SHANNON WINSLOW - GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY: THE PERILS AND LITERARY POSSIBILITIES OF THE BREACH-OF-PROMISE SUIT

We met Shannon Winslow last year here at My Jane Austen Book Club on occasion of the release of her first Austen-inspired novel, The Darcys of Pemberley (HERE and HERE).

She's back with a new book and a new guest post for the readers of My Jane Austen Book Club. Enjoy Shannon's piece and get a chance to win her For Myself Alone. There are 2 e-book copies and 1 paperback for you! Three winners! The contest is open worldwide and ends on April 15th. Leave your comment , add your e-mail address and choose between the two formats, e-book or paperback.

The Darcys of Pemberley, a sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, was my first novel, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. But for my second book, I set myself a new challenge: to write an entirely original story in the Jane Austen mode. I wondered what else she might have written had she lived. What direction would her creativity have carried her next?

Money (the want of it, more specifically) is a reoccurring theme in Jane Austen’s novels as it was in her own life – the well-bred young lady of small fortune, who had to marry or risk sinking into poverty (like Miss Bates). That’s how my heroine in For Myself Alone begins as well. But then I turn the tables by giving her a large, unexpected inheritance. Instead of solving all her problems, however, the money simply creates new ones, making Jo the target of fortune hunters and ultimately an unwilling party to a breach-of-promise suit.

Breach-of-promise suits are an intriguing phenomenon unique to the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and we think of them as being brought by a jilted woman against her former fiancé. And so it typically was in later years.  With a shorter “self life” and a more fragile reputation, a long engagement that came to nothing was far more likely to damage the intended bride’s future prospects than the groom’s. But as it turns out, early on in their history these suits were just as often filed by a jilted man, claiming emotional trauma or financial loss.

Going to court was perilous, though, often adding insult to injury. Tainted reputations could be further tarnished. And as for the monetary judgments, juries were notoriously unpredictable. They often ignored the evidence and the judge’s instructions to side with the barrister who put on the best show, awarding either nothing or an outrageous sum according to their collective whim. Defendants sometimes went to extreme lengths to avoid paying too, preferring imprisonment or even emigrating instead.

Breach-of-promise suits were a painfully messy business. But I showed no mercy; I threw my unsuspecting heroine right into the middle of one. How did she fare? Oh, no; I’ll never tell!

Shannon Winslow

The Book


Set in nineteenth century Hampshire and Bath, For Myself Alone is the tale of Josephine Walker, a bright, young woman whose quiet life is turned upside-down by an unexpected inheritance. With a tempting fortune of twenty thousand pounds, she’s suddenly the most popular girl in town. Yet Jo longs to be valued for who she is, not for her bank balance. She cannot respect the men who pursue her for her money, and the only

one she does admire is considered the property of her best friend. Now, even the motives of her new fiancé are suspect. Does he truly love her for herself alone? There’s one sure, but extreme, way to find out… if she has the courage to take it.
You'll find For Myself Alone at Barnes and Noble as a Nook  or at Amazon as a paperback or a Kindle book.

The  Author 

Shannon Winslow specializes in creating novels and short stories for fans of Jane Austen. The Darcys of Pemberley was her debut novel in 2011. For Myself Alone – a standalone, Austen-inspired story – now follows. She is currently working on the next installment of her Pride andPrejudice series, which is entitled Returnto Longbourn. Ms. Winslow lives with her husband in the log home they built in the countryside south of Seattle, where she writes and paints in her studio facing Mt. Rainier. For more information, visit www.shannonwinslow.com 

GIVEAWAY WINNER - ELIZABETH KANTOR, JANE AUSTEN GUIDE TO HAPPILY EVER AFTER

This giveaway contest linked to the author guest post about Jane Austen and happy endings by Elizabeth Kantor ends today. So, following Jane Austen's example,  I'm here to give this story a happy ending! I'm  ready to announce the name of the winner: 

the happy ending of "our  story"  is for ... Gayle Mills

REGINA JEFFERS - GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY: SCOTTISH ELOPMENT AND THE MARRIAGE ACT OF 1753. WIN A COPY OF "THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GEORGIANA DARCY"

Regina Jeffers is with us, here at My Jane Austen Book Club,  on her blog tour to launch her new brilliant novel dedicated to Georgiana Darcy: "The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy" . Read her interesting, thoroughful piece about elopments in the 18th century and try to win a copy of her brand new novel. Good luck!  (See the giveaway details at the end of this post)

“An Act for Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage,” popularly known as Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act (1753), was the first statutory legislation in England and Wales to require a formal ceremony of marriage. Precipitated by a dispute about the validity of a Scottish marriage, the legislation took effect on 25 March 1754.

