An Interview with Maya Slater, Author of The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy

Author Maya Slater has joined us today to chat about her book The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy which has just been released in the US. First published in the UK as Mr. Darcy’s Diary, the novel is a mirror to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and told from Mr. Darcy’s perspective. This slant is certainly not new, as many other authors have given us their take on his story. Slater’s interpretation of Darcy is in turns intriguing and surprising, stirring up a bit of controversy between Austen’s fans. Everyone has their impression of who Mr. Darcy is and how Jane Austen’s characters should be interpreted in sequels. I found myself experiencing the story of Pride and Prejudice from entirely new vantage, and enjoyed her version thoroughly. 

When did you first discover Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, and what were your first impressions? 

As a tiny child I remember my mother and grandmother quoting Mr Darcy to each other: ‘In vain have I struggled. It will not do…’. The book was a much-loved family friend before I was old enough to read into the night by the light of an illicit torch. I can’t recall a time when I didn’t know of it, or remember when, not content with appreciating it vicariously, I read it for myself. 

Pride and Prejudice is one the classics of world literature. As an academic, you are trained to analyze and evaluate literature. Why do you think that Pride and Prejudice is still so valued by modern readers? 

What modern novelist would ever write such a happy book? Jane Austen gives us the joy of a fairytale ending, and yet her characters remain brilliantly real and alive. They pushed themselves into my book from time to time, forcing me to quote them verbatim: Miss Bingley with her malicious character assassinations, Mrs Bennet with her strident materialism, and, above all, Elizabeth with her sparkling wit. Pride and Prejudice is written with exquisite elegance, and yet it is utterly gripping from start to finish. It is modern and also old-fashioned – and the fact that it sometimes reflects long outdated values just enhances its charm. I could go on and on. 

Jane Austen chose to reveal the narrative of Pride and Prejudice through her heroine Elizabeth Bennet. What was your inspiration to write a retelling of the story from the hero Mr. Darcy’s point of view? 

It happened in answer to a kind of challenge, though I didn’t realise it at first. A friend asked:  ‘What book would you most love to read, if only it had been written?’  I found myself answering, without hesitation, ‘Oh, Mr. Darcy’s diary.’ I had no idea that my casual reply would stay with me for months, till I finally had to give in to the idea and start writing.  

From the beginning I wanted to stick to exactly the same time frame as Jane Austen, so I started straight in with the first meeting between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. I had never noticed how little time the two of them spend together till, shortly after they met, I found myself alone in London with Mr. Darcy, without Jane Austen to guide me through. 

In The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy the reader experiences Pride and Prejudice wholly from a male perspective. How did you put yourself in his ‘boots’ and imagine his world? 

Writing as a young man didn’t bother me at all – I’ve no idea why. What did perplex me was how to find a convincing inner voice for a character who has already been so superbly portrayed from outside. I felt it important to be faithful to Jane Austen’s portrayal, and I didn’t imagine there would be too many problems. But as soon as I sat down at my laptop, I realized that I was in difficulties. From the very start Mr. Darcy’s behaviour is strange and enigmatic. Why is he so frigid, haughty and downright rude the first time Elizabeth sees him at the Meryton Assembly? I felt he must be disturbed or angry about something. So after much thought I began my novel with a mysterious letter, just received, which greatly perturbs Mr. Darcy: in this mood the last thing he wants is to ‘gambol’ with unknown young women at a provincial ball. 

By the time I had reached the second or third day of his diary, I was already so involved that I didn’t need to ask myself what Mr. Darcy’s motives were – I found that I understood them. He’d taken over. 

Your Mr. Darcy is not the saint that some readers may have elevated him to be, partaking in Regency era activities that a man of his station would have experienced such as gambling, drinking and womanizing. His diary does reveal all his inner feeling, struggles and indiscretions, good and bad. This may surprise some readers. Could you elaborate on your choice of direction for the novel, and who your Mr. Darcy is and why? 

