CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT - MY REVIEW

"...That's when I decided to order myself a large clam-and-garlic pizza and to reread Pride and Prejudice. I would self-medicate with fat carbohydrates, and Jane Austen, my number one drug of choice, my constant companion through every breakup, every disappointment, every crisis. Men might come and go, but Jane Austen was always there. In sickness and in health, for riches, for poorer, till death do us part" .

The last couple of months haven't exactly been a picnic: on the brink of ... her marriage with Frank, Courtney discovers his betrayals, falsity and shallowness. Her dreams shattered, her life stuck in a nigtmare, she surprisingly wakes up in the body, house and world of Jane Mansfield, a country young lady living at Jane Austen's time: 1813. "Who could blame my subconscious for concocting such an escapist fantasy to a Jane Austen- like world?" , she thinks. It's just a question of time, she is sure, she has to be patient and sooner or later she'll be back to her life in 21st century Los Angeles. But being a fan of Jane Austen, living Miss Mansfield's life is not so disagreeable to Courtney, despite her wicked new mother, Mrs Mansfield. Courtney's  initial shock and refusal to accept  Jane's body and life turns into a dilightful discovery of new chances, emotions and affections. She foresees the possibility to live a different,  totally different life...

She likes her new best friend, Anne Edgeworth; extravagant Mr Mansfield, the father she has never had; Barnes, her loyal maid servant; even Mrs Mansfield , her new,  rather dyspotic mother not worse than her own mother; and, especially,  she's stirred by Mr Edgeworth, attractive, kind and understanding. But can she trust him? Jane's memories, which come to Courtney's mind from time to time, warn her to be cautious...

I read CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT in a couple of days, both in the original version and in the Italian translation (not the whole of it) by Enrica Budetta for Sperling and Kupfer. The Italian version, SHOPPING CON JANE AUSTEN ( I think this  title is totally out of focus but nice)  has a cute, lovely cover and has come to me directly from the author. "May you always awaken in a perfect story" , the dedication signed by Laurie Viera Rigler says. And I must say I did, I awoke in a perfect story this time! I really loved sharing Courtney's experiences  in  the Regency era. CONFESSIONS is a laugh-out-loud romp with a Regency heart but  truly modern comedy devices.

Last summer I read RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, Laurie Viera Rigler's second novel,  in which we know what happens to Jane Mansfield in the 21st century,  in chaotic and super technological Los Angeles ,  in Courtney's body,  after they magically swap their lives! The cultural shock to her is even greater: Courtney was an expert Janeite, while Miss Mansfield has no clue of what is happening around her! To read CONFESSIONS after RUDE AWAKENINGS was not a problem , not confusing at all. They are not a prequel and a sequel,  but 2 parallel narrations of 2 swapped lives. So the order you read them is not important.

There were several reasons why I liked these novels. I really appreciate Laurie Viera Rigler's thoroughful, detailed knowledge of Regency England. I found difficult not to laugh out loud very often while reading. I consider CONFESSIONS and RUDE AWAKENINGS both very informative and highly entertaining. Perfect , amusing page turners to light up your summer holidays.

Laurie Viera Rigler's novels have inspired an online serial comedy, SEX AND THE AUSTEN GIRL. You can follow all the episodes HERE.

My previous posts about Laurie Viera Rigler and her books:

1. Sex and The Austen Girl

2. My review of Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

3. Talking Jane Austen with Laurie Viera Rigler -part I

4. Talking Jane Austen with Laurie Viera Rigler -part II

This is my second task for The Everything Austen Challenge II and my first one for Jane Austen is My Homegirl Reading Challenge.

TALKING JANE AUSTEN - LYNN SHEPHERD PART I

Get a chance to win a signed copy of Lynn Shepherd's novel

Read through this post and discover how!!!

I'm glad to have a very special guest to "talk Jane Austen" with today. She'll be here again next Thursday  19th August. My guest is Lynn Shepherd. Reading and commenting the two parts of this interview you'll have  a double chance two win a signed copy of her delightful Austen-based novel just published also in the Us and Canada. The details of the giveaway are at the end of the interview.

Lynn Shepherd  lives in Berkshire, England, with her husband Simon. Murder at Mansfield Park is her first novel, but she has  been a professional copywriter for the last ten years.

She studied English at Oxford in the 1980s, and went back to do a doctorate in 2003. By that time she'd spent 15 years in business, first in the City, and later in PR. She'd always wanted to be a writer, and going freelance in 2000 gave her the time she needed to see if she could make that dream into a reality. Ten years and two and a half unpublished novels later, it’s finally happened!

First of all,  a warm welcome! I’m so glad to have the chance to talk with you about your novel,  Lynn. I’ve just finished reading it and I’m so curious about what you had in mind while writing  but, of course, I know you can’t reveal all your secrets! First of all the characters I’m most stirred by Mary Crawford and Mr Maddox. Let’s start from her. When and why did you decide she was your heroine?