Before the Act, canon law of the Church of England governed the legal requirements for a valid marriage in England and Wales. These requirements involved the calling of the banns and a marriage license. The stipulation also required that the marriage should take place in the resident parish of one of the participants. However, these stipulations were not mandatory and did not render a marriage void for not following the directory requirements. An Anglican clergyman pronouncing the vows was the only indispensable requirement.

The Act tightened the existing ecclesiastical rules regarding marriage, except for Jews, Quakers, and, ironically, members of the British Royal Family. The exemption for the Royal Family was the basis of objection for Prince Charles’s 2005 civil ceremony with Camilla Parker-Bowles, civil marriage being the creation of statue law. It was also provided that the 1753 Act had no application to marriages celebrated overseas or in Scotland.

On the most southerly point of the English border on Scotland’s west side was the village of Gretna Green. It was on the main road from Carlisle to Glasgow. The road crossed the Sark River, which marked the border itself, a half mile from Gretna Green. On the English side of the border was the village of Longtown.

Near the Solway Firth, the Regency era’s Greta Green is described in Gretna Green Memoirs as, “…[a] small village with a few clay houses, the parish kirk, the minister’s house, and a large inn. From it you have a fine view of the Solway, port Carlisle and the Cumberland hills, among which is the lofty Skiddaw; you also see Bowness, the place where the famous Roman wall ends.” Within Gretna, at the Headlesscross, is the junction of five coaching roads, and here lay the Blacksmith’s Shop.

 The common phrase of the time was to be married “over the anvil,” meaning that the eloping couple took their vows at the first convenient stop, a blacksmith’s shop. “Blacksmith priests” conducted the ceremony, which was nothing more than a public acknowledgment of a couple’s desire to pledge themselves to one another.

In truth, many couples wed at the inn, or at other Scottish villages, and any man could set himself up as an ‘anvil priest.’ It was a lucrative trade. Anvil priests would receive the necessary fee, as well as an appropriate tip, which could be upwards of fifty guineas. According to Romances of Gretna Green, “…[t]he man who took up the trade of ‘priest’ had to reckon on the disapprobation of the local Church authorities.”

The Act effectively put a stop to clandestine marriages (valid marriages performed by an Anglican clergyman but not in accordance with the canons). It brought about the end of the notorious Fleet Marriages associated with London’s Fleet Prison. However, it increased the traffic along the North Road to Scottish “Border Villages” (Coldstream Bridge, Lamberton, Mordington, and Paxton Toll). In the 1770s a toll road passing through the hitherto obscure village of Graitney led to Gretna Green becoming synonymous with romantic elopements.

Despite many assertions to the contrary, the Act did not render invalid any marriage involving minors (those under 21) who married without parental consent. Since the Act specifically prohibited the courts from inquiring into the couple’s place of residence until after the marriage had been celebrated, many chose having the banns called in a different parish without their parents’ permission. The Act also did not do away with common-law marriages, or informal folk practices such as handfasting or broomstick marriages.

One of my favorite Regency authors, Louis Allen, has a fabulous post on Harlequin.com Community (http://community.harlequin.com/content/romance-elopement) on “The Romance of Elopement,” in which she speaks of the expensive race to the Scottish border. She explains, “
London to Gretna, via Manchester, is 320 miles. That is £20 for the chaise and horses alone at a time when a housemaid would be glad to earn £16 a year, all found.”

Rules of Marriages:

1. Reading of the Banns occurred on 3 consecutive Sundays or Holy Days during Divine Service, immediately before the Offertory. At least one of the marrying couple had to be a resident in the parish, in which they wished to be married; the banns of the other party were read in his/her parish of residence, and a certificate provided from the clergyman stating it was properly done. Banns were good for three months. The wedding ceremony was scheduled at the church between 8 A.M. and noon.
2. Wording:
 "I publish the Banns of marriage between Groom's Name of--his local parish--and Bride's Name of--her local parish. If any of you know cause or just impediment why these two persons should not be joined together in Holy matrimony, ye are to declare it. This is the first [second, third] time of asking."
3.  Common/Ordinary Licence - This could be obtained from any bishop or archbishop; a common/ordinary license meant the Banns need not be read - and so there was not the delay of two weeks. A sworn statement was given that there was no impediment [parties were not related to one another in the prohibited degrees, proof of deceased spouse given, etc.]. The marriage was required to take place in church or chapel where one party has already lived for 4 weeks. It was also good for 3 months from date of issue. Cost of the license: 10 shillings.
4. Special License - Obtained from Doctors Commons in London, from the Archbishop of Canterbury or his representative. The difference between this and the Ordinary license was that it granted the right of the couple to marry at any convenient time or place. All other requirements were the same. Names of both parties were given at the time of the application. Cost: In 1808 a Stamp Duty was imposed on the actual paper, vellum or parchment the license was printed upon, of £4. In 1815, the duty increased to £5.

