A QUESTION OF GENTLEMANLINESS: PROFESSOR MARK T. MITCHELL'S BLOGS ON JANE AUSTEN

Mark T. Mitchell teaches political theory at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, VA. He is the author Michael Polanyi: The Art of Knowing (ISI Books, 2006) and The Politics of Gratitude: Scale, Place, and Community in a Global Age (Potomac Books, forthcoming). He is co-editor of another book titled, The Humane Vision of Wendell Berry (ISI Books, forthcoming). Currently he is writing a book on private property. 

What has he got to do with Jane Austen? Fact is, he is one the most brilliant editors at Front Porch Republic, a great site about politics, social issues and culture and there he has  posted three brilliant pieces Jane Austen related which I've found out and read with great interest. You know how rare it is to find an objective male point of view on our beloved authoress and once I bump into a very special one, I have to share!

1. Why We Need Jane Austen 
In this article Professor Mark T. Mitchell tells about his experience teaching a course that included literary works including Pride and Prejudice: 


"Reading Pride and Prejudice with a group of bright and interested students has been a delight. Austen can charm students in 2011 and, given the multitude of voices and volumes competing for their attention, this is no small feat. But what, exactly, is it that makes Austen such a good teacher today? The question, itself, suggests that Austen is more than a good read, more than an escapist literary drug, more than a comedy of manners.

 I want to suggest that Austen provides something for which young people—even the jaded ones—secretly long. While the world she depicts is in many ways foreign to us, it is only just different enough to bring our own pathologies into clearer relief. In short, Austen reminds us of the largely forgotten categories of the lady and the gentlemen. It is her genius to make us aspire to these roles even in a world where such notions are strange and often ridiculed"

read the article

2. Pride and Prejudice and Porn

In this article, Prof. Mitchell reflects on the phenomenon of rape on college campuses, and again he finds Austen the best of teachers and longs for the gentleman's return.

"Of course, the issue of rape on college campuses gets fuzzy when the subject of “date rape” enters the picture. This is made all the more confusing when alcohol is added to the mix. Does regretting a sexual encounter the morning after a drunken binge qualify as rape? Clearly not, but the haze of alcohol or other substances surely impairs judgment, memory, and communication.
Nevertheless, the advent of the so-called hook-up culture has fostered expectations among young men that encounters with co-eds naturally lead to no-strings-attached sex. Sex is not preceded by an altar, commitment, “I love you”, or even a decent conversation. In a hook-up culture anonymous sex is not a scandal but, it would seem, the ideal, for when sex is depersonalized, it cannot lead to the complications associated with affection, vulnerability, and the desire to sacrifice for the good of the other person".

read the article

3. Attributes of the Gentleman or Mr Darcy's Rules of Engagements

After writing the first two articles, Prof. Mitchell was invited by a group of college men to lead a discussion about the idea of the gentleman. He is sure that, even in a democratic age, where social classes are fluid and poorly demarcated, the gentleman is characterized by the same  five attributes as Jane Austen's  Darcy:

1.the gentleman has a firm sense of propriety

2. the gentleman is amiable and to be amiable he has to be friendly. 

3. the gentleman possesses constancy

4.the gentleman is willing to sacrifice for others

 5. a gentleman can admit he’s wrong

 discover more reading the whole article

Professor Mitchell  is convinced that (especially) men  have a great deal to learn from Jane Austen's world. He discusses these issues from his political/social point of view , never too abstract or theoretical because based on common sense and related to the contemporary social reality. How interesting!

Mark T. Mitchell's posts at Front Porch Republic

GIVEAWAY OF CORA HARRISON'S BOOKS

Good news,  dear friends! MacMillan Publisher UK has just granted two of you readers of My Jane Austen Book Club the possibility to win free copies of Cora Harrison's Austen books, "I was Jane Austen Best Friend" and "Jane Austen Stole my boyfriend". These books are perfect gifts for young Janeites or young "future Janeites", nieces or granddaughters will love them! Read my Talking Jane Austen with Cora Harrison (HERE), leave your comment and your e-mail address on that post. This contest is open worldwide and ends on June 15th.

