the renovated stables on the grounds of what is now Chawton House Library, and you too can stay there when you visit. It was the most stunning B&B I’d ever stayed in. I’ll never forget having breakfast in the solarium off the kitchen in the stables: bliss. The grounds, the gardens, the long drive leading up to the house…all of it stood in sharp contrast to Jane Austen’s simple cottage. Yet, Austen herself no doubt had plenty of opportunity to visit here and partake of the opulence and…the library.
One of the most striking paintings in the home to me was the one done of Edward Austen Knight. This painting, as well as the silhouette done of Edward’s adoption by the Knights signify turning points in my novel for my heroine. The silhouette in particular, dramatized to great effect, nevertheless captures the poignancy of the moment. Young Edward, just a boy, had been plucked from his family, but destined for wealth, position, and security his Austen siblings would never know. If it weren’t for Edward’s luck at being adopted by the wealthy and childless Knights, his sister Jane may never have known the comfort of her Chawton cottage…and we might never have known her novels…that only could have been written with a certain amount of security that the cottage provided. Granted, Jane Austen had to work hard, sewing shirts, cooking, making orange wine and brewing spruce beer, but thanks to the Knights she was able to sneak in a little time to write.
Edward Austen
Edward’s adoption
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Come the evening at Chawton House Library, I ambled over to the nearby churchyard and stumbled across Cassandra Austen’s gravestone. Sigh. Nothing could have prepared me for the range of emotions I experienced at Chawton.
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Thank you once again, Deb for having me visit your delightful blog! Happy Birthday to our favorite author Jane Austen! In celebration of her birthday, I invite your readers to comment and win…
Imagine a history lesson where you watch a very handsome Regency gentleman lecture about his clothing as he proceeds to take it off—down to his drawers. This is the premise of UNDRESSING MR. DARCY!
He’s an old-fashioned, hard-cover book reader who writes in quill pen and hails from England. She’s an American social media addict. Can he find his way to her heart without so much as a GPS?
Jane Austen in Vermont readers, comment below for your chance to win one of TWO copies of UNDRESSING MR. DARCY… How are YOU celebrating Jane Austen’s birthday? To increase your chances of winning you can share this post on your Facebook page or Twitter—let us know you’ve done that! You can also increase your odds by following me on Twitter or Facebook, or, if you’re not already, following Deb on her social media [Jane Austen in Vermont on facebook or Austen in Vermont on twitter]—don’t forget to let us know about it in your comment, thanks! Contest limited to US entrants only.
Mr. Darcy’s Stripping Off…
…his waistcoat! At each blog stop Mr. Darcy will strip off another piece of clothing. Keep track of each item in chronological order and at then end of the tour you can enter to win a GRAND PRIZE of the book, “DO NOT DISTURB I’m Undressing Mr. Darcy” door hangers for you and your friends, tea, and a bottle of wine (assuming I can legally ship it to your state). US entries only, please.
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Karen Doornebos is the author of UNDRESSING MR. DARCY published by Berkley, Penguin and available here or at your favorite bookstore. Her first novel, DEFINITELY NOT MR. DARCY, has been published in three countries and was granted a starred review by Publisher’s Weekly. Karen lived and worked in London for a short time, but is now happy just being a lifelong member of the Jane Austen Society of North America and living in the Chicagoland area with her husband, two teenagers and various pets—including a bird. Speaking of birds, follow her on Twitter and Facebook! She hopes to see you there, on her website www.karendoornebos.com and her group blog Austen Authors.
Thank you Karen for joining us today to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday and sharing your trip to Chawton with everyone! We wish you the very best with your new book!
Everyone, please comment by Wednesday December 18th at 11:59 pm to be entered into the drawing for one of two copies of Undressing Mr. Darcy: tell us how you are celebrating Jane Austen’s 238th Birthday today! Winners will be announced on the morning of December 19th. [US entries only, sorry to say]
c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont – text and images Karen Doornebos
I most fortunately stumbled upon this book My Mr. Darcys when searching for another Austen title and found the bookseller had this title as well – but alas! no available copies. So I went straight to the source and found not only this but other delightful books from the Boston-based book artist Laura Davidson – we got into a conversation about what inspired her to create this miniature book [4 ¼” x 3”] about the various Mr. Darcys in film:
LD: My Mr. Darcys: An Appreciation (2009) is a tribute to the many actors who have played the role of Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice adaptations. It includes portrait miniatures of sixactors along with text from each film. It is especially made for the true Austenite.
