Last week I posted a review of Juliet Archer’s The Importance of Being Emma [you can read my review here] ~ tomorrow I will post the first part of a two-part interview with Ms. Archer where she will share with us her thoughts on writing this modernization of Jane Austen for the 21st Century, the first in a series.
Book Giveaway Contest: We will be offering a copy of the book direct from the publisher Choc-Lit, the winner chosen from the comments submitted ~ please post either a query for Ms. Archer or a comment about your thoughts on updating Austen by midnight Thursday September 24th; winner will be announced on Friday September 25th [worldwide eligibility]
“You have shown that you can dance, and you know we are not really so much brother and sister as to make it at all improper.”
“Brother and sister! no, indeed.”
[Emma, vol. III, ch. II, Chapman, p.331 ]
Juliet Archer in her Author’s Note to The Importance of Being Emma, quotes this passage as the inspiration for her rollicking take on Jane Austen’s Emma. If you like imagining your Knightley as a to-die-for, sex-obsessed hero, or in the words of Emma at fourteen, “Mark Knightley: twenty-five, tall, dark, and handsome, and known among my older sister’s crowd as theSex God” [p. 1] – then this book is a must-read, a perfect end of summer “choc-lit”* confection.
Emma Woodhouse, rich, lovely and clever, is back home at twenty-three, fully armed with an MBA from Harvard, to take on the role of Marketing Director at Highbury Foods, the family business, a “supplier of non-perishable delicacies to upmarket homes and hotels.” She is young and naive, and who should appear but Mark Knightley,** home from India temporarily to help with HIS family business, Donwell Organics, and the perfect “mentor” to guide Emma in the realities of the business world. They have not seen each other for years, and Emma is still smarting at Knightley’s discovery of her teenage crush – she is determined to keep her distance and not fall prey to the Knightley charm.
Knightley on the other hand is stunned to find his “Mouse” as he calls her with “long legs silhouetted against the window, lines and curves in perfect proportion. Short beige skirt stretched taut across more curves – nicely rounded, a pert promise of pleasure. Matching jacket with side vents, no doubt designed to draw themale eye to the symmetry below” [p. 10] – then promptly criticizes her for overuse of make-up and the plot is set for 398 pages of misunderstandings, concealed emotions, and an inordinate amount of sexual tension. This is Emma in the 21st century, as the series is aptly named, and for those of you eternally frustrated by Austen’s not giving her readers nearly enough of the inner-musings of her heroes – indeed the Darcy in the 1995 P&P is so gripping because for the first time we are privy to his emotional state – and who of you has not yearned for much more to YOUR imagined Knightley – a more ardent lover, a fully-expressed proposal scene…? Well, it’s ALL here folks! – Knightley it seems is wholly driven by sex, and everyone is happy to oblige – except of course Emma, who really has her heart set on the yet-to-be-met Flynn Churchill.
Told in a first-person narrative, with alternating Emma / Mark chapters, we see the same events from their individual perspectives. This approach increases the intensity of the action, allows for much humor, and of course puts the mind of the hero front and center. Knightley, as I’ve always believed Austen portrays him, subtle though it be, is really an emotional mess – here he is confused by his feelings for Emma, no longer brotherly, his every sighting of her expressed in such strong sexual terms – all making for one awkward encounter after another. No spoilers here, just suffice it to say that Ms. Archer creates a few fairly explicit sex scenes…nicely done I might add…
And thankfully, all the usual suspects are present – Henry Woodhouse, head of the business and a chronic hypochondriac; Philip Elton, CFO [yikes!] with his “Gusty” ever obnoxious; Harriet, a bit of a dim but lovely bulb with a bizarre fashion sense as a personal assistant; Rob Martin in trade of course; John and Izzy Knightley; George Knightley, the father, still alive and running Donwell Organics, but off traveling the world with his young and demanding selfish wife; The Westons; Jane Fairfax, beautiful and aloof and the source of much of Emma’s jealousy; Mary “Batty” Bates endlessly chatting away; Flynn Churchill, a chef of all things! but still two-faced and a tad sleazy; a few other characters thrown in to round out the modern picture [hint: Knightley has a girlfriend]; and Emma, still “clueless” to all the relationship mix-ups around her and still thinking SHE is pulling all the strings.