As soon as I got the idea for Murder at Mansfield Park I knew straightaway that Mary would be my heroine. I’ve always liked her, and always felt that Austen weighed the scales against her, when she’s actually far more appealing than Fanny. But of course, ‘my’ Mary is not the same character as in the original. She has no money for a start, which always made a vast difference in Regency society. She’s had quite a hard life, and a lonely one in many ways, and that gives subtleties to her character that aren’t there in Mansfield Park.

Your Mr Maddox is a very intriguing character. As I wrote in my review, he is the hero of the novel in my opinion, more than Edmund or Henry Crawford. Who inspired you this rude fascinating thief-taker?

He was my favourite character to write! Probably because he is entirely mine, and nothing like anyone you find in Austen. I loved the idea that he dresses beautifully and looks every inch the gentleman, but has a very different social background, and a very different code of behaviour, which is why he can play such sophisticated games with his aristocratic suspects. I didn’t have anyone in particular in mind as a model, but I think his detective methods owe a lot to Sherlock Holmes, who is also all about ‘logic and observation’.

 Do you think he could be involved in any other adventure of yours? It would be nice to have him investigating alone, with other Austen heroines or with Mary Crawford herself again.

You won’t be surprised to hear that many readers have asked if Maddox will make a return! In fact I’m nearing the end of the first draft of a second novel, in which Maddox appears, but not perhaps in the way people will expect…

 Your Fanny Price is not the typical Austen heroine and she is not at all what we all thought her to be in Mansfield Park. Was it fun to create such a new, complex, completely different character? Was it instead troublesome?I think I’ve mentioned before that my inspiration for my version of Fanny Price was Kingsley Amis’ quote about her being a ‘monster of complacency and pride’ operating under a ‘cloak’ of demureness, and using that to dominate what goes on. I’m not sure I agree with that as a description of the original Fanny, but it was a wonderful basis upon which to construct my new one. And yes, it was enormous fun to do that, and I was surprised how many of the original speeches I could re-use without changing them at all!

Edmund and Henry are the other male main characters in the novel. Again quite different from the original characters though substantially similar. Why did you decide to give them the same main features as JA gave them? Does this mean you basically like them?

I think Henry is one of those appealing bad boys that women have been falling in love with for hundreds of years. Again, by making my version poor, rather than rich, I was able to change the whole basis of Henry’s social status, and bring some new pressures and stresses to bear on his character, which result in some interesting twists. As for Edmund, I do find the original version very trying, and very pompous on occasion. My challenge with him was precisely the fact that I wanted to keep him the same, but show what might be going on behind that rather irritating façade – to make him more human and vulnerable, which I think also makes him more appealing as a character.

You gave some of the servants in the house a relevant role in the story. Is there any specific reason why you did it?

That’s a really perceptive point. Of course there are servants in Austen – dozens of them in fact, especially in a big house like Pemberley, but hardly any of them ever get a voice, or even a name. The intriguing thing about introducing a murder, of course, is that these silent and invisible people suddenly become just as important as the main characters, as potential witnesses. In fact, as Maddox knows perfectly well, they’re actually more useful, because they can tell him what’s really been going on behind closed doors, and they’re not trying to maintain an illusion of unity, as the family are.

Part of the investigation in the book reminds me of Christie’s Poirot‘s procedures and part of contemporary murder stories with several macabre details (coroner’s style). Are you keen on mystery and murder stories as a reader? Did you read anything in particular to prepare yourself to the task?
I absolutely adore mysteries – especially good old-fashioned English detective fiction. I’ve read and seen hundreds of these over the years, and one of the main inspirations for my book was the realisation that the set-up of Mansfield Park is exactly like a country house murder – the family in the big house, the buried tensions, and the charismatic outsider who sets off a disastrous chain of events. Having seen that connection, it was a wonderful puzzle to put together an authentic Regency ‘Christie’.

You left part of the mystery unsolved. Namely, Henry Crawford’s background story involves another mysterious unsolved crime. Are you going to write something starting from there?

Yes that was quite deliberate – I want to leave it open to my readers to decide what happened with that earlier crime. I don’t have any plans to solve it for them, but I suppose anything’s possible!

How long did it take to write and get to publish your first novel? Have you got any suggestion for the many bloggers dreaming to become published writers I know?

I first starting trying to write a novel 10 years ago, and have been working at it ever since. My first unpublished one included some Austen pastiche, and it lay in a drawer for about a decade before I finally had the idea for Murder at Mansfield Park, and was able to turn it into something someone wanted to publish. But that’s a hard process, and you have to be very determined, and grow a pretty thick skin. But the key thing is never to give up. And get a good agent!