So how does the details of a Scottish marriage fit into my latest novel, The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy? An ill-fated race to the Scottish border plays a major role in the mystery surrounding Georgiana Darcy’s vanishing from the Fitzwilliam property and in Darcy’s subsequent search for his sister.

Book Blurb:

Shackled in the dungeon of a macabre castle with no recollection of her past, a young woman finds herself falling in love with her captor – the estate’s master. Yet, placing her trust in him before she regains her memory and unravels the castle’s wicked truths would be a catastrophe.

Far away at Pemberley, the Darcys happily gather to celebrate the marriage of Kitty Bennet. But a dark cloud sweeps through the festivities: Georgiana Darcy has disappeared without a trace. Upon receiving word of his sister’s likely demise, Darcy and wife, Elizabeth, set off across the English countryside, seeking answers in the unfamiliar and menacing Scottish moors.

                

How can Darcy keep his sister safe from the most sinister threat she has ever faced when he doesn’t even know if she’s alive? True to Austen’s style and rife with malicious villains, dramatic revelations and heroic gestures, this suspense-packed mystery places Darcy and Elizabeth in the most harrowing situation they have ever faced – finding Georgiana before it is too late.

The Author

Regina Jeffers, an English teacher for thirty-nine years, considers herself a Jane Austen enthusiast. She is the author of 13 novels, including Darcy’s Passions, Darcy’s Temptation, The Phantom of Pemberley, Christmas at Pemberley, The Scandal of Lady Eleanor, A Touch of Velvet, and A Touch of Cashémere. A Time Warner Star Teacher and Martha Holden Jennings Scholar, as well as a Smithsonian presenter, Jeffers often serves as a media literacy consultant. She resides outside of Charlotte, NC, where she spends time teaching her new grandson the joys of being a child.

GIVEAWAY

Leave your comment  + e-mail address to enter the giveaway of a paperback copy of "The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy". Open internationally,  this giveaway ends on April 12th.

Website – www.rjeffers.com

Blog – http://reginajeffers.wordpress.com

Twitter - @reginajeffers

Publisher – Ulysses Press http://ulyssespress.com/

JACK CALDWELL, THE THREE COLONELS - GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY

My Jane Austen Book Club is glad to welcome  Jack Caldwell on his blog tour for the launch of his second brilliant Austenesque novel, THE THREE COLONELS. After Pemberley Ranch, which reimagined Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as a heart-pounding western romance, Jack Caldwell presents his new book revolving around Jane Austen's charming fighting heroes. Here is his guest post. Enjoy and leave your comments + e-mail address to win a copy (see below the post for the giveaway details)

Hello, everybody, Jack Caldwell here. I’d like to thank Maria for the opportunity to visit with you today to talk about my latest book, THE THREE COLONELS – Jane Austen’s Fighting Men from Sourcebooks Landmark.

THE THREE COLONELS revolves around the lives and loves of several Austen military characters. For my novel, I have Colonel Fitzwilliam, Captain Wickham, and Major Denny from Pride & Prejudice, and Colonel Brandon from Sense & Sensibility. I’ve created my own officer—Colonel Sir John Buford—and have my men interact with historical figures, such as the Duke of Wellington.

There is no romance without the ladies, and this novel stars Marianne Brandon (Sense & Sensibility), Anne de Bourgh, and Caroline Bingley (Pride & Prejudice). Major supporting roles go to, from P&P, Fitzwilliam, Elizabeth and Georgiana Darcy, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mary Bennet, Mrs. and Mrs. Collins, and Mrs. Jenkinson. From S&S we have Elinor and Edward Ferrars, and John Willoughby.

To make an epic story short, I send Jane Austen’s fighting men to war—to be precise, Waterloo. Why the heck did I do that? Because the Napoleonic Wars were an integral part of the Regency period.