If I had a conscious aim, it was to be absolutely true to how a man of Mr. Darcy’s age, class and education would have lived in Georgian or Regency times. And his diary was to be an honest, unexpurgated account of his most intimate moments – he had promised as much to his mother before she died. So as my research progressed – and I did do a lot of research for my novel – I found that in his private diary he was revealing a secret life. Being a young man about town, his interests, his pursuits and the company he keeps are not what the young ladies of Longbourn would expect. Furthermore, being a man and writing for himself alone, he is not bound by the proprieties that had to be observed by Jane Austen as a lady novelist. He goes his own way – and as none of his acquaintance sees his diary, nobody will be shocked.

 The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy is, in turns intriguing, insightful and romantic. Since Pride and Prejudice is one of the greatest love stories ever written, how did you face the challenge to mirror the plot that some say is perfection? Is your Mr. Darcy truly the romantic icon that we all want him to be? 

For the plot, my instinct was to be as faithful as possible to Pride and Prejudice. But during Mr. Darcy’s long absences from Jane Austen’s novel, he was free, without interfering with her marvellous plot, to take me to unexpected places – to Lord Byron’s half-ruined gothick country house, Newstead Abbey; to Watier’s gentleman’s club to watch the Prince Regent at cards;to seedy pawnbrokers’ in unsavoury districts of London – and to other places that no respectable woman would have known about, let alone visited. And of course, during these episodes, unexpected and sometimes shocking events occurred. 

 When the time came for Mr. Darcy to rejoin the pages of Pride and Prejudice, he had to have good reasons for getting there – to Rosings in the spring, to Pemberley in the summer, back to Netherfield in the autumn. This process turned out to be far from straightforward. For example, his visit to Rosings just when Elizabeth was staying at the nearby Parsonage was deliberately engineered – read my novel and you will see how. 

His meetings with Elizabeth were kept as close as possible to Jane Austen’s account – though of course he saw these occasions from quite a different viewpoint. Occasionally, Jane Austen gave me a clue as to his movements during his absences, and I followed her lead, during his search for Lydia in London, or when Lady Catherine visited him to try to prevent his marrying Elizabeth. 

I never thought it would be possible for my Mr. Darcy to be truly a romantic icon. An icon has to be admired from the outside, not explored from the inside. I don’t think a true icon can be vulnerable and fallible either: he has to seem faultless – and, at least in part, enigmatic. So by getting under the skin of my character I have ended up finding him less of an ideal hero than before, but I do feel that I understand and like him better. 

The novel is also available as an audio book read by the velvet voiced David Rintoul who portrayed Mr. Darcy in the 1979 BBC/PBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice! What a stroke of marketing genius. What are your impressions of his performance? 

I confess that I was apprehensive before I heard the CD for myself, but I have nothing but praise for David Rintoul. His tone was exactly right – a well-bred exterior, only partly concealing the powerful emotions smouldering underneath. He read my Georgian English so simply and clearly it was a pleasure to listen to him.  

In conclusion, you have written other scholarly works, but this was your first venture into fiction. Can we anticipate any other novels in the future? 

I’ve discovered that writing fiction is an addiction. It’s difficult, toilsome and discouraging, but creating a novel is such an extraordinary experience that I can’t stop. I’m working on another book now – set some 200 years after The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy.  

I’ve really enjoyed answering your questions, Laurel Ann – they made me think about my novel in new ways. I’ll be happy to answer any queries your readers may care to make. 

Thank you for joining us Maya and sharing your insights on Jane Austen and your experience writing your first novel. 

• Read my complete review of The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy and discover why this is the Mr. Darcy you should get to know!
• Watch an interview of Maya Slater by Nina Sebastian on Youtube.

Giveaway Contest: Enter a chance to win one of two copies of The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy by leaving a question for the author here, or at my co-blog, Jane Austen Today before June 24th. Winners announced Thursday, June 25th at Jane Austen Today.   