  Good luck! 

TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... CORA HARRISON

Join me and  welcome Cora Harrison on My Jane Austen Book Club. Since I'm really interested in discussing methods, techniques and materials to motivate young people to read the classics, I've invited Cora Harrison to our weekly chat in order to discuss the two Austen - inspired novels she wrote for young readers. Cora  worked as a headteacher before she decided to write her first novel. She has since published twenty-six children's novels, among which “I was Jane Austen’s  Best  Friend” and the latest “Jane Austen Stole My Boyfriend” both published by Macmillan UK.  My Lady Judge was her first book in a Celtic historical crime series for adults that introduces Mara, Brehon of the Burren. Cora lives on a farm near the Burren in the west of Ireland.

First of all, thanks for being so kind to take the time to answer my questions, Cora. Being myself a teacher , my first question is “How much did your years  as a headteacher helped  you write your children’s books”?

 I’m a firm believer in the theory that though frocks may change, character remains. Deep down, though conventions, way of life and costume may have been different in the late eighteenth century, the kids remain the same. I’m quite sure that teenage girls back then giggled and discussed boyfriends in very much as they do in the twenty-first century. My years in schools have, I hope given me an idea of how these friendships evolve and become a most important facet of life for girls of that age.

The books I want to focus on in our “Talking Jane Austen with …” session of today  are your historical novels inspired to Jane Austen’s world and life. How difficult was to imagine her young age? Did you inspire to any of her young heroines?

No, I didn’t find it at all difficult. I read every one of her ‘Juvenilia’ pieces at least three times and very much concentrated on the ones that were written when she was aged between thirteen and fifteen. I got such a strong impression of her character from these – of her wild, anarchic humour, of her wit, of her intolerance of hypocrisy and of her talent for mimicking those whom she felt were showing-off. I don’t think that I was inspired by any of her heroines – these are all older than Jane is in ‘I Was Jane Austen’s Best Friend’. Even Catherine in ‘Northanger Abbey’ is two years older and she is a very different type of girl to Jane.

In “I  was Jane Austen’s  Best Friend” you created Jenny, Jane’s cousin and best friend. Then in your latest novel , “Jane Austen stole my Boyfriend” you  go on telling their story. How important is this close teenage friendship in the dynamics of the plots of the two stories?

It’s interesting that you should ask that question because recently I read a couple of reviews which, though on the whole very complimentary, criticized me for having Jenny as the best friend when ‘everyone knows’ that Jane’s best friend was her sister Cassandra. Personally, I think that is nonsense – no teenager that I know takes her elder sister for a best friend. The trouble is that everything we know about Jane Austen comes from the letters that she and her sister wrote to each other when they were both spinster ladies in their twenties and in their thirties. No letters survive that can give us an idea of what Jane Austen was like when she was fifteen so for that I have to read her own writings and use my own knowledge of girls of that age. My feeling is that this close friendship is of huge importance. It’s interesting that Jane’s nephew, writing when he himself was an old man, still remembered Jane’s anguish when she heard of the early death of her cousin and friend. Jane Cooper (my Jenny), after only a few years of marriage to Captain Thomas Williams (by then Sir Thomas Williams), was thrown from a gig near their home in the Isle of Wight and killed instantly.

 How different are Regency teenagers from nowadays teenagers from your own personal point of view?

It perhaps sounds a strange thing to say, but I think they (girls in particular) had far less responsibility – they may have been more carefree. You see the girls in the late eighteenth century had everything decided for them. They went to dances and balls at each others’ houses, or at carefully chosen Assembly Rooms. They were always chaperoned. If a young man had a bad reputation their relatives would undoubtedly know about it. They didn’t have any worry about examinations or careers (again I am just speaking of girls) but otherwise I’d say that they were preoccupied about the same matters.

What about love instead? We know many things have changed and youth now have a very free  approach to relationships with the other sex. What about your Jenny and Jane?

