THE ELIZABETH PAPERS BLOG TOUR - JENETTA JAMES, IMAGINING MRS DARCY & HER FAMILY: A MATCH THE FACE TO THE CHARACTER COMPETITION + GIVEAWAY

If you close your eyes and say “Elizabeth Bennet”, who do you see? This is something that I have tried to do many times whilst writing about her, with varying success.

Of course, throughout The Elizabeth Papers, “Elizabeth Bennet” is in fact, “Elizabeth Darcy”. The story commences in 1817, when our favourite couple have been married for some four years. At the very outset of this story, Elizabeth is, as she would have it, four and twenty years of age. She is married and has two young children with another one well on the way. In fact, she spends quite a lot of The Elizabeth Papers pregnant.

All of these things have ramifications for what she looks like, and how we can imagine her. I’m conscious that we are all influenced by the various actresses who have played Elizabeth. Often, once we have seen a character performed, we can’t get that face out of our minds. I have tried to apply a sort of method acting theory to my writing. Basically, I try to imagine myself back in time. What do the clothes feel like? How do the hairstyles feel when you touch your hand to them? How comfortable was Mr. Darcy’s carriage as it rattled out of Pemberley?

The questions crop up in relation to other characters as well of course. What does Mr. Darcy really look like? We know that he’s tall, but how tall? How have the years treated the wider Bennet family? Whay. I hope that you enjoy it. Can you guess who I imagine each one to be?

AUTHOR GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY: JOANA STARNES, "MUSIC, MAGIC AND MISS DARCY'S COMPANION"

Thank you, Maria Grazia, for welcoming me here today on the blog tour for my latest ‘Pride and Prejudice’ variation, ‘Miss Darcy’s Companion’, it’s always such a pleasure to be your guest! I am especially glad to be here this time because my post is about an extremely beautiful Italian aria, and I can’t imagine a better place to talk about it than on your blog.

Music played a great part in Jane Austen’s life and novels. Not only was it the major source of entertainment in an age where people had to create their own amusements, but it also was the main conduit for falling in love. Indeed, how could Jane Austen and her characters have flirted, courted and been courted without the delicious opportunities offered at balls and assemblies? How would Jane Austen have learnt the first joys and sorrows of falling in love, had she not danced with the dashing but all-too-practical Tom Lefroy? How much poorer would her novels be without the Netherfield ball or the ever so delightful scene where Elizabeth plays for the company at Rosings?

GUEST POST - DEBRA E. MARVIN, IN WHICH JANE DISPARAGES THE GOTHICS + GIVEAWAY AUSTEN IN AUSTIN

In Becoming Jane, Anne Hathaway’s Jane Austen visits Ann Radcliffe, author of The Mysteries of Udolpho, a popular novel of the time. While this visit is likely fiction, I can’t help but wonder what such a conversation might have covered. Although reading was an admirable pastime, fiction that could be considered romance—fictional escapes not based on historic figures—was frowned upon by many. ‘Romance’ described stories read purely for entertainment rather than the betterment of the mind. Shocking! Topping the list was the Gothic, unlikely to be displayed on your drawing room shelves. Hmmm. Nowadays, romance is the largest portion of the fiction market, yet still gets the ‘cut’ from serious literary readers!

Gothics depended on wildly exaggerated tales of danger, and helpless women dependent on brutish men. They included the supernatural and degrees of violence. I’m sure Jane Austen read at least one of these tales, and had an opinion on Miss Radcliffe. Was it admiration for her craft, or admiration for her timing and boldness to write such fiction? After all, writers were often looked down upon, and a woman writing for income? Not to be borne!

BLOG TOUR - ANN GALVIA, SIDE BY SIDE WITH SENSE AND SENSIBILITY + GIVEAWAY

I uploaded my very first Pride and Prejudice fanfic to the internet on April 23, 2014. Barely over two years later, I’m here at My Jane Austen Book Club, embarking on a blog tour celebrating the release of my first Austen-based novel. This seems to me to be a very large distance covered in only two years. For most of that time, Side by Side, Apart has been occupying a huge chunk of my mind. Since I am sort of a clingy person and not quite ready to let go, I want to use my blog tour as an opportunity to talk about all the things that went into building the world of the novel and how, even though this is a Pride and Prejudice story, Jane Austen’s other completed works were never far from my mind as I wrote it. Today, I want to talk about world enough and time and Sense and Sensibility.

Side by Side, Apart picks up eleven years after the marriage of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. One of the first things I had to consider was how eleven years had changed the characters since last we saw them. And that went for everyone, not just Lizzy and Darcy. Where is Kitty? Where is Georgiana? Has Mr. Collins inherited Longbourn, or is Mr. Bennet still around? If Mr. Bennet is alive, how is he managing living at Longbourn with just the missus and no daughters acting as a buffer?