One knows of course how the book ends – it was after all written nearly 200 years ago! – so it must be Archer’s endearing re-creation of the story and characters with a super-modern spin that keeps one turning the pages – Austen purists may blanch at seeing their Knightley sex-crazed and at times cruel [“it was badly done indeed!” turns into two pages of a blistering, swear-filled argument], but the heart of the story is still here, and it is an enjoyable romp to search for Archer’s re-imagining the many side stories into a modern-day England – seeing the hero and heroine come to terms with their conflicting emotions, their many tense and often humorous misreads of each other, [and do I dare mention quite a hot Knightley!] to make this indeed a great fun read – you just need to suspend your Regency sensibilities before entering!
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* Choc-Lit – “Where heroes are like chocolate – irresistible!” The Importance of Being Emma is the first in the series by Juliet Archer, “Jane Austen in the 21st Century”. Her take on Persuasion is up next [click here for an excerpt of Persuade Me]. See the Choc-Lit website and the author’s website at www.julietarcher.com for more information and other related links.
**Ms. Archer has changed several names: Mr. Knightley is now “Mark”, as father George is still in the picture; Flynn Churchill sounds a bit more modern, etc. She discusses this in a posted comment on Austenblog [see comment #12]. For this reader, the name “Mark” brought to mind the actor Mark Strong who played Knightley in the Kate Beckinsdale “Emma”… [Strong does indeed get better with age, and this film adaptation of “Emma” has grown on me more and more after a number of re-viewings…]
4 out of 5 Full Inkwells
The Importance of Being Emma by Juliet Archer
Harpenden, UK: Choc-Lit, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-906931-20-9
The latest issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World [vol. 41] will be in the post this week ~ now is your chance to subscribe and begin adding this great journal to your Austen collection! Some highlights from the latest issue:
The first OFFICIAL pictures of the BBC’s new Emma
Right Royal satire: Lord Baker’s collection of Georgian caricatures
Pride and pilgrimage: visiting Austen sites
Would Jane blog? How Jane’s journals differ from today’s blogs
The stigma of illegitimacy in Regency times
Genius, wit and taste in Austen’s writing
You can subscribe to Jane Austen’s Regency World, “the full-colour, must-read, glossy magazine for fans of the world’s favourite author – delivered to your doorstep every two months direct from Bath, England,” by visiting the website at Jane Austen Magazine.co.uk and clicking on “Subscriptions”. Cost is £29.70 + shipping – you can pay securely online using a credit card or PayPal. Back issues are also available for purchase. Treat yourself ~ it is well-worth it!
JASNA.org has added online** the full text of the Number 1 Persuasions journal that has long been out-of-print:
Persuasion* No. 1. December 16, 1979
Board of Directors
President’s Report
Brief highlights of the meeting
St. Nicholas Appeal -George H. Tucker
Our First Dinner – Lorraine Hanaway
Pemberley Revisited -Donald Greene
The Picturesque in Pride and Prejudice – A. Walton Litz
A Member’s First Pilgrimage to Winchester – Hilma D. Barrett
Some notes on the “parish business” in Emma -Cathy Fried
Telegram from the Jane Austen Society
Letter from James T. Farrell
Quiz Angela Addison
Meeting aboard the Elizabeth Bennet
* The first issue was titled “Persuasion” – it was decided to change the name to Persuasions for subsequent issues
**[Many thanks go to Montreal member Renée Charron (Treasurer, Canada), who scanned and corrected the full text of Persuasion No. 1, as she also did for the other eleven out-of-print issues of Persuasions.]
Drawing from the cover of Persuasion No. 1
by Pamela Susan Koppel, age 15, of Tucson, Arizona
A compendium of Austen characters, relatives, friends and neighbors highlight Hazel Jones’ look into the subject of Jane Austen & Marriage. As the book proceeds through the steps of acquaintance, engagement, marriage, and even separation, Jones fleshes out the interaction between man and woman in nineteenth-century Britain. Illustrative excerpts from the novels and primary research sources provide a well-rounded, informative basis for her walk up the garden path and down the aisle.