It seems unbelievable now, but it would have been considered rather fast even to be alone with a man, to allow him to kiss you before he had asked you to marry him. Again, they did not have the responsibility of deciding whether to have sex with a boy before marriage – on the whole, that would have been unthinkable. One wonders whether all those marriages worked out well in the end…

 I’ve read the diary of Eliza, the girl who married William Chute from the Vyne (about Jane’s age). She writes about him three times in her diary:  ‘ April 30 Mr Chute to dinner’; ‘May 16 Mr Chute to dinner.; ‘June 10 Mr Chute to dinner.  Sofa conversation’; ‘June 12 ‘Mr Chute in the morn. Mr Chute to dinner. ANSWER’. Obviously he proposed on that day and she accepted a couple of days later when she wrote in her diary: ‘FINAL DECISION’. He would, of course, have been a very good match. But did she love him? Did she find him attractive? Why didn’t she write more? I can only think that Eliza guessed that her mother would read her diary!

What can Jane Austen teach to our 21^st century kids?

The art of conversation! How witty her heroines are – what fun they get out of life. And perhaps to be a bit more original in their clothes – not to wear the latest fashion but to think about what suits them – perhaps even get into sewing. It must be such fun to design and make a dress or even a tunic.

As a teacher to a teacher, how can we make reading Jane Austen (or any other classic author) more appealing to teenagers? Any tip?

I think that for teenagers Jane Austen is best taken in small chunks. People nowadays are used to rushing through books, to having a cliff hanger at the end of each chapter, or even each page – page-turners are what sell so that is what authors are told to write. Therefore, I would just take one small scene and discuss it – I think I would start with Emma. Some of the scenes there are so funny and there is so much to discuss in her endeavours to find a suitable match for Harriet.

 What was your personal first encounter with Austen’s work like? And when was it?

I read ‘Pride & Prejudice’ when I was twelve and I think twelve was probably too young to completely appreciate her wit and her wonderful turn of phrase. I did love it, though, and I remember designing ball gowns and cutting them out and fitting them on to various little drawn figures with nice hairdos. I was a bit ashamed of this and kept it a dark secret. I wasn’t very good at drawing so they never satisfied me. I preferred making up stories!

How do you explain the great appeal anything Austen – related has to so many contemporary readers?

Don’t you think that this goes back to our discussion about the differences between teenagers now and teenagers of two hundred years ago? People don’t change in their essential nature. What Jane Austen did superbly was to write about people as they were. She didn’t copy the latest fad, she didn’t write in the stilted unreal way that other writers of her time adopted; she described, wittily and accurately the characters that she met every day of her life and they still live! Who hasn’t met a snob like Mrs Elton? Or a bore like Mr Collins? Or a perpetual moaner like Mrs Bennet?

Are you going on with your Jane Austen inspired series for young readers?

I have so much material and so many ideas! Yes, I would love to!

More about Cora Harrison and her work on her official site

GIVEAWAY!!!

MacMillan Publisher UK has granted two of you readers of My Jane Austen Book Club the chance to win free copies of Cora Harrison's Austen books. They are perfect gifts for young Janeites or young "future Janeites", nieces or granddaughters will love them! Leave your comment and your e-mail address. This contest is open worldwide and ends on June 15th

MRS DARCY'S DILEMMA BY DIANA BIRCHALL - DOUBLE GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Thanks to Diana Birchall for being my guest in the "Talking Jane Austen with..." event and to all of you who commented and entered the giveaway.

Here'are the names of the winners of the two autographed copies of Diana's Mrs Darcy's Dilemma:

US & CANADA  - Cyn209

THE REST OF THE WORLD - Patricia Pérez Miguel

I'll wait for you back tomorrow with a new "Talking Jane Austen with ..." session and with new posts and giveaways in the next days!

This giveaway was part of the Jane in June II event hosted by Misty a Book Rat

THE PERFECT HERO by VICTORIA CONNELLY - REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY 

There's an international giveaway linked to this post granted by HarperCollins. Read my review of Victoria Connelly's second novel in the Austen Addicts Trilogy, The Perfect Hero. Leave your comment saying who your perfect hero is from fiction or real life, don't forget to add your e-mail address, and you'll have the chance to win a copy of this romantic and amusing Austenesque read. The giveaway ends on June 14th when the name of the winner will be announced. 