There are 500 copies, each signed and numbered. $28.00
When I was doing research for this book, I had to re-watch all of the films, taking notes about which line would work with each painted miniature of the actors. This was easier than one might think, and also really fun. When it came to the text on the back of my book, I knew which line from P&P I wanted to use, but had no idea where to find it quickly. I phoned my older sister Paula, a devoted Austenite and the one who introduced me to Jane originally. She was driving, pulled off the road, and reached into the side pocket of the passenger door to pull out her emergency copy of P&P and found the passage for me right away. At the time – I was amused by this. But now, of course, I carry an emergency copy of P&P on my phone (along with Persuasion). [Ed. I am not going to tell you which passage Laura chose for the back of the book – you will just have to buy your own copy to find out! – but what passage do you think she might have chosen?]
JAIV: Why did you feel compelled to do this book – you refer to your sister being an “Austenite” – are you as well?
LD: At the time, my sister and I were talking quite often about the various adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and it occurred to me that there must be women everywhere having the same conversations and comparing Darcys. I’m a book artist, and much of my work is making visual lists, drawing everyday items, familiar yet very personal things. My work often reflects my passion for art history, maps and architecture. My Mr. Darcys was a bit out of the blue. I don’t really know how it came into my mind to do the book exactly, but once the seed was planted there was no turning back. I like that a book a woman wrote 200 years ago still resonates today and inspires artists, writers, and filmmakers to keep the characters alive. So, I would say that yes, I am an Austenite.
JAIV: Which of the novels do you like the best?
LD: Persuasion. I adore Anne Elliot, because she always knew her own heart even though she was afraid to follow it.
JAIV: Which adaptation do you like the best?
LD: I love the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. I think it was perfectly cast. Of all the Austen adaptations I’ve seen though, the Persuasion from 1995 is my favorite. Watching it is like comfort food to me.
JAIV: And which Mr. Darcy is your favorite, and why?
LD: Laurence Olivier was in the first “Hollywoodized” version which was terribly cast, except for him. He played Darcy’s imperiousness beautifully, but the compromised ending let him down.
Colin Firth was absolutely perfect in the role, getting the arrogance right, but showing the vulnerability beneath. Plus, all the Darcys that came after were a direct result of his performance, and that of the rest of the cast. If he hadn’t had the charm and charisma to pull off the Darcy character, I doubt any of the other adaptations would have been made.
So, Colin Firth, to me, is the definitive Mr. Darcy. And we can’t forget the lake scene…!
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So fellow Darcy fans, this is must have book – know that some of you like David Rintoul the best from the 1980 BBC production – he is, sorry to say not in this book – but everyone else is, each with an appropriate quote that sums up his character best… it is small, doesn’t take up much shelf space, but I think you will choose to display it in a prominent place somewhere as a centerpiece to your Austen collection.
What else I had to buy: for an obsessed Red-Sox Fan! [and a best friend, even though I am, dare I say it, a Yankee Fan…]
Fenway Park Tunnel Book: This tunnel book shows a view of Fenway Park and the skyline of Boston. The images were painted, then offset printed, laser cut and pieced together by hand. Each copy is signed.
2007, 2008; 2nd edition (with 2007 world championship flag); 6.5 x 8 and 3/16 inches, 6 two-sided pages; $38.
I bought another book but as it is a gift for a friend that I have not yet given it to, I must wait – but will say it has something to do with Birds!
And what book-loving person would not require this:
Block Prints: Read Art
2012, 10 x 14” hand printed on Kitakata rice paper, two colors. One small print on a book page is attached, printed in an edition of 12. Unframed $125.
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Here is Laura’s website and contact information: http://www.lauradavidson.com/ – take some time to look at her various creations – time well-spent I assure you! If you have a question or a comment for Laura, please do so here and I will pass them on to her for a response…
[all images copyright Laura Davidson and used with permission]
Well, not sure if an ebook can be termed “on my bookshelf” but no matter – this new book out today by Austen scholar Janet Todd has already made its way to my kindle, so a virtual bookshelf it is … and I shall drop all my other reading and begin this immediately!
Professor Todd has taken on Jane Austen‘s Lady Susan in her fictional account Lady Susan Plays the Game – this is from the Bloomsbury website:
A must-read for any devotee of Jane Austen, Janet Todd’s bodice-ripping reimagining of Austen’s epistolary novel Lady Susan will capture your literary imagination and get your heart racing.