Examining, chapter by chapter, components of relationships, the book begins with “Choice.” We learn that both sexes could, in fact, choose to opt out of the game. Concerns over continual childbearing and the risk of death, some women made the choice to remain single. Due in part to the shortage of men on the homefront (thanks to the Napoleonic Wars), others found the choice made for them. Men in a position to marry, on the other hand, sometimes thought about their incomes and the demands a growing family would make upon it before contemplating marriage. Therefore, the idea of choice concerns much more than the selection of a life-partner.
Jones’ next chapter brings up the point of how “the question” might actually be popped: in person, via letter, via an intermediary. Sadly, she finds little — in conduct literature or letters — to indicate the “traditional” down on bended knee type of proposal. Few readers will have delved into letters and diaries from this period; the timid suitors who chose the letter/intermediary route might therefore come as a pleasant surprise.
Discussions of conduct books point up the idea that such items existed because no one conducted themselves as they “ought” to have done. By looking at the paramount examples valued by these conduct books and juxtaposing them with the reality of relationships recorded in letters, diaries, and biographies, readers realize just how much Austen’s novels were signs of their times.
Two minor points that the writer and/or editor should have attended to are the spellings of Longbourne and Lizzie in place of the standard Longbourn and Lizzy. The fault may lie with Jones’ use of the Penguin edition of Austen novels.
Jane Austen & Marriage may supply few totally new revelations, but as a compendium of love, courtship, and marriage in Austen’s era (as well as family), Jones has provided a particularly useful book. Readers will welcome the author’s friendly style of writing as well as her insight into women like Lydia Bennet, Anne Elliot, and Marianne Dashwood. Highly recommended.
Please join me in welcoming author Lane Ashfeldt to our JASNA-Vermont blog today! Ms. Ashfeldt is the author of one of the selected stories in the 2009 Chawton House Library Jane Austen Short Story competition, set to appear in the forthcoming collection Dancing with Mr. Darcy, to be published in October by Honno Press. [See below for link to my previous post on this]. Her story is titled “Snowmelt” and she tells us about it here:
Lane, what was the inspiration for your own story?
My story, ‘Snowmelt’, has an obvious parallel with Austen’s life in that it’s about woman who moves to Chawton to write. My main inspiration came from a visit to Chawton House Library one bright snowy day in February 2009, after an unusually heavy snowfall across England. We don’t often see much snow in south east England, and the snow worked its way into my story — even providing a title.
Chawton House Library
Sounds interesting. Can you tell me a little more?
The central character in ‘Snowmelt’, Miss Campbell, works in a suburban library which is undergoing radical modernisation. Potentially, this is the end of the library as she knows it. Miss Campbell’s own life is reaching its autumn years, and she also suffers a more general “end of the world” malaise triggered by reports of extreme weather and by fears of a viral plague. (Coincidentally, I wrote the story in early 2009, a month or two before the international swine flu epidemic.)
Oh! I can imagine that must have felt a bit strange!
Well, I might have felt awkward if the swine flu epidemic had happened while I was still writing, but in fact my story had been completed before then. My interest as a writer was in how we manage — or don’t manage — fears like the fear of dying in a pandemic, or fear of terrorism, fear of change. This is what I wanted to explore in ‘Snowmelt’.
In the story, Miss Campbell visits Chawton House Library and reads a novel written nearly two centuries earlier in which a plague causes the end of the world. This sets her own fears in context and makes them seem faintly ridiculous. People often fear the end of the world; this does not mean it is imminently about to happen. And even if it is, panicking is unlikely to help. At any event, Miss Campbell makes an uncharacteristically upbeat and impulsive decision to quit her job and move to Chawton, where she will work as a library volunteer at Chawton House Library and write in her free time. We leave her as she’s on the train, on the way to her new life.