P.S. Many readers have been experiencing troubles logging in and trying to comment on blogger blogs. If you can't comment, send an e-mail message to learnonline.mgs@gmail.com saying you want to be entered in this  giveaway contest.  

Review and giveaway are part of the 

JANE IN JUNE II event hosted at Book Rat by Misty.

MY REVIEW 

“Maybe Jane Austen’s fans are destined to be disappointed by love because nothing could ever live up to the happy endings created in fiction”. 

This is what Adam Craig, one of the main characters in Victoria Connelly’s latest novel, thinks. The same can be said of the perfect hero: who might live up to Mr Darcy’s charm or Captain Wentworth’s passionate loyalty? Maybe... your favourite actor? Someone you admire and dream about? Imagine that  he, a real dream-come-true, arrives where you have just opened a B&B and is one of your first guests with the director and a bunch of colleagues.  Imagine also that he starts flirting with you disguised as Captain Wentworth since the cast you host  is shooting Persuasion. Add to these facts that this dream man is the most handsome you’ve ever laid eyes on, with his blond hair and blue eyes. Wouldn’t you think the perfect hero has landed into your real life? I’m sure that, like Kay Ashton,  you would.

Let’s cool our enthusiasm and give this story some order.

Die-hard romantic  Kay Ashton uses her inheritance to open a B&B in the seaside town of Lyme Regis in Dorset and is dumbstruck when the cast and crew of a new production of Persuasion descend, needing a place to stay. Kay can’t believe her luck – especially when she realises that heart-throb actor Oli Wade Owen will be sleeping under her very own roof!

Meanwhile, co-star Gemma Reilly is worried that her acting isn’t up to scratch, despite landing a plum role. She finds a sympathetic ear in shy producer, Adam Craig, who is baffled by the film world as she is. Kay thinks the two, Gemma and Adam, are meant for each other and can’t resist to try herself at matchmaking like Austen’s  Miss Woodhouse.

Then when Oli turns his trademark charm on Kay, it seems that she has found her real-life hero. But do heroes really exist?  Or do they only exist in movies and books?

Kay is a lovely heroine who reminds partly Emma,  in her funny attempts at matchmaking,  as well as Marianne,  in her romantic, passionate, naive vision of love. Oli Wade Owen in Wentworth’s uniform has the aspect of Rupert Penry Jones (on the left) and  the impertinence of  George Wickham.

Gemma Reilly  recalls Anne Elliot in her initial little self-confidence overcome little by little in her journey through the book.  

Adam Craig ... well, Adam -  not to give away too much -  is ...  my favourite character together with his hilarious grandmother, Nana Craig. She is funny, colourful and terribly nosy.  She has hated actors since she was left by her husband,  in search for fame in the movies,  for a  beautiful actress.  She has brought Adam up and their relationship is definitely unique.

Could I not like a romance set in Lyme Regis, with a glamorous cast shooting Persuasion involved, written with  a light touch and witty prose, featuring  gorgeous heroes and beautiful sensitive heroines? There’s too much of what I like best  not to recommend it to all of you, Janeites like me,  or fond of romances in general. 

If you liked, A Weekend with Mr Darcy, you can't miss this!

HAPPY JUNE FROM MARILYN BRANT: TREATS AND GIVEAWAY!

Hi Friends and readers of My Jane Austen Book Club !

Happy June! I've got some very exciting news to share: Amazon chose According to Jane to be one of their specially priced eBooks for their Kindle Sunshine Deals sale! From now through June 15th only, the Kindle version of the book is being sold at Amazon for just $2.99. So, if you don't have a copy yet and would like a digital one, you can get it here.

But that's not the only good news!!

As a summertime treat for my wonderful readers, I've been working for several months to polish and prepare for eBook release a lighthearted romantic comedy. It's now available on Kindle for $2.99 as well. 