Austen’s only anti-heroine, Lady Susan, is a beautiful, charming widow who has found herself, after the death of her husband, in a position of financial instability and saddled with an unmarried, clumsy and over-sensitive daughter. Faced with the unpalatable prospect of having to spend her widowed life in the countryside, Lady Susan embarks on a serious of manipulative games to ensure she can stay in town with her first passion — the card tables. Scandal inevitably ensues as she negotiates the politics of her late husband’s family, the identity of a mysterious benefactor and a passionate affair with a married man.
Accurate and true to Jane Austen’s style, as befits Todd’s position as a leading Austen scholar, this second coming of Lady Susan is as shocking, manipulative and hilarious as when Jane Austen first imagined her.
Published: 15-07-2013
Format: EPUB eBook
ISBN: 9781448213450
Imprint: Bloomsbury Reader
RRP: £6.99 [ in the US, the kindle price is $7.19 : Amazon.com
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You can read a post by Janet Todd here at the Bloomsbury Reader blog – where she “tells us her thoughts on writing, language, and the pressure of re-imagining Jane Austen:”
Anne Elliot, virtuous heroine of Persuasion, was ‘almost too good’ for Jane Austen. ‘Pictures of perfection… make me sick and wicked,’ she remarked towards the end of her life. All Austen’s novel heroines are indeed ‘good’: two of them initially hazard improper or injudicious remarks—Elizabeth Bennet and Emma—but later they learn to repress such high spirits.
Now look at Jane Austen’s own letters. Recollect that most of them address her beloved Cassandra who, after Jane’s death, guarded her sister’s image by burning anything she deemed unsuitable—not so much for the public, since Jane was not yet famous enough to have her private correspondence of general interest, but for the younger members of the extended family now living in high Victorian rather than racy Regency times. Yet even the unburnt letters show a woman very different from the fictional heroines, a woman with a naughty propensity sometimes to laugh at the virtuous, the vulnerable or the just plain unfortunate—a wife with an uncomely husband experiencing a still birth or young girls lacking beauty and unable to compensate for it. This Jane Austen emerges very fully in a little work she wrote just as she was entering adulthood and long before she’d published any of her masterly novels: ‘Lady Susan’….
Janet Todd is an internationally renowned scholar of early women writers. She has edited the complete works of England’s first professional woman writer, Aphra Behn, and the Enlightenment feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, as well as novels by Charlotte Smith, Mary Shelley and Eliza Fenwick and memoirs of the confidence trickster Mary Carleton. She is also the general editor of the 9-volume Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen and editor of Jane Austen in Context and the Cambridge Companion to Pride and Prejudice. Among her critical works are Women’s Friendship in Literature, The Sign of Angellica: Women, Writing and Fiction 1660-1800 and the Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen. She has written four biographies: of Aphra Behn and three linked women, Mary Wollstonecraft, her daughter, and her aristocratic Irish pupils.
In the 1970s Janet Todd taught in the USA, during which time she began the first journal devoted to women’s writing. Back in the UK in the 1990s she co-founded the journal Women’s Writing. Janet has had a peripatetic and busy life, working at universities in Ghana, the US, and Puerto Rico, as well as England and Scotland. She is now an emeritus professor at the University of Aberdeen and lives in Cambridge.
Claire LaZebnik, the author of The Trouble with Flirting, a modern-day re-telling of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, wrote here on this blog about ‘updating Jane‘. The publisher HarperTeen graciously offered a giveaway, and a random drawing reveals that the winner is: junewilliams7 who wrote:
So in my version, Franny learns that the guy who makes you wait while he pants after someone else just isn’t worth waiting for.
Wow! That’s great, I was never crazy about him anyway. But did you put her with a reformed Henry? That’s what I would like, except for all my friends who insist that Henry is too naughty.
Will you take on Sense & Sensibility next? That story needs a modern update!
and in a second comment June wrote:
Sense and Sensibility is such a dark story — it starts with widowhood, greed, and eviction and goes to statutory rape, unwed teen pregnancy, the tale of a forced marriage by an unethical guardian and a type of kidnapping (sending Brandon to India and Eliza’s tale), two marriages for money, Marianne being near death…. none of this is bright or funny or witty. Whoever writes fanfic about Elinor and Edward? Few write fics about Marianne and Brandon. Jane Austen’s couples in this book are NOT favorites of many. If you could translate this into a modern story, it would be challenging and remarkable indeed.