My last question is one I’d have asked Jane Austen herself if I had had the chance to interview her about Mansfield Park. I’d like to ask you, thinking of YOUR novel … are you pretty sure that THAT is the finale you actually wanted to write? Any regrets? Is that the right man for your heroine? I’m still puzzled actually… I feel like something different can still happen … LOL

It’s hard to answer this one without giving too much away to those who haven’t read it! Shall we say that both Mary and I were very tempted by the alternative she’s offered in the closing pages, but I felt I had to remain true to the original, and return to that at the end – and as any Austen fan will realise, my last sentence (like my first) is exactly as she wrote it. So yes – I think mine ends the right way, though I’m not sure Miss Austen could say the same of hers…!

Ok! That's all for today, Lynn. See you next week. I've got much to ask you about Jane Austen and her work and still something about your novel. Thanks for your time and your kindness!
 

(Australia & New Zealand front cover)

Now darling readers and Janeite friends it's your turn! GIVEAWAY!!! Lynn Shepherd has generously granted one of you a copy of the American edition of Murder at Mansfield Park. You'll have a double chance to win it, leaving your comments both on  this post and  on TALKING JANE AUSTEN - LYNN SHEPHERD PART II  you'll find on My JA Book Club next Thursday.

1. The giveaway is open worldwide

2. Winner will be announced on August 26th

3. You can leave just one comment under each post (so double chance to win)

4. Don't forget to add your e-mail address. I won't enter you without it!

Follow Lynn Shepherd at  her site http://www.lynn-shepherd.com/ 

or on twitter http://twitter.com/GhostingAusten

AUSTENESQUE NEWS

1. Emma and Mr Elton  together again

 Romola Garai ( Emma 2009) and Blake Ritson (Mr Elton 2009, Edmund Mansfield Park 2007) will be in the cast of a new BBC period drama , The Crimson Petal and the White, set in the Victorian Era and based on the best selling novel by Miche Faber (2002).

In the cast also Chris O'Dowd (IT Crowd, The Boat That Rocked), Gillian Anderson (The X Files, Bleak House), Richard E Grant (Withnail And I, Gosford Park), Shirley Henderson (Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, Charles II), Amanda Hale (Murderland, Bright Star) and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, The League Of Gentlemen) . They have  begun filming on BBC Two's bold four-part adaptation of Faber's international best seller book produced by Origin Pictures.

This provocative and riveting tale tells the story of Sugar (Romola Garai), an alluring, intelligent young prostitute who yearns for a better life away from the brothel she is attached to – run by the contemptible Mrs Castaway (Gillian Anderson).

Highly sought after and sexually adept, Sugar finds her only comfort in the secret novel she is writing in which a murderous prostitute takes revenge on her clients. However, things change for her when she meets wealthy businessman William Rackham (Chris O'Dowd).

Sugar is a thrilling antidote to William's life, saddled with a pious brother, Henry Rackham (Mark Gatiss), and fragile wife, Agnes Rackham (Amanda Hale). Agnes regularly endures visits from the invasive physician Doctor Curlew (Richard E Grant), leaving her unable to perform her wifely duties.

William ensconces Sugar as his mistress and she soon grows accustomed to her new life. Yet, unbeknownst to William, Sugar begins to hatch a plan which sets a series of events in motion that will change their lives for ever.

The supporting cast also includes Tom Georgeson (Bleak House), Liz White (Life On Mars),  and Bertie Carvel (Sherlock).

2. Jane Austen's favorite author, Samuel Richardson

According to Jane Austen's nephew, James-Edward Austen-Leigh, her knowledge of Samuel Richardson “was such as no one is likely again to acquire . . . Every circumstance narrated in Sir Charles Grandison, all that was said or done in the cedar parlour, was familiar to her; and the wedding days of [characters like] Lady L. and Lady G. were as well remembered as if they had been living friends.”

To know more about the connection between Austen and Richardson , read this extremely interesting  and informative guestblog at Austenprose in which Lynn Shepherd ( the author of  Austen inspired mystery "Murder at Mansfield Park" but also a distinguished Samuel Richardson scholar with a new book Clarissa’s Painter: Portraiture, Illustration, and Representation in the Novels of Samuel Richardson, published by the venerable Oxford University Press) analyzes the influence of Richardson's work on Jane Austen. CLICK HERE AND READ

3. How did Jane Austen spend her summer days (August)  in 1814?

Reading, writing, replying to letters, correcting manuscripts and giving suggestions to her niece Anna who wanted to become a writer like her!

August 10, 1814.

MY DEAR ANNA,

I am quite ashamed to find that I have never answered some question of yours in a former note. I kept it on purpose to refer to it at a proper time and then forgot it. I like the name "Which is the Heroine" very well, and I daresay shall grow to like it very much in time; but "Enthusiasm" was something so very superior that my common title must appear to disadvantage. I am not sensible of any blunders about Dawlish; the library was pitiful and wretched twelve years ago and not likely to have anybody's publications. There is no such title as Desborough either among dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, or barons. These were your inquiries. I will now thank you for your envelope received this morning. Your Aunt Cass is as well pleased with St. Julian as ever, and I am delighted with the idea of seeing Progillian again. ( GO ON READING...)