The novel is called On Any Given Sundae, and it's the story of a shy dessert cookbook writer and the talkative ex-football star she once had a crush on as a teen. The unlikely pair find themselves left in charge of a small-town ice cream parlor for the summer, but can two people -- who may have grown up practically next door to each other but who have next to nothing in common -- create the perfect recipe for love? Maybe with a little help from their friends and a few sweet toppings... (This story will soon be available through B&N and other distributors, too.) You can read an excerpt on Smashwords and buy the book on that site, or you can get a $2.99 copy on Kindle here.

By the way, you DO NOT need to have a Kindle to get digital books. There is a FREE application (called Kindle for PC) that you can download to your desktop, so you can get low-priced and/or free eBooks and read them on your home computer. Barnes & Noble has a similar application available (Nook for PC/Mac), and both have additional apps so the books can be downloaded to many other kinds of devices, too, like cell phones.

Hope you will enjoy these two stories and that your June, July and August will be filled with fun beach reads!! 

And still coming up this year...

...is my next women's fiction story: A Summer in Europe!!!

This new novel has gotten some really lovely advanced praise already, and I truly cannot wait to get to share it with all of you when it's released on November 29th!

“How I wish I were on this European tour with Marilyn Brant's winsome, wonderful characters. I loved every minute of this delightful novel, from the breathtaking sights to the deliciously described food to the thrilling new experiences.” ~Melissa Senate, bestselling author of The Love Goddess’ Cooking School and See Jane Date

“A Summer in Europe is Brant's best book yet. A thinking woman's love story, it swept me away to breathtaking places with a cast of endearing characters I won't soon forget. Bravissima!” ~Susan McBride, author of Little Black Dress and The Cougar Club

You can read the back-cover blurb for the novel on my Books page and find pre-order information on Amazon, Borders and B&N.

"It's not where you go. It's what you take back with you."

~A Summer in Europe

Visit My Website

Finally, a giveaway...

In honor of one of my favorite activities -- visiting book clubs** -- I'm giving away an autographed Doubleday Book Club edition of Friday Mornings at Nine (in hardcover) to one person who can answer the following question: What is the name of the fictional Wisconsin hometown of my hero and heroine in On Any Given Sundae? (HINT: You'll find the answer on the Amazon or Smashwords book description of the story. :) Anyone who emails me (marilynbrant@gmail.com) with the correct response between now and 5pm Central Time on June 15, 2011 will be entered in the random drawing. I'll email the winner to let him/her know, and I'll announce his/her name on my Blog on June 16th. Good luck!

**Read what this creative book club did on my last visit!!

(Find out more about this novel.)

Many thanks to all of you for your enthusiasm for my stories. Being an author has always required a tremendous amount of time, energy and work, but you've made me so grateful to have chosen this path. My heartfelt thanks and best wishes to each one of you!

~Marilyn

WATCHING AISHA (2010) - EMMA, KNIGHTLEY & BOLLYWOOD

Clearly inspired to Austen's Emma, Aisha has all the typical features of a Bollywood romance blockbuster: very good looking actors, easy pop melodies, dances, colourful costumes, beautiful natural settings, fairy-tale atmospheres. If you liked Bride and Prejudice or Bend it like Beckham, you may like this Austenesque parody too. Because this is the impression I got: it sounds more like a parody than a modern day version  of a classic in a different cultural environment .

Since I'm really curious of anything Austen-related and I didn't mind other products of the same kind, I wished to see this film too. "What harm can be done?", I thought, " it'll be a good pastime to see events and characters I know and love from the point of view of a director, scriptwriter, actor". It may be interesting. It was rather  interesting actually. But not that amusing or original. It was beautiful to watch, beautiful was almost anything my sight perceived but nothing more. Ok. Better to stop. You may decide to watch it and even like it, so I don't want to spoil much. 

THE PLOT (from Wikipedia)

Aisha (Sonam Kapoor) is a girl with a simple problem - she has to take others problems into her own hands; and match-making amongst her friends in particular. She is constantly criticized by her friend/neighbor Arjun (Abhay Deol) who advises her to stop meddling with others lives. She is unperturbed and carries on. She tries to make a match between her small town friend Shefali (Amrita Puri) and Randhir (Cyrus Sahukar). 