As I say in the introduction to THE THREE COLONELS, by 1814 Great Britain had been in almost continual war with the various governments of France for seventy-four years—the Kingdom of France, the French Republic, and the French Empire. Thousands fought and thousands died. During Jane Austen’s lifetime (1775-1817), some of the most important battles in British history took place. Saratoga.Yorktown.Saint Vincent.The Nile.Trafalgar.Talavera.Vitoria. Waterloo.

Britain fought France for three reasons: colonies, trade, and political stability. Let me briefly review them.

Since the discovery of the New World, the major European nations scrambled to control as much of the resources as possible. France and Great Britain, the two great naval powers, were in immediate loggerheads over North America. India was another source of conflict.Colonies offered trade—exotic foods and raw materials for the new factories—and a dumping ground for criminals, political agitators, and other “undesirables.”

Trade with Europe was also vital. The countries might have beenin political conflict from time to time, but trade between them was necessity for survival. When Napoleon instituted the Continental System—a blockade—in an effort to bring Britain to its knees, the country had to fight.

Political stability was also important. The King of France helped the American revolutionaries not because he believed in American independence but to hurt and destabilize Britain. Indeed, the new United States inspired political change in France, and helped trigger the French Revolution and the king’s execution. The French Republic turned homicidal, intent on bestowing its brand of revolutionary government on all of Europe. Britain believed in reform and change, but not that much change. They fought to contain the agents of the Reign of Terror, and later the self-styled Emperor Napoleon, who had his own ideas about the governance of Europe (under his own thumb).

Jane Austen was an intelligent woman, who had the means to know what was occurring in the world. Indeed, several of her brothers served in the Royal Navy, one achieving the rank of admiral. Many of her characters were military officers. And yet, Austen never talked about the wars. She commented on the politics in the navy in both Mansfield Park and Persuasion, but she did not go into what the navy did—fight battles.

I am certain one reasonable reason was that war was considered an “unsuitable” subject for ladies’ conversation. That was left to the gentlemen, who after dinner retreated to their smoking room for cigars and politics. However, ladies could certainly read, and dispatches from the wars were in the newspapers. Not every woman read only the society pages.

There was another force going on—a disconnect between the struggles around the world and the everyday concerns of the home front. The war was over there—not here. With no fighting occurring in Britain, the people concentrated on more mundane subjects: family, work, chores, entertaining, and gossip. All this is important, and a very different experience than what was going on in Europe. There, war was in your back yard. It could not be ignored.

The Continental System was inconvenient for the civilians, because it was difficult to impossible to get goods from Europe. The French also threatened trade with the Americas. People carried on, because prices remained stable—the blockade was actually good for domestic production. In fact, things were worse after the war—falling prices and poor harvests triggered unrest.

It is uncomfortable to acknowledge that war affects society for evil AND good, but it does. Just like the sacrifices of World War II saved the world from the evils of Nazism, Britain’s expenditure of blood and treasure helped prevent Napoleon Bonaparte from conquering all of Europe. The nation could not have survived such an event.

The efforts of men like Colonels Brandon, Fitzwilliam, and Buford saved the Regency.

Jack Caldwell

---

About the Author - Jack Caldwell is an author, amateur historian, professional economic developer, playwright, and like many Cajuns, a darn good cook. Born and raised in the Bayou County of Louisiana, Jack and his wife, Barbara, are Hurricane Katrina victims who now make the upper Midwest their home.

His nickname—The Cajun Cheesehead—came from his devotion to his two favorite NFL teams: the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers. (Every now and then, Jack has to play the DVD again to make sure the Saints really won in 2010.)

Always a history buff, Jack found and fell in love with Jane Austen in his twenties, struck by her innate understanding of the human condition. Jack uses his work to share his knowledge of history. Through his characters, he hopes the reader gains a better understanding of what went on before, developing an appreciation for our ancestors' trials and tribulations.

When not writing or traveling with Barbara, Jack attempts to play golf. A devout convert to Roman Catholicism, Jack is married with three grown sons.

Jack's blog postings—The Cajun Cheesehead Chronicles—appear regularly at Austen Authors.

Web site – Ramblings of a Cajun in Exile – http://webpages.charter.net/jvcla25/

Blog – Austen Authors – http://austenauthors.net/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jack-Caldwell-author/132047236805555

Giveaway  


Leaving your comments + your e-mail address below this post you can get a chance to win one (1) physical copy and one (1) e-book copy of THE THREE COLONELS from Sourcebooks Landmark. (Note: Only US addresses are eligible for physical copy, so please add the country you are writing from in your comment). This giveaway ends on April 10th when the winners' names are announced.