Maya Slater was raised in Kensington, London in an enormous Victorian house that her father, an Egyptologist, and her mother a fashion-artist picked up for a song after the war and filled with a motley assortment of lodgers. In the summer they would decamp to the South of France sparking her interest to read French at Oxford and pursue a career as an academic, lecturing on French literature at London University. Along with her other academic publications, she is the author of a verse translation of six Molière plays, Le Misanthrope, Tartuffe and Other Plays, published by Oxford World’s Classics. She lives in a Victorian villa in Islington, North London, and farmhouse in France with her husband, a retired doctor. She retired from academic life to write her first novel, The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy, and also writes theatre and book reviews mainly for the Times Literary Supplement. She and her husband are currently collaborating on a book a translation of Boris Pasternak’s correspondence with his family to be published in 2010 by the Hoover Press at Stanford University.

• Visit Maya Slater at her new website. 

The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy is available for purchase online and at your local bookstore from W. W. Norton & Co. The audio book edition read by David Rintoul is available for download at Audible.com, where you can also listen to a preview. I highly recommend it.

* Photograph: Monica Garnsey 

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, by Amanda Grange – Preview

More vampires. Sourcebooks Landmark announced a major new release by the popular author of Mr. Darcy’s Diary, Amanda Grange entitled Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, available August 11th. It is a continuation of Pride and Prejudice after the wedding, and may explain some of Mr. Darcy’s cold and distant noble mien in the original novel. We recieved the scoop from Amanda Grange herself who kindly sent an excerpt to set the mood along with this image of the lovely new cover art. Mr. Darcy, Vampyre has the distinction of being the first vampire themed novel inspired by Jane Austen’s works to hit the market. I assure you that it will not be the last. At least five more are now in the queue. Here is an preview of the prologue that Amanda kindly shared with us.

December 1802 

My dearest Jane,

My hand is trembling as I write this letter. My nerves are in tatters and I am so altered that I believe you would not recognise me. The past two months have been a nightmarish whirl of strange and disturbing circumstances, and the future…

Jane, I am afraid. If anything happens to me, remember that I love you and that my spirit will always be with you, though we may never see each other again. The world is a cold and frightening place where nothing is as it seems. It was all so different a few short months ago. When I awoke on my wedding morning, I thought myself the happiest woman alive… 

Amanda clarifys by telling me that ”the book goes back to the idyllic wedding day in October and we gradually find out what has reduced Elizabeth to such a nervous state.”

You can preorder the book for August 11th delivery and visit Amanda Grange’s blog – Mr. Darcy, Vampyre – to read all the latest news on this exciting new novel. Can’t wait!

The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy, A Novel by Maya Slater – A Review

If Jane Austen thought that her novel Pride and Prejudice was too light, bright, and sparkling and wanted shade, then author Maya Slater has made up for any deficit by crossing over to the ‘dark side’ in writing her re-telling of the story entitled The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy. Not only are we privy to Fitzwilliam Darcy’s most intimate and revealing secrets, we see the story of Pride and Prejudice told wholly from the male perspective, and gentle readers, be prepared. It’s a man’s world in Regency England, and dare I say, Fitzy is no saint. 

And so it was with a heavy heart that I cracked open yet another Darcy discourse ready to rip it to shreds like Lydia Bennet’s famous bonnet. The first few entries of the diary were pleasant enough. The language and style was respectful to Austen’s, the story line consistent with Darcy’s view, and the characters well thought out. A good beginning. My interest builds as I realize that I am reliving Pride and Prejudice from a new perspective, and told by an author who understands the novel, is well researched in Regency history and can turn a phrase quite neatly. Better and better. Whoa! Darcy has just admired a housemaid’s ‘pleasing embonpoint’, removed her starched white apron and tumbled her on his bed! The hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. This is not the Darcy that we know from Elizabeth Bennet’s perspective, and the author has just made her point. 