While at a party Aisha realizes her jealous over Arjun. After the party Arjun and Dhruv get a drink and talk about Aisha, Dhruv tries to act like he is in love with Aisha and insults Arjun. Arjun punch Dhruv and hurts him. She fails in her attempts and in the due course, she tries to match up Shefali with Dhruv (Arunoday Singh) until one day she realizes that love does not come by force. 

She loses her friend Pinky (Ira Dubey) due to her actions who in the end falls in love with Randhir (Cyrus Sahukar). Shefali finds her love in Saurabh (an old friend). Aisha decides to go to Mumbai with Shefali and Dhruv. Shefali thinks that Arjun loves her and Aisha and Shefali have a fight. Shefali tells Aisha of how she had been treating her. She realizes that she had been selfish and arrogant all along, and has mistreated her friends. Finally, she goes back to her best friend (Pinky) and apologizes for her actions. She realizes that she was in love with Arjun; but finds it difficult to express...

Aisha - Emma

She's incredibly beautiful and incredibly spoilt. Even more conceited than Miss Woodhouse herself. It is clear everything she does, she does to be admired. She wants to influence everybody's life and gets furious when something doesn't go the way she expected or someone stresses or notices her misbehaviour. She continuously quarrels with Anjur, her friend/neighbour, she has known all her life long ... 

Anjur - Mr Knightley

Anjur has his sensitivity and his "far-sightedness", but he is no Mr Knightley. He lacks his depth and his wisdom. He is more like a childhood friend, Aisha has always taken for granted, than an older, sensible, affectionate family friend. He has saved her from embarassing situations and still tries to protect her but... he shows off and boasts, which is not very "knightley".

Randhir is a funny character (Mr Elton?) and Shefali a sweet Harriet Smith,  Pinky an extravagant loyal girl friend, and Druhv a dashing Frank Churchill. But the original are so much better!
The problem with Aisha is the screenplay. It never gets deep enough to evoke any emotions in the audience. The film clearly misses the spark and ends up as an average product. However, not an easy task to live up toJane Austen's genius and wit.

It is a fun movie, even though, like Clueless, it's not going to go down as one of my favorites. Give me Emma 1996 the film, ITV Emma and, especially BBC Emma 2009, please!

THE TRUTH ABOUT MR DARCY BY SUSAN ADRIANI - GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Thanks to Susan Adriani for being my kind guest again , this time with an interesting post about Mr Darcy and the writing of her novel and actively interacting with all commenters. Here are the names of the winners of the two signed copies of Susan's, The Truth about Mr Darcy.

1. US & Canada  :  Cait

2. The rest of the world:  Kirsten

Congratulations to the winners and to all the others... I'm sure you'll be luckier next time. Have you already entered the other giveaways running on these days? Have a look HERE. 

TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... DIANA BIRCHALL & DOUBLE GIVEAWAY

Diana Birchall is the author of two Jane Austen-related novels, Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma and Mrs. Elton in America, both published by Sourcebooks, and also a scholarly biography of her grandmother, who was the first Asian American novelist (Onoto Watanna, University of Illinois Press).  Diana grew up in New York City but has lived in California for many years, and works as a story analyst at Warner Bros Studios, reading novels to see if they would make movies.  She has written several Jane Austen-related plays, and The Courtship of Mrs. Elton has had performances in ten cities.  Diana has lectured widely on Jane Austen, films, and her grandmother's career, at universities all over the country and in England.  She makes her home in Santa Monica with her husband, son, and three raffish cats. 


Welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club and thanks for accepting my invitation, Diana. My first question is about Jane Austen and the modern world. Why is such an odd match so successful? I’m thinking of modernizations , Austen –dedicated sites and blogs, Austen –Twitter Projects , nowadays film versions…

I think that the crazier, colder, more chaotic our modern world gets, the more we need the voice of sanity, humor, and reason.  That's Jane Austen. And increasingly more people seem to have more need to escape into what is perceived as a more gracious and controllable past, an ordered and civil world.  Of course, the world probably wasn't really any more controlled and civil in the 18th century than it is today, and the stress must have been equally severe - a struggle to survive for most people, and without medicine as we know it, or even such imperfect social safety networks as we have today.  A harsh world where marriage was woman's best "preservative from want," and woman's place was second to man's.  Yet Jane Austen makes her world infinitely attractive...and so it must have been, when she was in it.