How much, if any, of your story was autobiographical?
I have to admit, my own visit to Chawton while writing ‘Snowmelt’ was so enjoyable that for a while I toyed with the notion of moving there, but without actually taking a moment to peer in estate agent windows — I didn’t have time. On a later visit, the day of the award presentation, I learned from author Lindsay Ashford that one of the reasons Jane Austen chose to live at Chawton was that her house there was a short walk from the shops. This struck a chord with me, as I’d been thinking the exact same thing myself! But sadly there’s no danger of a family member bequeathing me a stately home in the area, as happened to Jane Austen’s brother, thus affording her a place to live in Chawton.
It’s an interesting question, though. Curiously, when I attended the award ceremony at Chawton, two of the judges who had read my story thoughtfully advised me that there was an imminent vacancy for a librarian at Chawton House Library. We had a chuckle as I confessed that, unlike the character in my story, I am not a trained librarian. I was flattered though, since it suggested they found ‘Snowmelt’ believable — it’s always nice to be told when you’ve written a convincing piece of fiction.
This short story award is a new prize for stories inspired by Jane Austen and themes in her writing, or by the Chawton House Library. Do you have any advice for other writers thinking of entering in future years?
There’s talk that the competition may run again in 2011. If anyone is thinking of entering a story for the next Jane Austen Short Story award, and if you are not too far away, then a visit to Chawton is very much recommended. Chawton House Library’s ongoing programme of public events are listed on its website (as are events at the nearby Jane Austen House Museum which is managed as a separate concern).
Partly because judge Sarah Waters is known for her historical fiction, my guess was, the winning stories would have historical settings. But it doesn’t sound as though ‘Snowmelt’ does…
I do like historical fiction — in fact I previously won the Fish Short Histories Prize — but this particular story has a contemporary setting. That said, a consciousness of history runs through it, perhaps because Chawton is one of those areas that seems to catapult the visitor back in time. In ‘Snowmelt’, as Miss Campbell develops a stronger sense of history and of how she is connected to it, this becomes a crucial trigger of change for her.
What about the other winning stories, I wonder?
I don’t yet know what proportion of the stories submitted were historical as I’ve not read them, but Sarah Waters said as she presented the prizes that over half the stories she selected for the anthology are contemporary.
Well, I very much look forward to getting a copy of the book to read “Snowmelt” and all the other stories! Lane, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing a bit about your story and your visit to Chawton.
Thank you, Deb; it was very nice of you to invite me!
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Lane has graciously offered to answer any of your questions – so please leave a comment on this post and I will see that she responds to them here.
For further information:
Dancing with Mr. Darcy, the anthology of winning stories in the Jane Austen Short Story Award will be published by Honno Press on October 15, 2009; it is available for pre-order at their website.
Author Lane Ashfeldt’s website [go to www.ashfeldt.com – the link is currently only bouncing me to her blog Lane7]
Get thee hence to your local comic book store tomorrow [August 12, 2009], as the fifth and final issue of the Marvel Comics Pride & Prejudice is released:
COVER BY: Sonny Liew
WRITER: Nancy Butler
PENCILS: Hugo Petrus
INKS: Hugo Petrus
COLORED BY: Aubrey Sitterson
LETTERED BY: Dave Sharpe
THE STORY: All good things come to an end. Join us for our final issue, as we find who weds whom, who is left alone, and if Mrs. Bennet can manage to stop screaming for more than three minutes… Rated T …$3.99
IN STORES: August 12, 2009
IMPRINT: MARVEL UNIVERSE FORMAT: Comic
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Also note that there will be a hardcover edition containing all five issues – to be published in October and available now for pre-order. You can view information at the Marvel Comics website, but check your local comic book store for ordering details. [I have to add here that my local comic book store, Earth Prime Comics, has been the most helpful and accommodating retail store of any I have patronized in a long time! – I might even return to my early years as an avid Superman / Batman comics reader just to continue to visit them – or maybe even find a graphic novel or two!]