4. Bath - Jane Austen Festival : A RECORD!

Last year on September 23rd at Jane Austen Festival 2009 they attempted the Guinness World Record during the Regency Promenade. Everyone had to be dressed in full Regency costume. They got the record with 409 people! Will they beat their own record next September?  This year the Festival will be hold from 17th to 25th September. Are you ready for the Regency Promenade? Have a look at this clip from last year!

Jane Austen is My Homegirl Reading Challenge

Have you read Jane Austen's books a million times? They are amazing, but do you crave more? This is the perfect challenge for you and  me! I've just entered this challenge which is to read as many Austen inspired and Austen spin off books as you can before the challenge ends at the end of July, 2011. The Book Buff is a huge lover of giving out free books, so participating in this challenge gives you a chance to win books!

Not only will participating in this challenge potentially win you books, but all reviews participants do on their blogs featuring this reading challenge will be linked up there for all Jane Austen addicts to see!

Simply fill out the form you find HERE any time you wish to be entered in the giveaway or be linked up on this page. You can fill out this form as many times as you want from now until the end of the year, it is quick and easy.

This challenge is going for 1 year (1 Aug 2010-31 July 2011), so you have plenty of time to sit back, relax and enjoy!

To make this a bit easier, you find a list of Austen inspired books at The Book Buff but you can also visit Austenesque Reviews or Austenprose. You'll find plenty of suggestions.

Let's Have Fun Together!!!

MURDER AT MANSFIELD PARK by LYNN SHEPHERD

MURDER SHE WROTE… AND NOT ONLY!

UK cover for Murder at Mansfield Park

I’ve just finished reading “Murder at Mansfield Park” , first published novel by Lynn Shepherd .

 My response? 5 stars!

1 star for helping me get rid of Fanny Price. Why I have never liked her much, I’ve never really been able to explain (though I tried here and here) , but now I know. I had always suspected she hid “something”

1 star for making Fanny and Mary Crawford rivals again but with … different results

1 star for Lynn skillful hold of Austen-like language which resulted in a greatly enjoyable style

1 star for the many unexpected twists and surprising turns (especially the final unveiling of the mystery)

1 star for the Agatha Christie- style investigation

Very well drawn and very pleasantly written Lynn Shepherd’s Austen- inspired murder story is a perfect summer read I heartedly recommend both to Janeites and to the lovers of good old-fashioned detective stories from the classic tradition . In fact, Murder at Mansfield Park takes Austen’s masterpiece and turns it into a riveting murder story worthy of PD James or Agatha Christie. If Jane Austen would have turned to murder stories she might have written something like this.

The most pleasant surprise is the heroine of Shepherd’s novel, Mary Crawford. She  is self - confident, intelligent, witty as well as brave and resembles Elizabeth Bennet more than herself in Austen’s original novel. What of Fanny Price in this book, instead ? I don’t want to reveal much so as not to spoil your own pleasure at discovering the many intriguing devices which keep you guessing until the very last page . But I think I can tell you what follows without spoiling your future  pleasure : Lynn Shepherd shaped her Fanny according to what Kinglsley Amis wrote in an article originally published in The Spectator in October 1957 (“What became of Jane Austen”?) . In that article Fanny is defined as a “monster of complacency and pride, who under a cloak of cringing self-abasement, dominates and gives meaning to the novel”. So, can you guess? Neither Mary nor  Fanny are quite what we all believed them to be reading Mansfield Park.

I remember our discussion about Jane Austen's Mansfield Park at the public library last April  . Our group readers were quite convinced that the proper matching for the characters in the novel was Henry Crawford /Fanny and Mary Crawford/ Edmund . They didn’t quite like Austen’s decision to make Edmund and Fanny marry in the end, they found it an unsatisfactory ending. Moreover, apart from the two kind more mature ladies in the group, all the young readers preferred Mary to Fanny. It seems Lynn Shepherd knew about our wishes while writing. Well, we are only a small sample  of Jane Austen's contemporary audience and I'm sure  there are, of course, different opinions on Mansfield Park among the huge number of Janeites,  but I’m sure the majority would like this novel very much and find it  more playful and  even lighter than the original.

An interesting change respect to Jane Austen's novel is the relevance Lynn Shepherd gives to servants, maids and  Mansfield Park  staff  in general.  O'Hara, Mrs Baddeley or Polly Evans are minor characters but not bit players and they have an active role in the plot and in the solution of the mystery.