For what you know of her personality, what would Jane Austen most appreciate in our world and what couldn’t she bear?

It's impossible to imagine, as her particular kind of genius could not exist in our world.  It was nurtured on leisurely, private reading; a congenial circle of family and friends receptive to her sparkling brand of entertainment; and a value and attention to the weight and beauty of words and their worth that is lost today.  The sensory stimulation and stress overload of the modern world would quickly kill her if she wasn't dead already.

What is it in her world that most fascinates contemporary readers?

A return to lost values and beauties. Romance and humor and sparkling wordplay fascinates us about her, and we want to be in a world where such people exist. And then we feel nostalgic longing for the sheer physical beauty of England in the 18th century when only 8 million people lived there instead of 60 million and there wasn't a building that wouldn't have seemed beautiful to our eyes.  The sensory overload which I just mentioned, makes us yearn for that world.

And what about you, instead? What is it that you like best in her work and world?

Her sanity, her wisdom, her balance, her immense verbal talent, and her humor.  I also admire the quality she wrote about in Persuasion, as having belonged to Mrs. Smith:  "Here was that elasticity of mind, that disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily from evil to good, and of finding employment which carried her out of herself, which was from nature alone. It was the choicest gift of Heaven."  I think that Jane Austen possessed that choicest gift of Heaven herself, and that is why we find solace as well as entertainment in being admitted to the company of her mind and nature.

When and how did you discover/meet Jane Austen first?

I think I read all her books through for the first time when I was about twenty.  In the forty years since I have read them literally thousands of times and know them by heart.

And how did it come that you decided to write a sequel to P&P and a spin-off from Emma?

Illustration by Juliet McMaster from In Defense of Mrs Elton

My Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma, written in 1994, was one of the first - I thought at the time it was the first - P&P sequels in the first sequel wave since the 1940s when Pemberley Shades was written.  I had won a contest in Persuasions sometime in the 1980s, trying to imitate a character's "voice," and I did Miss Bates.  Having read Austen so much, studied every sentence, turn of phrase and couching of jokes, I found I had some facility for imitation, and thought, "Hm, why not make a whole book of this, as tribute?"  So I did.  My agent was excited and talked of a bidding war, but at the same time Presumption and Pemberley were coming out, and the publishing world said, "There's not enough interest for THREE Jane Austen sequels!"  Sounds funny now, doesn't it?  So I had to wait for actual publication.  Meanwhile I wrote a scholarly biography of my grandmother, who was the first Asian American novelist (Onoto Watanna, University of Illinois Press, 2001), and I was so excited about getting published that I dashed off chapters of a serial story In Defense of Mrs. Elton on the Janeites list.  I believe it was the first serial fan fiction story ever done online.  The story was published by the Jane Austen Society as a conference gift for their 1999 meeting, and later I expanded it and wrote more Mrs. Elton stories, which form my book, Mrs. Elton in America, published by Sourcebooks, like Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma.

Why Mrs Elton? 

Oh, I love Mrs. Elton, the character you love to hate.  I identified with her because she seemed like a pushy New York lady to me, brassy and officious and a kind of Regency Bella Abzug.  It interested me that the first time I read Emma, I didn't see that there was anything wrong with Mrs. Elton's manners; she behaved like everybody I knew.  So I studied her with fascination to see what was wrong with me having grown up in New York and not Regency England.  I learned the lesson well, and then made a second discovery:  Mrs. Elton, in fact, does nothing worse than Emma does herself.  It is the way Jane Austen cleverly and craftily editorially presents and frames the two characters, that makes us feel about them as we do.  She calls Mrs. Elton all sorts of harsh names, while she treats Emma tenderly.  Through studying Mrs. Elton, that one character, I learned a world of things about Jane Austen's methods - it was learning about her world in microcosm.

Is there any other minor character you’d like to write about?