Uncertain if I could get past this bit, I trudge on. We follow Darcy to London with his faithful valet Peebles in tow. Their Jeeves and Wooster relationship is amusing. I smile. Darcy unknowingly crumples up his leather gloves in a coat pocket, scuffs his boots, and wants to wear the wrong clothes for the wrong occasion. It is of little consequence to this wealthy and overly confident man, but Peebles is beside himself. I laugh. In addition to Charles Bingley, we are introduced to Darcy’s friend, George Byron. Yes, the poet and notorious, mad, bad, and dangerous to know Byron. He lives up to his reputation and influences Darcy into dubious deeds that most Regency men of his position in society amuse themselves with like cards, drunken debacles, and escapades with women. At this point we are experiencing Darcy from a totally male point-of-view, but the transition into events that Austen would never have included in her heroine Elizabeth Bennet’s female world, are more acceptable because this author’s skill at making Darcy’s diary so believable and amusing is effortless. By the midway point in the diary, it has become a page turner, and I am totally captivated. 

So how did author Maya Slater woo a Janeite who openly admits contempt for renovators who sex up or steal Austen’s good name? She actually did not have to. Once I abandoned my expectations of reading another sequel bent on ripping off Jane Austen’s stories or characters, I realized that this was not Elizabeth Bennet’s Pride and Prejudice, but Mr. Darcy’s, and Maya Slater was not renovating Jane or sexing up Lizzy but telling a man’s story. It made me laugh-out-loud repeatedly and revel in a love story that I read as freshly and intensely as the first time this writer experienced the original many years ago. That, gentle Austen readers, is quite an achievement. Even Mr. Darcy might consider Maya Slater worthy of inclusion in the “half a dozen women in the whole range of (his) acquaintance that are truly accomplished.”

5 out of 5 Regency Stars 

The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy, A Novel by Maya Slater
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York (2009)
Trade paperback, (320) pages
ISBN: 978-0393336368 

Please join us on Wednesday for interview of author Maya Slater, as she discusses her inspiration Jane Austen, and her  novel The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy.

• Visit Maya Slater at her new website. 

(Previously published in the UK in 2007 as Mr. Darcy’s Diary)

Jane Austen Goes Paranormal – Author Janet Mullany Chats about Austen and Vampires

The world has truly gone vampire crazy! Blame it on the Stephenie Meyer Twilight series which made hearts and flowers all over a genre which had traditionally been more bloody and less appealing to tweenage girls, and *ahem* ladies. Her aloof and pensive vegetarian vampire Edward Cullen may make hearts swoon by the thousands, but Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy has been doing the broody heartthrob thing long before Edward became an immortal, and he didn’t have to suck any blood to do it!

It was only a matter of time before the two genres collided and vampires invaded Jane Austen’s genteel world (or, had they always been there?). Besides fan fiction that has be around the net for years, the announcement last year of Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford is officially the beginning of the Austen vampire genre. As a bookseller and Austen enthusiast, all this genre bending amuses me exceedingly. When Jane Austen Today reported on The Immortal Jane a new series of vampire themed Austen inspired books in the queue, I was intrigued. Here we go, I said to myself! This latest paranormal offering is by Austen-esque author Janet Mullany. Her cheeky, sexy Rules of Gentility proved she could write about the Regency era with aplomb. It’s a good beginning. She has kindly joined us today to chat about not only The Immortal Jane series, but a second Austen paranormal novella in the works!

I have a new two-book contract with HarperCollins, starring Jane Austen. May Chen, my editor on The Rules of Gentility, asked if I could come up with an idea for something paranormal about Austen. So I said “Duh,” which is my usual writerly reaction, and went off to England to visit my aged father and did some thinking.

I’d been thinking for some time about why historical romance authors consider Jane Austen the granny of us all, and it’s because she is a master of subtext. The only way she could express sexual tension, because of her time and place in history, was by inference and subtle clues. It seems now the explicitness of historical romance means we have to find our own subtexts. (I should put in a plug here, so to speak, for the workshop Pam Rosenthal and I give, Writing the Hot Historical, which we’re giving at RWA Nationals, where we talk about this sort of stuff, and I urge everyone not to use the term pebbled nub and to read Mansfield Park.) So, I discovered another subtext throughout Austen — vampires. 

I admit this probably couldn’t have come about before Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. But I realized that there are characters in Austen’s novels who are clearly vampires –Willoughby, the Crawford’s and Wickham. They exploit and feed off others, they’re amoral and handsome and they wreak havoc. So obviously Austen knew about vampires as well as sex. In my world, vampires = the ton. I absolutely admit that I came up with the most outrageous idea I could and ran with it. 