More than Edmund or Henry Crawford the hero in this murder story is Mr Maddox, the thief taker employed by the family  to investigate on the mysterious murder at Mansfield. His unpleasant manners, smart deductions, overwhelming will make him the real male protagonist of this novel. He hides his passionate heart and even his knowledge and education behind his rude ways. Guess what? I’d like to see him in action in a new adventure. He deserves more. I hope Lynn Shepherd doesn't want to discharge him after his brilliant contribution to her first novel.

As I wrote in the title,  the murder case/s are not the only interest in the book. You’ve got in fact the entire range of Austen’s main themes such as  family life, life in the country, marriage, elopment, gossip, love and the unfailing happy ending .

So, if you like me have always put Mansfield Park away with a certain unsatisfied feeling in the end, I’m sure you’ll love what Lynn Shepherd did of its plot and protagonists in full respect of the Austenesque tradition. Toward the end she writes: “Everything was clear to Mary now: even the smallest elements of the riddle had found their true place”. This is the impression I got once I closed the book at the last page,  everything and everyone had found their own place in Lynn Shepherd’s work.

AUSTENESQUE NEWS

1. Sex and the Austen Girl is a fun series inspired by the bestselling novels Confessions and Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler. Arabella Field and Joy Masterson star as Jane and Courtney and discuss topics  which are relevant for girls of any historical time.

Today on http://www.babelgum.com/ episode 12 has been posted: "Love, Money and Pemberley" . Is it for love or wealth that we pick our partners? Maybe it's best to have both. A dowry is highly desirable, unless of course you find Darcy and Pemberley House. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

2. Bollywood is taking on Emma and who better to play the role of a mischievous, slightly-naive 21-year old than Sonam Kapoor? The actress will  star in the Emma adaptation, called Aisha, alongside Abhay Deol, nephew of Bollywood legend Dharmendra . For more information about the film, which releases August 6  (next Friday) and for regular updates, check out Aisha’s Facebook page or follow on Twitter.

3.  A spoof film trailer, Jane Austen's Fight Club, has gone viral, gaining nearly 200,000 hits on YouTube in just two days. Have you seen it? The video shows Lizzie Bennett and other Austen characters - including Emma and the Dashwoods - setting up an underground boxing club, in manner of the cult David Fincher film Fight Club.

Lizzie plays the role of Brad Pitt's character Tyler Durden: "The first rule of Fight Club is, one never mentions Fight Club". The society ladies engage in fights on a croquet lawn and sit bleeding during high tea
I wish our heroines had stuck to their good manners, propriety, politeness and ... balls!

   

4. Jane Austen, Murder and Mystery. A new murder case has involved Austen characters. This time a mysterious murder has troubled  the quiet lives of  the Bertrams and their Crawford friends at Mansfield Park  . Lynn Shepherd's  MURDER AT MANSFIELD PARK has recently been released in the US and Canada (July 20) and has already collected several very positive,  if not enthusiastic,  reviews. I'm just half way down through it and I can assure you it is great fun. A new heroine is at its centre, a lively and spirited one. Ms Shepherd has done a huge favour to all of us preferring Mary Crawford to Fanny Price! Stay tuned... very soon my review here,  on  My JA  Book Club.

Visit Lynn Shepherd's site

Buy Murder at Mansfield Park

5. I've met lots of new Austenite friends via Twitter (follow me on Twitter) and it's such a great pleasure to chat with them.  This is because I don't know many JA aficionados in real life. This afternoon, for instance,  @SalonJaneAusten  and I were discussing the possibility of having a new Persuasion adaptation. So many Emmas, several P&P and S&S. Why so few Persuasion, Mansfield Park  or Northanger Abbey adaptations? I'd love to see a new Persuasion. We (@SalonJaneAusten and I)  have already our mature, handsome, tall and dark Captain Wentworth in mind: Richard Armitage. Who might the new Anne Elliot be? Would you subscribe a petition for a new Persuasion adaptation?

6. AUSTENPROSE,  the House of everything Austen,  is celebrating Georgette Heyer this month with lots of events, reviews and giveaways connecting many lovely blogs. Don't forget to have a look at Laurel Ann's blog at least once a day this month! You can also follow her on twitter @Austenprose for a minute-by-minute update!

JANE AUSTEN AND THE THEATRE

"A love of the theatre is so general, an itch for acting so strong among young people”

(Masfield Park p. 121)

This observation was surely based on JA’s autobiographical experience. Have a look  at this clip  from ITV Mansfield Park 2007 and you'll get a glimpse of what I'm going to discuss today.

While re – reading Mansfield Park for My JA Book Club at the public library, I searched for and found some materials about Jane Austen and her attitude to theatre. In Mansfield Park the main characters are involved in a theatrical performance by Tom Bertram. He suggests to perform  Lovers’ Vows while Sir Edmund is away from home (as you can see in the clip above).

What is Jane Austen’s intention at including such a theatrical performance in her novel? Through Edmund’s objections, she seems to convey the idea that to indulge in such a pastime, especially using that kind of play, could be risky and even immoral.