Ahem, please note that I am not willing to undertake the challenge myself. TOO difficult!
Congratulations June! please email me with your mailing contact information as soon a possible – the publisher will send you the book directly.
And again, my thanks to Claire LaZebnik for writing her delightful book and for sharing it on this blog, and to HarperTeen for the giveaway, and to all of you for your comments!
Please see below for information on the book giveaway!
Gentle Readers: Today I welcome Claire LaZebnik as she shares with us her thoughts on her newest book, The Trouble with Flirting, a Jane Austen for young adults. Loosely based on Mansfield Park, it tells the tale of Franny Pearson and her summer of friendship and romance with the likes of Edmund Bertram, his sisters, and Henry and Mary Crawford, all updated to the 21st-century. There is even a rather demanding, you-shall-never-please-me Aunt Norris in the mix!
In one of my former lives I was a children’s librarian and with the added plus of having children of my own, I’ve have read a good amount of children’s and young adult literature – I can honestly say that some of the works for young people still rate as my favorite reads [Bridge to Terabithia by Vermont’s own Katherine Paterson remains my number one]. Now if I pop Jane Austen into the equation [which I do whenever possible], I have been delighted to discover a treasure-trove of titles that take her tales and adapt them to the world of the 21st century teenager – Polly Shulman’s Enthusiasmand Rosie Rushton’s series spring immediately to mind – indeed there is even a blog out there!: From JA to YA: Adapting Jane Austen for Young Adults! [And most of my Jane Austen friends agree that Clueless might well be the best of all the Austen adaptations…]
I have just found out about Claire [thank you Diana Birchall!] and have not read her first book Epic Fail based on Pride and Prejudice, but am nearly finished with The Trouble with Flirting – a thoroughly enjoyable read that whether you are 14 or 40 or even 64 you will find something to savor in the young love so beautifully rendered by Jane Austen 200 years ago as now transported to a modern day summer theater camp, where even Shakespeare takes a bow.
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UPDATING JANE
By Claire LaZebnik
How do you stay true to the spirit of an author who wrote two hundred years ago?
When you sit down to write a modernization of a Jane Austen novel, you get hit by a jumble of emotions. There’s terror—how dare you tinker with perfection?—and dread—no matter how good a book you write, it will never compare to the original—and excitement—you get to spend the next few months of your life thinking about an author you love!—and, mostly, perplexity—how do you bring an early 19th century text into the 21st century? You can’t simply switch “ball” to “prom” and “tea” to “diet Coke” and call it a day. (Not that some haven’t tried.)
My first YA novel, Epic Fail, is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice. For the most part, updating the story went smoothly. The emotions in P&P feel as true today as they ever did: we all know what it’s like to be embarrassed by members of our families and we’ve all at some point given our respect to someone who didn’t deserve it and withheld it from someone who did.
My challenge was figuring out how to give a modern day Darcy a reason to be so guarded that he comes across as a snob: our class distinctions aren’t as clearcut as they were back in Austen’s day and country. But then I figured it out: children of celebrities get fawned over and hounded pretty much everywhere they go in L.A., and, just like Darcy, they learn to be wary of strangers who may want too much from them. So Darcy (now Derek) became the son of two movie stars in my novel.
One thing I never worried about was how to make Elizabeth Bennet accessible to my readers: Lizzie’s about as modern as a nineteenth-century heroine can get. She’s funny, intelligent, wellread, outspoken, and prefers even potentially insolvent independence to life with someone she can’t respect. She transplants beautifully into our modern world.
That project finished, I turned my attention to Mansfield Park.
Vintage Classics
I love Mansfield Park. It’s like a combination of Cinderella and the Ugly Duckling. Plain and poor Fanny Price pines quietly for her kind, wealthy cousin Edmund, but has to watch from the sidelines as he falls in love with the dazzling and witty Mary Crawford. Mary’s equally charming brother Henry decides he’ll steal faithful little Fanny’s heart, just for the hell of it, then surprises himself by falling more in love with her than she with him. He’s an attractive guy, but morally flawed and conscientious Fanny doesn’t trust him. So she rejects his courtship and waits patiently for Edmund to come to his senses or for senility to descend on her–whichever comes first. (And, trust me, it’s a bit of a toss-up.)
Devout, patient, deeply moral, quiet . . . Fanny Price is about as modern as a whalebone corset.