Professor Joan Klingel Ray, past President of JASNA
Author of Jane Austen for Dummies
Talk and Book- signing to be followed by
A Mini-Concert with Impropriety and The Burlington Country Dancers
Place: Hauke Center, Champlain College
Sunday, December 6, 2009 2-5pm
Annual Jane Austen Birthday Tea w/ UVM Professor Philip Baruth [topic TBA]
Place: Champlain College
$15./ person
Sunday, March 21, 2010, 2-4pm
“Learning to Love a Hyacinth: Emotional Growth in Northanger Abbey” Ingrid Graff, Independent Scholar
Place: Champlain College
Sunday, June 6, 2010, 2-4pm
Box Hill Picnic “Austen / Adams ~ Journeys with Jane & Abigail” JASNA-Vermont’s Kelly McDonald!
in Deb Barnum’s Garden
[ Bring-Your-Own-Picnic to celebrate Emma ]
Please join us for any and all events!
[please contact us directly through the blog if you would like more information]
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I am also posting here the 2009-2010 schedule of the JASNA-Massachusetts Chapter, as many of us like to attend their events; for more information, please contact Nancy Yee at jasna [dot] yee at gmail [dot]com
JASNA Massachusetts 2009-2010 Program
Sunday, September 13, 2009 ~
Henderson House: Mini-Conference: “The Power of Place in Austen’s Life and Work.”
Plenary Sessions:
Alistair Duckworth
Elaine Bander
Breakout Sessions:
Marcia Folsom
Ann Morrissey
Isa Schaff
Sunday, September 13, 2009
12 noon – 5 p.m.
Henderson House Conference Center
Weston, Massachusetts
A leisurely weekend of literary-inspired diversions has something for every Jane Austen devoteé. Slip quietly back into Regency England in a beautiful old mansion. Take afternoon tea. Listen to Mozart. Bring your needlework. Share your thoughts at a discussion of Pride and Prejudice and how the movies stand up to the book. Attend the talk entitled The World of Jane Austen. Test your knowledge of Pride and Prejudice and the Regency period and possibly take home a prize. Take a carriage ride or sleigh ride. For the gentleman there are riding and fly fishing as well as lots of more modern diversions if a whole weekend of Jane is not his cup of tea. Join every activity or simply indulge yourself quietly all weekend watching the movies. Dress in whichever century suits you. It’s not Bath, but it is Hyde Park and you’ll love Vermont circa 1800.
Note that our very own Kelly McDonald will be speaking on “Georgiana Darcy and the ‘Naïve Art’ of Young Ladies” ~ Looking into the lives of ladies like Georgiana Darcy (Pride & Prejudice), as expressed through their artwork.
[from “Mrs. Hurst Dancing”, illus. by Diana Sperling]
The Pierpont Morgan Library announces its upcoming Austen exhibit:
A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy November 6, 2009, through March 14, 2010
[Jane Austen, Lady Susan, autograph manuscript, written ca. 1794–95 and transcribed in fair copy soon after 1805. The Morgan Library & Museum, Purchased in 1947; MA 1226.]
“This exhibition explores the life, work, and legacy of Jane Austen (1775–1817), regarded as one of the greatest English novelists. Over the past two decades, numerous successful motion picture and television adaptations of Austen’s novels have led to a resurgence of interest in her life and work. Providing a close-up portrait of Austen, this exhibition achieves tangible intimacy with the author through the presentation of her manuscripts and personal letters, which the Morgan has not exhibited in a generation.
The Morgan’s collection of Austen’s manuscripts and letters is the largest of any institution in the world and includes the darkly satiric Lady Susan, the only surviving complete manuscript of any of Austen’s novels. The exhibition also includes first and early illustrated editions of Austen’s novels as well as contemporary drawings and prints depicting people, places, and events of biographical significance. In addition to the literary influences that inspired and informed Austen’s works will be responses by later writers as diverse as Auden, Kipling, Nabokov, Scott, Yeats, and Woolf. A specially commissioned film of interviews with contemporary authors and actors commenting on Austen’s work and influence will also be shown in the gallery.”
A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy
Jane Austen in Vermont 