In The Immortal Jane (working title) she joins forces with vampires to battle the invading French while she’s in Bath to take the waters. It will come out in the summer of 2010, so I’ll be very busy. The second one is ink on the contract and a twinkle in my eye. 

Also in 2010, October from Harlequin, I have another Austen exploration, a novella in an anthology tentatively titled Bespelling Jane, the brainchild of Susan Krinard, who persuaded Mary Balogh to make her paranormal debut as our headliner along with Colleen Gleason, author of the Gardella vampire hunters. We each took an Austen novel (Mary’s is Persuasion, Susan’s Pride & Prejudice, and Colleen chose Northanger Abbey); mine is Emma, my favorite Austen novel. It is a contemporary novella about a Washington DC dating agency catering to the paranormal population. Of course I was influenced by the Harry Potter books, where an alternate society of magicians exists side by side with the real Muggles world, so I have a witch on retainer to the White House, and all the lawyers are, of course, vampires. So are the cab drivers. Naiads and dryads populate the Tidal Basin and cherry trees. It was a lot of fun to write. 

So, yes, I’m becoming known as that writer who does terrible things to poor dear Jane. My theory is that Austen is a big enough girl to survive whatever I or others do to her; in fact, I think she’d find the harrumphing that’s already begun online pretty funny. 

Thanks for joining us Janet. I look forward to reading your paranormal adventures with Jane Austen in Bath, and your contemporary retelling of Emma in the new anthology. Janet has just revealed her beautiful new website Janet Mullany: Where Wit and Passion Meet designed by Haven Rich at Enchanted Web Style. It is certainly eye candy.

         

In celebration she is offering a contest with two prizes, antique prints from ca. 1818, which came from the Warwick Leadlay Gallery in Greenwich, London, specializing in maps and Nelson memorabilia. She tells me that the prints look far better in real life than they do as illustrated here, with exquisite detail and color. The contest ends August 1st so don’t delay. The immortal Jane is watching! 

About the author: Janet Mullany was raised in England on a diet of Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen, and now lives near Washington, D.C. She’s worked as an archaeologist, classical music radio announcer, performing arts publicist, copyeditor, and bookseller. Her first book, Dedication, won the 2006 Golden Leaf for Best Regency, as well as other awards.

You can find Janet Mullany on Twitter, every Thursday at Risky Regencies, and occasionally at History Hoydens.

Zombies are multiplying: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – The Deluxe Heirloom Edition

Gentle Readers: 

More zombies you ask? Yup! 

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into a bookstore, Quirk Books officially announced today a Deluxe Heirloom Edition of its New York Times bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, now with 30% more zombie action – yes – that’s 30% more bone crunching and brain eating zombies populating Jane Austen’s gently refined prose. 

From our perspective, it appears that zombie fans felt slighted after the text of the first edition only included 15% gore and goo in comparison to 85% classic literature and demanded more gruesome zombie action. To compensate, co-author Seth Grahame-Smith has taken a second crack at it by expanding the story. Let’s hope that none of Austen’s text was whittled out to make room! 

In addition to the expanded zombie mayhem, the Deluxe Heirloom edition includes lots of plush additions which you can read more about it at our co-blog, Jane Austen Today .

The new edition is due out November 1st (just in time for Holiday shopping) and you can pre-order you copy today. Quirk has also invited readers to join its recently launched Quirk Classics Facebook page where on July 15, 2009 at midnight, it will be announcing the next monster lit mash-up in the Quirk Classics series. Oh dear! Who’s next? Charlotte Bronte? Shakespeare? Charles Dickens? We are all anticipation! 

One of 13 new illustrations in the new and improved Deluxe Heirloom edition of Pride and Prejuice and Zombies. Charlotte Lucas marries Mr. Collins. She would have to be a zombie to agree to that!

Catch up on the zombie bedlam by reading our review of P&P&Z. We thought it a great high concept parody, but purist Austen fans are forewarned!

• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Jane Austen Ate Our Brain Long Ago 

A Body at Rest, by Susan Petrone – A Review

Try if you can, to imagine two twenty-something over-educated cocktail waitresses, bored with their lives, embark on a road trip of discovery, end up in an Iowa cornfield, get tattoos, and begin transforming into their favorite fictional characters – Don Quixote and Emma Woodhouse. Whoa! The title A Body at Rest appears to be a total play on words. 

I’ll admit immediately that if the main character Martha Andrevsky had not morphed into a character created by Jane Austen, I would not be reviewing this book. The fact that she is becoming Emma Woodhouse is truly intriguing. Of all of Austen heroines, she is the most fallible with plenty of defects to play off of: snobbery, intolerance, condescension, manipulation, meddlesomeness, ignorance and on and on! The potential for a hilarious transformation was ripe with reproof. 

This novel originally caught my attention as a semi-finalist in the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Consequently, there are numerous beaming five star reviews on Amazon by readers who only read an excerpt. That can be misleading to potential buyers unless they see what is happening and try to fish through the reviews and find someone who actually read the entire novel. They are there, and they are positive too. I was ready to suspend disbelief and give this first time author my unerring attention. 

Martha and her roommate Nina return home to Cleveland, Ohio from their self actualizing sojourn to Iowa with new tattoos, no jobs, and odd things happening to them. Martha is speaking with an English accent, has a desire to wear a Regency frock and bloomers that mysterious appeared in her bedroom, and Nina is growing inches a day, sprouting a beard, and something else much more distressing that is definitely male. When Martha had secretly wished for something magical to happen to her to change her life, she never imagined that becoming a fictional character would be the answer. Neither did Nina! Besides the physical transformation that Martha and Nina are experiencing, they are starting to think and talk like the characters which further complicates interaction. When Martha becomes concerned for Nina’s declining health, she takes her to a clinic to be evaluated by doctors who are baffled by her symptoms and complaints ordering tests at the local hospital. Once there, she can no longer control her Don Quixote impulses; her affected speech, uncontrolled outbursts and growing appendage becomes unexplained ‘complications’ that the hospital staff resolves by placing her in the psych ward. Martha defends her friend against over zealous medical staff and is arrested and banned from the hospital. Now she needs others to help get her out, and calls in the big guns – her mother and Nina’s father, explaining the whole unbelievable story to them. They finally suceed in ’breaking’ her out of the hospital, but Martha and Nina have had enough. They just want their own identities back and the logical solution is to go back where it all started, the tattoo parlor in Iowa. 

Author Susan Petrone has taken a quirky paranormal concept, laced it with literary allusions and created an imaginative story with a surprising ending. This high concept novel was an ambitious undertaking for a first time novelist who obviously enjoys titling at windmills. Martha and Nina’s transformation into Emma Woodhouse and Don Quixote was gradually complete right down to its fateful fictional conclusion. Even though we did not see as many personality foibles that make Jane Austen’s Miss Woodhouse so endearingly flawed as I would have wished, nor was Don Quixote quite so delusional, the plot line parallels to Emma and Don Quixote were very fun to discover. Unfortunately, at times I felt disconnected to the story and wondered where it was all going, craving more laughter to help it along. I tried to stay open to the possibility of her two fictional characters becoming fictional characters and interacting in the real world, but their full potential was never reached to my satisfaction. In the end I can recommend it to readers who enjoy contemporary fantasy, but would forewarn Janeites that this is definitely not your mothers Emma Woodhouse, only a milder version of her. 

3 out of 5 Regency Stars 

A Body at Rest, by Susan Petrone
Drinian Press, Huron, Ohio (2009)
Trade paperback (264) pages
ISBN: 978-0982060919

I met Mary Bennet today. I kid you not!

Mr. Bennet’s expectations were fully answered. His cousin was as absurd as he had hoped, and he listened to him with the keenest enjoyment, maintaining at the same time the most resolute composure of countenance, and, except in an occasional glance at Elizabeth, requiring no partner in his pleasure.  