'I think it would be very wrong. In a general light, private theatricals are open to some objections, but as we are circumstanced, I think it would be highly injudicious, and more than injudicious to attempt any thing of the kind. It would show great want of feeling on my father's account, absent as he is, and in some degree of constant danger: and it would be imprudent, I think, with regard to Maria, whose situation is a very delicate one, considering every thing, extremely delicate.' (p. 125)

'It would be taking liberties with my father's house in his absence which could not be justified.' (p. 127)

But was this really the idea she had of drama, theatre and plays in general?

In search for an answer to this, I’ve been leafing through the studies of Prof. Penelope (Penny) Gay , Sydney University, on Austen and the Theatre.

Jane Austen’s experience of the theatre

(Orchard Street theatre in Bath at Jane Austen's time)

Several biographers and scholars have written about Jane’s years at Steventon and about the fact that plays, both contemporary and classic , were evidently available for reading and for the production of home theatricals. Jane’s elder brothers probably brought the “itch for acting” ( Mansfield Park) home from Oxford and this resulted in a series of domestic productions in 1782-90. The reading of plays seems to have been part of the regular family’s after-dinner pastimes.

Clearly the Austen family preferred comedy to the opportunities for ranting and risibility offered by contemporary tragedy: and like Edmund Bertram and Henry Crawford they probably thought of Shakespeare as more suitable for reading aloud than getting up as a performance.

Claire Tomalin in her biography of Jane Austen argues that “plays may have been a feature of Jane’s and Cassandra’s education” in their brief stay at the Abbey School in Reading (1785-86).

The evidence of Austen’s knowledge of plays and tragedies since her very young age is in her juvenilia, which include “The visit”, “The Mystery” and “ The First Act of a Comedy” - clearly parodies of plays - but also in some passages of “Love and Freindship”   or in her five-act play which was an adaptation of Richardson’s monumental novel, “Sir Charles Grandison”.

(Drury Lane Theatre in 1794)

Jane Austen, during her visits to England’s first and second fashionable cities – London and Bath – in 1796, 1797 and 1799, went to the theatre and may well have seen the great stage stars of the London stage of those days, Sarah Siddons and her brother, John Philip Kemble. But the only plays Austen actually known to have seen in this period were in 1799 at Bath: Kotzebue’s The Birth-Day (adapted by Thomsa Dibdin) and Colman’s Blue Beard, or , Female Curiosity! – a “pleasing spectacle”.  Margaret Kirkham has drawn attention to the similarities of plot and theme between the domestic comedy in The Birth-Day and Emma.

This and many other parallelisms,  as well as biographical anecdotes linked to the theatre  or  references to the drama in  Jane Austen’s time,  are what you can find in this interesting essay I’ve been leafing through : Penny Gay, "Jane Austen and the Theatre", Cambridge University Press, 2002.

But what is more interesting in this essay is the research on the influence that the theatrical experiences in general had on Austen’s major works. For example, in  Mansfield Park. But not only. The seven chapters are,  in fact, dedicated to: 1. Jane Austen’s experience of the theatre; 2. Sense and Sensibility – comic and tragic drama; 3. Northanger Abbey: Catherine’s adventures in the Gothic Theatre; 4. Mansfield Park: Fanny’s education in the theatre; 5. Emma: private theatricals at Highbury; 6. Persuasion and melodrama

“The plays performed in the Steventon home theatricals during Austen’s childhood present a conspectus of late 18th century fashionable comic theatre. Arguably these performances, and –perhaps more importantly – the bustle and excitement that inevitably accompanies “putting on a show” had a profound influence on the young writer, alerting her both to the seductive power of theatre and to the ambivalence of acting “ (Penelope Gay, p. 8)

Theatricals and Theatricality in Mansfield Park

Another interesting short essay by the same author, Penelope Gay, is an analysis of “Theatricals and Theatricality in Mansfield Park” ( you can download it here)

She studies,  among other features,  the play within the novel, Kotzebue’s  Lovers’ Vows and its role :

“Kotzebue's Das Kind der Liebe, or Lovers' Vows (literally 'The Love Child' - but Mrs Inchbald had to make even the title 'fit for the English Stage') is an excellent example of the new form. It had an enormous vogue in England in the 1790s and early 1800s; Jane Austen would probably have seen it performed during her residence in Bath. The elements that were to develop into fullblooded Victorian melodrama are almost all there: the exotic and! or rustic setting (Castle and Cottage rather than the Town of English comedy), violent action (Frederick's attack on the Baron), a flirting with risque subjects, and perhaps most significant, the clash of the classes, in which a 'new morality' is adumbrated: the poor are essentially virtuous, even when betrayed into breaking the moral law - they are always forced into this by depraved aristocrats - the upper classes are inevitably corrupt. (…)

(preparing the theatrical performance in Mansfield Park 2007)

So did I find the answer I was looking for? What is JA’s relationship with drama and theatrical performances? What is the function of  Lovers’ Vows in Mansfield Park?