ELIZABETH KANTOR AND JANE AUSTEN'S HAPPY ENDINGS - GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY

Elizabeth Kantor is the author of The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After , which will be published on April 2nd and is already shipping from Amazon.  She is visiting here at My Jane Austen Book Club today to tell us about how Jane Austen creates her happy endings and how we can re-create them. Enjoy her guest post, leave your comment + your e-mail address to enter the giveaway contest to win the book. US readers only. The giveaway ends on April 6th when the name of the winner is announced. Good luck!

Endorphins Out of Ink and Paper: How Jane Austen Creates Her Happy Endings (and How We Can Re-Create Them) 

Jane Austen is past mistress of the truly happy ending. Elizabeth with Darcy, Anne Elliot with Captain Wentworth--the last chapters of their stories capture exactly what we all long for in love. But they're not just mouth-watering happily-ever-after endings. What makes them even better is, they're believable. My husband quotes the professor who taught him Pride and Prejudice in college: It's one of the only happy endings in all of literature that is really believable. You can actually imagine Elizabeth and Darcy as a happily married couple.

So how does Jane Austen do it? What's her recipe for compounding endorphins out of ink and paper?

And--a question even more interesting to us 21st-century women--can the kind of happiness that Jane Austen figured out how to create on paper be re-created in real life? Can we follow her map to discover the wellsprings of happy love?

Now Jane Austen would not have been at all surprised to find her readers looking to and even imitating her characters in the hopes of finding their own happy endings. It's a major theme of her fiction--from the juvenilia and Northanger Abbey (where Catherine gets into all kinds of trouble expecting life to be like a Gothic novel) to her last, unfinished novel, Sanditon (where Sir Edward Denham is deliberately modeling himself on Lovelace in Samuel Richardson's Clarissa)--that readers do tend to want to get inside the fiction we love, and make our own lives like the lives of their favorite characters. So it's fair enough to ask how Jane Austen expected women who read Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion to act, if they wanted happy endings like Elizabeth's, and Anne's. About which, more below.  

But getting back to the basic question about how Jane Austen pulls those happy endings off in the novels--look at the question first from a literary-critical point of view. Critics compare Jane Austen to Shakespeare, for many reasons. (For example, the infinite fecundity of her imagination. It's obvious that if she had lived another 40 years, she would never have run out of material--she would just have gone on inventing entirely new characters and situations. And wouldn't we be lucky! That's in contrast to a writer like Evelyn Waugh--whom I love, too, but he has his limitations--who complained that after 40 life simply wasn't making the clear impressions on him that he could turn into novels, and talked about first using up his remaining amount of life-experience in one more great work of fiction before going on to write an autobiograpy (details from my memory of a letter of his to Nancy Mitford, which I can't find at the moment, so pls. forgive the paraphrase & any inaccuracies!). Or F. Scott Fitzgerald--again, I'm a fan--who is supposed to have lifted material from Zelda's diary and resented her wanting to use her own experiences of their marriage in her own writing!) But especially because Jane Austen is the other great literary artist in English who writes generous Shakespearean comedy, with those delightful happy endings. The fascinating thing, from the literary-critical point of view, is that she worked her way up to that Shakespearean kind of comedy by an apprenticeship in the other kind--the very ungenerous Jonsonian (after Ben Jonson) comedy, where all the laughs are at the characters, not with them--where the comedy is about exposing the vices and folly of very limited characters, not delighting in the insights and virtues and possibilities opening out before fully rounded people.

All Jane Austen's juvenilia is like the old "comedy of humors"--it's full of ridiculous, truncated characters who twist themselves into absurd shapes in obedience to some single passion. My very favorite is Charlotte Luttrell in Lesley Castle, who is so obsessed with the details of housekeeping that she reacts like this when her sister's fiance has a fatal accident: 

Dear Eloisa (said I) there's no occasion for your crying so much about a trifle (for I was willing to make light of it in order to comfort her). I bet you would not mind it--, You see it does not vex me in the least; though perhaps I may suffer most from it after all; for I shall not only be obliged to eat up all the Victuals I have dressed already, but must if Hervey should recover (which however is not very likely) dress as much for you again; or should he die (as I suppose he will) I shall still have to prepare a dinner for you whenever you marry someone else. . . . Thus I did all within my power to console her, but without any effect."