Plenty!  Mrs. Norris, Lucy Steele, General Tilney...Not the good characters, you see!  I'm interested in Jane Austen's demons.

Are you working /planning to work on any new Austenesque project?

Yes, halfway through a Northanger Abbey novel.

As to Austen heroes, have you got a favourite one? Why?

Mr. Darcy and Henry Tilney.  Reasons are obvious, surely?

Which is Austen best-written character in your opinion?

Each and every one of them.  But I think she was inspired to her greatest heights of humor by Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

What is “Jane Austen’s Cat”?

 My story that is being published in the forthcoming Random House anthology, Jane Austen Made Me Do It.  I'm very excited that it will be coming out in October!

Thanks Diana, it's been really pleasant and interesting to chat with you about Jane Austen and your books. Hope you'll be back on My Jane Austen Book Club once your Northanger Abbey -inspired novel is finished.

Follow Diana Birchall's at her site, blog and at AustenAuthors

Double Giveaway 

Diana Birchall has generously granted you the chance to win two autographed copies of her Mrs Darcy's Dilemma, one for US and Canada readers and one for the rest of the world.  Leave your comments or questions, add your e-mail address, specify which part of the world you live in and ... GOOD LUCK!  
The giveaway ends on June 8th when the names of the winners will be announced. 

This interview and this double giveaway are part of the JANE IN JUNE II event hosted at Book Rat by Misty.

THE BALLAD OF GREGOIRE DARCY BY MARSHA ALTMAN - GIVEAWAY WINNER

Marsha Altman has been my latest guest in the "Talking Jane Austen with ... " series of interviews  (you can read our chat HERE)  and The Ballad of Gregoire Darcy is her just published fourth book in a successful series of sequels to Pride and Prejudice. One of last week's guestpost featuring Marsha Altman is going to win a signed copy. Just have a look at the end of this short post!

Synopsis

WHIRLWIND OF PEMBERLEY

The comings and goings on their grand estate present endless challenges for Elizabeth and Darcy. Can they avoid scandal given the recent arrival of Mr. Darcy’s illegitimate brother Grégoire, Mr. Bennet’s advancing years, the younger George Wickham’s coming of age, and Dr. Maddox’s departure from his position with the Prince Regent even as his many secrets threaten to be discovered?

COURTSHIP OF MARY BENNET

After her disastrous trip to the continent resulted in a passionate romance and an unintended child, Mary Bennet finds herself back in England, living with the shameful title of unwed mother. Having given up on ever finding love, Mary is shocked to find herself pursued by a proper gentleman. But are his intentions true, or is Mary being led astray by her heart once again?

TORMENT OF GRÉGOIRE DARCY

Leaving his sheltered, peaceful life at a Benedictine cloister, Grégoire enters a world he never imagined. Thrust into Regency England’s secular society, Grégoire is overwhelmed. How can an inexperienced, single man stay true to himself while finding his place in a culture obsessed with matrimony?

Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to Debbie Brown who will get an autographed copy of this great Austenesque read. And many thanks to Marsha Altman for being my guest on My Jane Austen Book Club. 

JANE LOVES JUNE!

After last year's great successful launch, JANE IN JUNE comes to its second round on Book Rat, Misty's brilliant book blog. This month's blogposts on My Jane Austen Book Club will be part of this Austen-dedicated extravaganza. You'll find new guesposts, interviews, book and film reviews and several giveaways  connected to this Austenesque celebration of the coming of summer!

Isn't the button Misty created for the occasion truly cute? The dreamy elegant Regency lady on the left? 

You're going to see her very often entering the scene of our friendly corner of the blogosphere in the next days and you'll know that the post will be part of Jane in June II.

Among the events and the activities proposed on Misty's Book Rat,  The P&P Read Along. Every Wednesday throughout June, there will be a linky to post your participation to the discussion of the week's segment of  Pride and Prejudice (more detailed info HERE).  

Misty's schedule is up on Jane in June Main Page ready to be filled in and still  open to any enthusiastic contribution you would like to make. Do you want to join us? Meanwhile,  I'll wait for you all  tomorrow with a "Talking Jane Austen with ... " interview + double giveaway!