Here's Penelope Gay's answer in the second essay mentioned :

The course of events shows that the theatricals, and the choice of Lovers' Vows in particular, were an extremely unwise undertaking for excitable young persons in a fatherless household; but the novel itself echoes some (though decidedly not all) of the revolutionary sentiments of the vulgar contemporary play.

She concludes: I have tried to show how the novel's disapproving fascination with theatricality informs and indeed structures its moralizing intent.

Exactly the words I needed “disapproving fascination”. An oximoron conveying Jane Austen's fascination for what morals and perbenism banned as wrong and evil. Just like what she did with the charming libertines/rakes she includes in her novels ( see my previous post) :  she has to condemn theatricals and their dangerous effect on young people , it is in accordance to the morals and the social conventions of the time, of his readers, family and friends. But this does not mean she is not fascinated by them.

LIBERTINES, RAKES & JANE AUSTEN

The Libertine

A thousand martyrs I have made,

All sacrificed to my desire,

A thousand beauties have betrayed

That languish in resistless fire:

The untamed heart to hand I brought,

And fixed the wild and wand'ring thought.

I never vowed nor sighed in vain,

But both, though false, were well received;

The fair are pleased to give us pain,

And what they wish is soon believed:

And though I talked of wounds and smart,

Love's pleasures only touched my heart.

Alone the glory and the spoil

I always laughing bore away;

The triumphs without pain or toil,

Without the hell the heaven of joy;

And while I thus at random rove

Despise the fools that whine for love.

This poem by Aphra Behn  (on the left) depicts the libertine according to the Restoration stereotype. The rake was in the Restoration comedies a hero,  seen  their emphasis on the senses, the temptation to follow one’s ‘natural’ desires, and their recognition of social settings as sites of sexual struggle. A libertine is typically defined  as one who indulges in desires without restraint or regard for a socially accepted code of conduct and his literary fortune goes on through the 18th century.


Jane Austen, obviously familiar with the libertine as a stock character inhabiting the worlds of Restoration drama and Gothic literature, adapts the libertine and makes him an anti-hero for the purpose of social satire and moral instruction . A firm believer in poetic justice herself, an Austen libertine may end up rich but miserable like Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility or equally poor and miserable as Wickham in Pride and Prejudice.

But are there real rakes in Jane Austen's major novels? Libertines? There is at least one libertine-style living character in each of them. Beside the already mentioned Willoughby and Wickham, we have John Thorpe and Captain Tilney in Northanger Abbey, Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park, Frank Churchill in Emma and  Mr Elliot in Persuasion. If we compare them with Valmont or Lovelace, they can't compete.

What do they lack? Well, what degree of sexual experience Jane Austen's heroes possess remains open to question, while it  is no mystery if we think of the said 18th century libertines or the Restoration rakes.  Willoughby and Wickham are hardly figures of romance, I mean they are not apparently presented as fascinating , what instead happens for 17th century rakes or 18th century libertines. They are usually winners not losers. Austen's rakes or libertines  are treacherous and  incapable of real love, never  men to fall in love with, to dream about. They may not be as devious as Valmont or Lovelace , but they are equally oblivious to the damage they may do.

They are losers, villains to despise and forget, who end up alone and unhappy. Not Frank Churchill though, but I mentioned him for his libertine-like behaviour with women. He played a dangerous game, lied,  but no one was really hurt , at least. Maybe Jane Fairfax wouldn't agree with me if she could but ...she gets the handsome rich boy in the end, doesn't she?

Now let's try to see who among Austen characters can be actually defined a rake or a libertine.

 Northanger Abbey

1. John Thorpe is  a minor character acting with feigned sophistication masking his sinister, manipulative, even abusive intentions. John Thorpe's role as the anti-hero is dominant in three key scenes: his introduction, his behavior at the ball, and his mock kidnapping of Catherine.


2. Captain Tilney is also a minor character. He's a seducer. Henry hints at this when he discusses his brother's behaviour with Catherine. From the sounds of it, the scandal with Isabella is not Captain Tilney's first indiscretion. Henry tells Catherine that his brother "is a lively, and perhaps sometimes a thoughtless young man; he has had about a week's acquaintance with your friend, and he has known her engagement almost as long as he has known her"

Sense and Sensibility


John Willoughby  is attractive but deceitful , he wins Marianne Dashwood's heart but fascinates her whole family. Only Elinor's sense resists his mesmerizing power. Then,  after openly courting her, Willoughby abandons Marianne suddenly, unexpectedly and with no  explanation .The reader and  poor Marianne will discover that that happened in favour of the wealthy Miss Sophia Grey , who eventually Willoughby marries, and , even worse that he had seduced and abandoned with child a girl who is about Marianne's age.
Jane Austen in the last part of the novel gives Willoughby the possibility to show his grief and some sense of guilt for what he did. He asks Elinor for forgiveness and swears he actually loved her sister.