There are still characters almost as silly as that in Sense and Sensibility--Sir John Middleton, who's so dependent on the society of other people that he is relieved to know the Dashwoods will be coming to London to add two to its the population, and Charlotte Palmer, who is so good-humored that she's able to find amusement in even her husband's inattention. But in Jane Austen's novels, the absurd characters show up the delightful normality of the main characters. And the comedy isn't just about how the ridiculous characters get their come-uppance. The happy ending is about how the fully-fleshed-out characters find happiness.

They find their happiness right in the middle--precisely not at any crazy extreme. Their aspirations are as well-rounded and beautifully balanced as they are. Look at the way Captain Wentworth talks about Anne--she's "the loveliest medium." And look at how Elizabeth and Darcy find each other--they overcome their extreme and partial views and learn to see each other straight on, clear & true. Jane Austen's idea of happiness is a very 18th-century idea--it's all about balance, and seeing things as they really are. To Jane Austen (and to us, when we're immersed in her novels), the normal and the right and the true don't seem boring. They seem exciting, vibrant, a dynamic balance, successful and promising more for the future.

But does it translate to real life?

As a matter of fact, it's exactly the recipe for happiness that the wise have been recommending for about two and a half millennia--at least since Aristotle. The happy medium fails to attract us mostly because we're heirs to the Cult of Sensibility (as in Sense and Sensibility) and the Romantic Movement, which have very successfully sold the world on some odd propositions: only extreme and intense experiences are worth having . . . you liberate yourself and find authenticity by rebelling against convention, prudence, and common sense . . . happiness is boring. But if the prospect of happiness--what Elizabeth and Darcy find in Pride and Prejudice--doesn't bore you, then Jane Austen can be the guide to the kind of life you want.

Elizabeth Kantor

The Book

Women today are settling for less than we want when it comes to men, relationships, sex, and marriage. But we don’t have to, argues Elizabeth Kantor. Jane Austen can show us how to find the love we really want.

In The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After, Kantor reveals how the examples of Jane Austen heroines such as Elizabeth Bennett, Elinor Dashwood, and Anne Elliot can help us navigate the modern-day minefields of dating, love, relationships, and sex. By following in their footsteps—and steering clear of the sad endings suffered by characters such as Maria Bertram and Charlotte Lucas—modern women can discover the path to lifelong love and true happiness.

Charged with honesty and humor, Kantor's book includes testimonies from modern women, pop culture parallels, the author's personal experiences and, of course, a thorough examination of Austen's beloved novels.

Featuring characters and situations from all of Jane Austen’s books (including unfinished novels, and stories not published in her lifetime), The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After tackles the dating and relationship dilemmas that we face today, and equips modern women to approach our love lives with fresh insights distilled from the novels:

- Don’t be a tragic heroine

 -  Pursue Elizabeth Bennet’s “rational happiness” —learn what it is, and how you can find it

 - Don’t let cynicism steal your happy ending

 - Why it’s a mistake to look for your “soul mate”

-  Jane Austen’s skeleton keys to a man’s potential

-  How you should deal with men who are “afraid of commitment” (from Jane Austen’s eight    

   case studies)

- Learn how to arrange your own marriage—by falling in love the Jane Austen way

JACKIE HERRING & THE JANE AUSTEN FESTIVAL IN BATH - INTERVIEW

Jackie Herring

My guest today is Jackie Herring. She has been involved in some form or another with the Jane Austen Festival in Bath since its creation 12 years ago. This will be Jackie’s 5^th in charge and as Festival Director, a job that covers all aspects from choosing and booking the artists and venues, writing and producing the programme to fixing banners to railings and washing up at the end of the Soiree. With an honours degree in and love of History, plus previous administrative, sales, computing and personnel experience – this is Jackie’s dream job. How many people have the opportunity of talking about their favourite author, researching and putting on entertainments for others that they enjoy themselves, dress in glorious costumes, appear on the television and get paid for it!

If you want to know more about the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, if you dream of beng there next September, join our chat below and ... enjoy!

Welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club, Jackie.  It’s a great pleasure and an honour to have you as my guest and have the chance to ask you a few questions.

Thank you for asking me.

Is everything ready for this year festival in Bath?

Not quite, the diary is pretty full but there are still lots of things to be sorted out before I can write the first draft of the programme.

What are these year’s  September dates?