So there lay my challenge with Mansfield Park: finding a way to make Fanny accessible to modern readers. I still wanted her to feel like an outsider, so in my version she arrives at the Mansfield College Theater Program for a job sewing costumes, while all the others teenagers are enrolled in the summer acting program. But she’s not meek, submissive or embarrassed by her position: she takes some pride in the fact she’s earning her way, and when she’s given a chance to participate as an actor, proves she can hold her own against the more privileged set.
Nor does my Franny (I added an “r”) sit around waiting for Edmund/Alex to notice her once he’s clearly crushing on someone else. She still carries a torch for him, but it’s summertime and she knows she might as well have fun.
So there I was, writing my update of MP, feeling pretty good about how I’d made Fanny more modern and brought the plot into this fun summer acting program setting, and everything was falling into place–and then I got to the ending. In Austen’s version, morality triumphs. The two people who’ve acted in a conscientious and thoughtful way end up together, while the morally lax ones ride off into the sunset. Actually, let me correct that. First the morally lax ones ride off. Then Edmund spends some time moping around because he really really liked Mary and is so bummed she didn’t come up to his high moral standards. And then he remembers about faithful little Fanny who’s still watching him hopefully from the sidelines.
Times were different when Austen wrote Mansfield Park. Young women of no means didn’t have a lot of power. Sitting around waiting—and turning down the occasional wrong suitor—was pretty much the only option for someone as poor and dependent as Franny.
But I couldn’t make that ending work. Not today. Not with a more modern heroine. I found it hard to respect a 21st century girl who sits around passively waiting for the guy she loves to appreciate her, especially when that same man has made it clear he preferred someone else pretty much all along.
I tried to make it work. I wanted to be true to Austen and true to the novel I’d read so many times and loved so very much. But it wasn’t working. No matter how wonderfully romantic I tried to make the moment when Franny and Alex came together in my book, I felt resentful toward him. He didn’t deserve her.
So I sent an email to my editor. “May I please just try changing the ending?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said.
So in my version, Franny learns that the guy who makes you wait while he pants after someone else just isn’t worth waiting for.
I love Austen—madly, passionately, deeply. That’s why I’ve wanted to pay homage to her with these modernizations: if you’re going to steal, steal from the best. But I wouldn’t be faithful to her legacy of capturing universal human truths and emotions and setting them in a very specific time and place, if I didn’t recognize that times change and women are much freer now than they were back then—and give my readers a Fanny Price for our time.
About the author:
Claire LaZebnik
Claire LaZebnik’s most recent novels, Epic Fail and The Trouble with Flirting (HarperTeen), are loosely based on two of Jane Austen’s classic works. She’s currently finishing up The Last Best Kiss, which is due out in summer 2014 (also from HarperTeen) and is inspired by Austen’s Persuasion. Her first novel, Same as It Never Was (St. Martin’s, 2003) was made into an ABC Family movie titled Hello Sister, Goodbye Life. Her four other novels for adults, Knitting under the Influence, The Smart One and the Pretty One, If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home Now, and Families and other Nonreturnable Gifts, were all published by Hachette’s Grand Central Publishing imprint. LaZebnik co-authored two non-fiction books with Dr. Lynn Kern Koegel (Overcoming Autism and Growing Up on the Spectrum) and contributed a monologue about having a teenage son with autism to the anthology play Motherhood Out Loud.
The Trouble with Flirting
by Claire LaZebnik
HarperTeen 2013
$9.99 ISBN-10: 0061921270 ISBN-13: 978-0061921278
Find it at your local bookstore, or at Amazon
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Book Giveaway! Please enter into the random drawing for a copy of The Trouble with Flirting by commenting below: either by asking Claire LaZebnik a question or telling us why you would like to read this YA novel based on Mansfield Park and how you might fashion the ending. Deadline is Monday March 25, 2013 11:59 pm; winner will be announced on Tuesday March 26th. Domestic eligibility only [sorry all, our postage rates make international mailings impossibly expensive]. Good luck all, and thank you to the publisher HarperTeen for donating the book for the giveaway, and to Claire for her posting here today [and her delightful book!]