Pride and Prejudice

Mr Wickham's pleasant manners are but a mask disguising his fortune-hunting, immoral, and deceptive ways. He preys on young women with money, and seizes every wealthy connection possible. His lovely manners and easy-going nature, however, fool Elizabeth (and everyone else in town) into believing that he's a good man whom Mr. Darcy has cheated out of wealth and a career. He seduced Mr Darcy's young sister, Georgiana, but fortunately his attempt to elope with her failed. He succeeded with silly Lydia Bennet. He didn't get much out of his enterprise.

Mansfield Park

Henry Crawford  is  charming and amoral, and he possesses a sizeable estate. First Maria and Julia fall in love with him, and he takes to Maria, despite her engagement. When Maria marries and the sisters leave Mansfield, he decides he would like to prey on Fanny . To win such a modest , innocent girl stimulates the seducer in him. When he even proposes to Fanny, everyone is convinced he is a changed man. Eventually, he meets up with Maria again, and the two run off, but their relationship ends badly.


Tom Bertram
The Bertrams' older son and the heir to Mansfield. He lives to party and has gotten into debt, for which Edmund will suffer. Eventually, his lifestyle catches up to him, as he nearly dies from an illness caused by too much drinking.

Persuasion


Mr William Elliot is a smooth talker who everyone agrees is "perfectly what he ought to be." Only six months after the death of his first wife, and at the end of a marriage that was generally known to be unhappy, Mr. Elliot is searching for a new bride. Good- looking and well-mannered, Mr. Elliot talks his way back into the good graces of Sir Walter, yet Anne questions his true motives. He persues Anne but she finally discovers his real intentions as well as his affair with Mrs Clay.

Emma

Frank Churchill epitomizes attractiveness in speech, manner, and appearance. He goes out of his way to please everyone, and, while the more perceptive characters question his seriousness, everyone except Knightley is charmed enough to be willing to indulge him. Frank is the character who most resembles Emma, a connection she points out at the novel’s close when she states that “destiny … connect[s] us with two characters so much superior to our own.”  Frank develops over the course of the novel by trading a somewhat vain and superficial perspective on the world for the seriousness brought on by the experience of genuine suffering and love.

Now what happens to me is that I can experience the same attraction as the other characters in the book to  some of these Austensque libertines, I even sympathize with them , while I can't stand or even despise some  others. For instance,  John Willoughby, Frank Churchill  and Harry Crawford are complex characters because though I know I should judge them  harshly in moral terms, I cannot help but like them more than they deserve to be liked. As for Captain Tilney, I think he is  "useful " in the economy of the novel :  he gave awful Isabella Thorpe what she deserved. John Thorpe,  Mr William Elliot  or Mr Wickham are  characters I can't actually like.

Who are the real rakes/libertines  in Austen according to you?

Do you sympathize with any of them?

GIVEAWAY WINNERS - LAURIE VIERA RIGLER'S AUSTEN - INSPIRED NOVELS

Here I am, read to keep my promise and to announce two new winners for Laurie Viera Rigler's novels. Last week Luthien 84 and Audra won their copies of Confessions and Rude Awakenings. This week instead ...

Patricia will receive a copy of

"Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict"

directly from Laurie Viera Rigler

and Juliana Piovani wins a signed copy of

"Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict".

Congratulations girls!!! Enjoy your Austenensque readings! 

Thanks to Laurie Viera Rigler for this great event: Talking Jane Austen part I & part II  with her generous giveaway of 4 books. Good luck to her for the writing of her third novel . Can't wait to read it!

MOVIE REVIEW - CLUELESS (1995)

If I loved the novel less,  maybe I'd be able to talk about this film more...  favourably. Does this remind you of anything/anyone?

It is not that I didn't like it at all , only I felt the wrong person in the right  place? A total stranger in a group of good friends? A mother peeping on her teenage children's life? I don't know... just out of place. Not my cup of tea?

However, the only thing I liked was the active action of my mind,  trying all the time to connect scenes and characters to the original story. It was  a full immersion in a world  of colourful joyful  adolescents. But this movie is already 15 years old! And since teenagers are part of my job and family life,  I started thinking

1. They are not all that shallow, fortunately!

2. They have rather changed their tastes as for fashion, dancing and music but they have not changed substantially

3. I wouldn't go back to their age for nothing at all!

This does not mean that I love the idea of becoming old but I'd rather go back and live directly my 20s.

Sorry! Back to the point.

It's a movie I'm glad I've seen in order to be able to say I've  watched  all the Emmas, that is all the exixting adaptations, but I wouldn't give to this film more than 3 out of 5 stars.