From Friday 14th to Saturday 22nd September 2012

When did the event start and who were the founders?

The Jane Austen Festival started in September 2000, so this is its 12th year and it was the brain child of David Baldock the owner of The Jane Austen Centre in Bath who was also the first Festival Director. The first year it was over a weekend – 3 days including the Friday.

Apart from the traditional  Regency Costume Promenade, what are other important moments in the next September Festival? Is there a special topic/trail you follow this year?

 There are lots of really special moments, small gatherings and the larger ones but in particular this year the Promenade will follow a different route and Bath City Council are going to close the main shopping area, Milsom Street, for us to walk down. I am working on something that will be held in the Assembly Rooms on Sunday 16th but can’t say what just yet, there is a whole day of Regency and Baroque dancing on Monday 17th, coach trips to Hampshire and Stourhead (where the 2005 Pride & Prejudice was filmed) costume workshops, harp workshop, embroidery workshop.... there is a magical evening on Friday 21st with a reception around the torch lit Roman Baths, followed by a Regency Costumed Masked Ball in the Pump Rooms. This spectacular event was extremely popular last year..  Plus so much more.

Is there any special or new feature  you want to tell us about?

We have two theatricals being performed using the venues themselves as the ‘stage and scenery’ very exiciting and quite new to Bath and the audience sit in the action rather than view it from afar.

What are the most exciting aspect at working for this incredible event?

Meeting so many talented people and a plan coming together.

What are instead the hardest moments in the preparation for it?

Just the amount of things that must be done for it succeed.

What is it so special in the atmosphere of the Festival in Bath which makes it different from any other  National or International meeting for Janeites?

 I think there are probably a great many similarities with other meetings but probably the venues we use and the amount of costume events, plus Bath is a small place where people can meet and make lifelong friendships.

What is  it that you especially like in Jane Austen’s world?

The slower pace of life – I can understand why Jane Austen wrote particularly when she moved to Hampshire, there was nothing else to do!

When and how did you become fond of her work?

At the age of 16 my best friend gave me her copy of Pride & Prejudice and said, ‘you’ll like this, it is better than Jilly Cooper!’ I did and I was hooked.

 Why don’t you tell us about your favourite story, hero and heroine?

Pride and Prejudice is my favourite, it is so complete I wouldn’t want to change any part of it plus I married a Mr Darcy!

Jane Austen and modernity. Isn’t her success at present stunningly surprising? What is the appeal of world to  modern  readers?

I don’t find it surprising, each generation basically like the same things and Jane Austen’s novels are, to put them in their simplest form, romantic - will they won’t they novels – which also make stunning films and tv series’.

I suppose you know and meet  lots of Janeites every year and,  maybe,  all the year through, not only in September.  What kind of people are Jane’s admirers? Is there a common feature they share or are they most a miscellaneous fond crowd?

The common denominator is that they all love Austen’s  work, whether it be reproduced on film or they read the books. Other than that they are from all walks of life, male and female though the majority are female, of all ages and come from all over the world.

Now, my last request is...  How would you invite My Jane Austen Book Club readers not to miss the event and visit Bath in September ? You’ve got  50 words!

The 2012 Jane Austen Festival, nine wonderful days celebrating all things Austen in the beautiful Georgian city of Bath. Attend the world famous and record breaking Regency Costumed Promenade, plus workshops, talks, soirees, and more and don’t miss the magical and spectacular Masked Ball. Full details available from the website www.janeausten.co.uk

Thank you so much Jackie for taking the time to answer my questions. Keep up with the good work and great success with your Festival!

NEWS FROM THE AUSTENESQUE WORLD: AN AUDIOBOOK & AN ITALIAN TRANSLATION FOR CARRIE BEBRIS

Carrie Bebris has written one Mr. & Mrs. Darcy Mystery for each of Jane Austen’s six completed novels. Her Mr and Mrs Darcy Series includes: Pride and Prescience, Suspence and Sensibility, North by Northanger, The Matters at Mansfield, The Intrigue at Highbury, and the latest  The Deception at Lyme. 

Will  the series continue?  "Indeed it shall!"  - answers the author. She is presently writing the seventh book of the series. She assures:  "There is still plenty of mayhem in Regency England to entangle the Darcys, and many troublesome Austen characters they either have not seen the last of, or not yet met". 

NEW! 
An unabridged audio version of The Deception at Lyme has just released, published by Recorded Books. It is available on CD and digital Playaway, with a cassette edition scheduled for March, and as a digital download from Audible.com. 