What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to think of Love in Jane Austen terms. I think we can say that it is a “truth universally acknowledged” that Captain Wentworth’s letter to Anne in Persuasion* is the grandest expression of Love in all of literature – who would not want to receive such a letter as this? But what of Love in Jane Austen’s own life? – we know so little; where did Mr. Darcy come from, or any of her other heroes? What of True Love in her own life? We can only imagine… so I lead you to a fine imaginative rendering of ‘Jane Austen in love’ in Elsa Solender’s Jane Austen in Love: An Entertainment. When published last February, it was only available as an ebook, delightful to read but nothing to put upon the shelf. We had to wait until this past December to see it finally published in real book form at Amazon.com.
book cover
At the time of its release as a kindle book, Elsa graciously “sat” for an interview here at Jane Austen in Vermont – you can read that here. And as my review was to be published in the JASNA News (just out in the Winter 2012 issue), I did not post a review of the book on this blog; Diana Birchall very graciously did so for me here. But as my review is now published and available online, I append it here in part and then direct you to the JASNA site for the remainder [Note: all book reviews in the JASNA News are available online from 1998 to the present: click here.] – and Elsa has offered a copy for a book giveaway [see below] in celebration of Valentine’s Day!
Jane Austen in Love: An Entertainment, by Elsa Solender.
Review by Deborah Barnum
Imagine a young Jane Austen reading aloud her History of England, Cassandra sketching Henry as Henry V, their Mother as Elizabeth I, and Jane as Mary Queen of Scots; or young Jane at school nearly dying of typhus; or hearing Jane’s thoughts on first encountering Madame Lefroy; or sparking a laugh from the intimidating Egerton Brydges. Imagine the suitor you might like your Jane Austen to meet by the seaside, she falling madly in love but destined to suffer the pangs of lost love, forever irreplaceable. If your mind tends to such as you try to fill in the many blanks in Austen’s life, you might find that Elsa Solender, in her Jane Austen in Love: An Entertainment, has done a wondrous job of doing it for you.
Ms. Solender, former president of JASNA and a prize-winning journalist, has taken her story “Second Thoughts,” runner-up in the 2009 Chawton House Library Short Story Contest, and expanded this one moment in Austen’s life to other places and times, all through the lens and voice of Cassandra Austen—it is part real, part imaginary, and part Austen’s own fiction, dialogue and story all beautifully woven together in this tribute to love in the life of Jane Austen—her love for her sister, her family, her cousin Eliza, and her mentor and friend Madam Lefroy; her flirtation with Tom Lefroy; the proposal from Bigg-Wither; and her Mysterious Suitor of the Seaside.
About the author: Elsa A. Solender, a New Yorker, was president of the Jane Austen Society of North America from 1996-2000. Educated at Barnard College and the University ofChicago, she has worked as a journalist, editor, and college teacher in Chicago, Baltimore and New York. She represented an international non-governmental women’s organization at the United Nations during a six-year residency in Geneva. She wrote and delivered to the United Nations Social Council the first-ever joint statement by the Women’s International Non-Governmental Organizations (WINGO) on the right of women and girls to participate in the development of their country. She has published articles and reviews in a variety of American magazines and newspapers and has won three awards for journalism. Her short story, “Second Thoughts,” was named one of three prizewinners in the 2009 Chawton House Library Short Story Competition. Some 300 writers from four continents submitted short stories inspired by Jane Austen or the village of Chawton, where she wrote her six novels. Ms. Solender was the only American prizewinner, and she is the only American writer whose story was published in Dancing With Mr. Darcy, an anthology of the twenty top-rated stories of the contest.
Ms. Solender’s story “A Special Calling” was a finalist in the Glimmer Train Short Short Story Competition. Of more than 1,000 stories submitted, Ms. Solender’s story was ranked among the top fifty and was granted Honorable Mention. She has served on the boards of a non-profit theater, a private library and various literary and alumnae associations. Ms. Solender is married, has two married sons and seven grandchildren, and lives in Manhattan.
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For Valentine’s Day, Elsa has graciously offered a copy of her book [as she did with her ebook] to the winner of a random drawing – please comment below on what reading Jane Austen has taught you about Love. Or you can pose a question to Ms. Solender. Deadline is Thursday February 21, 2013 at 11:59 pm; winner will be announced the next day. Domestic mailings only [sorry global readers, but our postal service has skyrocketed their overseas prices!]
Thank you Elsa, and good luck everyone!
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‘Placed it before Anne’
[Image: C. E. Brock, Persuasion, vo. II, ch. XI; from Mollands.net]
*Captain Wentworth’s letter: [because I cannot resist]
‘I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone I think and plan. – Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? – I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. – Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in
F. W.
‘I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.’ [Perusasion, Vol. II, ch. XI]
Jane Austen in Vermont 