NEW!!
TEA Books, has just released Inganno e persuasione, o: La sventurata di Lyme (Deception and Persuasion: The ill-fated of Lyme). As with TEA's editions of the previous Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mysteries, this Italian translation of The Deception at Lyme is a handsome trade paperback with a lovely cover. It is available in print and ebook formats.  Libri: IBS.it http://www.ibs.it/  eBook: Il Libraio http://www.illibraio.it

PRIDE, PREJUDICE & THE PROVERBS 31 WOMAN - GUEST POST BY SARA DAWKINS

A wife of noble character who can find? 
   She is worth far more than rubies. 
¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her 
   and lacks nothing of value. 
¹² She brings him good, not harm, 
   all the days of her life. 
¹³ She selects wool and flax 
   and works with eager hands. 
¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships, 
   bringing her food from afar. 
¹⁵ She gets up while it is still night; 
   she provides food for her family 
   and portions for her female servants. 
¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it; 
   out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. 
¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously; 
   her arms are strong for her tasks. 
¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable, 
   and her lamp does not go out at night. 
¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff 
   and grasps the spindle with her fingers. 
²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor 
   and extends her hands to the needy. 
²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household; 
   for all of them are clothed in scarlet. 
²² She makes coverings for her bed; 
   she is clothed in fine linen and purple. 
²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate, 
   where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. 
²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them, 
   and supplies the merchants with sashes. 
²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity; 
   she can laugh at the days to come. 
²⁶ She speaks with wisdom, 
   and faithful instruction is on her tongue. 
²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household 
   and does not eat the bread of idleness. 
²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed; 
   her husband also, and he praises her: 
²⁹ “Many women do noble things, 
   but you surpass them all.” 
³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; 
   but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. 
³¹ Honor her for all that her hands have done, 
   and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31 is the Bible’s most famous work on the ‘Virtuous Wife’. The list of attributes it goes on to describe can be found in Jane Austen’s most famous work, Pride and Prejudice, but in many different ways. No one character had all the traits of the virtuous woman, though Elizabeth came close.

Jane Austen’s famous work, Pride and Prejudice, was published in 1813. During that time, like in Proverbs 31, marriage was the only honorable provision for women in the class of society to which the Bennet and the Lucas families belonged. The number and kind of jobs available, especially for women, were far more limited at that time than they are today. The only respectable paid work open to a gentlewoman, the class to which the Bennet family belonged, was the job of lady companion or being a governess. Imagine being Mrs. Jenkinson- Miss De Bough’s companion- and always having to be pleasant to that insipid little hypochondriac, always under the careful watch of Lady Catherine.

It might not be as unpleasant an idea to be governess to the little Gardiner children or to the large family that you may be sure Jane and Mr. Bingley would produce, but even in such kindly households as these, a governess lived in a room close to the schoolroom, was on duty 24 hours a day, had, perhaps, a week’s holiday per year and earned between 10 and 20 pounds per year. Of course she had room and board, but you wouldn’t get rich on that salary, nor could you do much to plan for your retirement. If you did not have friendly and thoughtful employers, your life could be very unhappy indeed. You would be considered one of the ‘maidens’ from Proverbs 31, and completely under the care of your mistress. The only other decent occupation open to girls such as the Bennets was marriage, and even here it was pretty unpredictable.

Unlike the Proverbs 31 woman, their clothing was mended and re-trimmed frequently, and they had no occupation. They were merely a decoration for their husbands, and did not do any actual work. Mrs. Bennet’s frequent ‘weakness’ kept her from doing any labor, a stark contrast to the hardworking Proverbs 31 wife who was up before the sun and kept the household going. Also, the disrespectful and unruly younger children of the Bennets were utterly unlike the Proverbs 31 children who praised their mother and respected their parents. As far as stature and pride goes, the woman closest to Proverbs 31 would be Lady Catherine. She was respected and wealthy, and she dressed well and kept her house in order. However, she was not respected because of her hard work, but rather her money and unpleasant disposition.

Elizabeth is the only character to whom most of the attributes of Proverbs 31 would come into play. She was no stranger to hard work, serving others, and looked to be a great future help to her husband, despite their awkward beginnings.

Sara Dawkins 

Author Bio

Sara is an active nanny as well as an active freelance writer. She is a frequent contributor of nanny agency.  You can reach her at saradawkins61ATgmail.com.