By tea-time, however, the dose had been enough, and Mr. Bennet was glad to take his guest into the drawing-room again, and, when tea was over, glad to invite him to read aloud to the ladies. Mr. Collins readily assented, and a book was produced; but on beholding it (for everything announced it to be from a circulating library) he started back, and begging pardon, protested that he never read novels. Kitty stared at him, and Lydia exclaimed. Other books were produced, and after some deliberation he chose Fordyce’s Sermons. Lydia gaped as he opened the volume, and before he had, with very monotonous solemnity, read three pages, she interrupted him with –  

“Do you know, mama, that my uncle Philips talks of turning away Richard; and if he does, Colonel Forster will hire him. My aunt told me so herself on Saturday. I shall walk to Meryton to-morrow to hear more about it, and to ask when Mr. Denny comes back from town.”  

Lydia was bid by her two eldest sisters to hold her tongue; but Mr. Collins, much offended, laid aside his book, and said – 

“I have often observed how little young ladies are interested by books of a serious stamp, though written solely for their benefit. It amazes me, I confess; for, certainly, there can be nothing so advantageous to them as instruction. But I will no longer importune my young cousin.” The Narrator, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 14 

If anyone doesn’t know, I am a bookseller at Barnes and Noble, and we get asked the most amazing questions. There is never a dull moment. One of my managers wants to write a book about it. I can add a few stories of my own. Here’s one for Janeites! 

I met Mary Bennet today! 

My coworkers all know I am a Jane Austen enthusiast. I wear it as a badge of honor. Some of them track me down when customers have Jane Austen questions. So today amongst the bustle of a Saturday, I hear an overhead page for me and head over to the information desk. There, I was introduced to a serious looking young woman with glasses who needed help finding Fordyces Sermons. I kid you not! She had read about them in Pride and Prejudice and wanted to read them herself! 

As I stifled a giggle and looked at her with a straight face, I told her what little I knew of them, and that I was doubtful that they were still in print, but I would do my best to search them out in my database (BookMaster, which is like a book geeks playground of every book being published in the US). No luck. She looked at me in total dejection! To buoy her spirits, I told her that she may have more luck at her local library since they were written over 200 years ago, and I would do my best to discover more online (thank goodness for the Internet) and if successful, I would  write a post about them on my blog. So here goes. 

Sermons to Young Woman (1760), or Fordyce’s Sermons as they were informally called, are a two-volume compendium of sermons written and compiled by Dr. James Fordyce (1720-1796) a Scottish clergyman, and were quite popular among clergy and personal libraries in the late 18th-century. The sermons, “which seem to encourage female subjugation to male preferences and emphasize a feminine mannerliness of speech, action, and appearance over substantive development of ideas, seem hopelessly outdated and chauvinistic.” The reference seems even more absurd fifty years later when Jane Austen chose to have her character the Reverend Mr. Collins read them to his young cousins instead of a more entertaining novel.  In the eyes of his cousins and the reader, his selection confirms him as a total buffoon, his lopsided judgment and outmoded opinions are totally disagreeable to anyone with an ounce of sensitivity. It is interesting to note that Dr. Fordyce did not marry until eleven years after its publication. It obviously took him many years to find a woman to meet his standards, or one that would overlook his opinions. You can actually read volume one and two online in an 1809 edition through Google Books. The sermons expound on womanly virtue, meekness and servitude. Here is an excerpt from the preface for your amusement. It was as far as I dare venture, hearing Mr. Collins in every sentence! 

The preacher is willing to hope, that women of most conditions, and at all ages, may meet with some useful counsels, or some salutary hint, should curiosity incite them to look into these discourses. Should any of those young persons in genteel life, to whom they are chiefly addressed, deem the reprehensions they contain too severe, or too indiscriminate ; he can only say, that as all are dictated by friendship no less than by conviction, so he wishes it to be understood, that many were occasioned by a particular observation of those characters and manners which are esteemed fashionable amongst the young and the gay of this metropolis. 

In the country (a denomination which, as matters are commonly conducted, he can by no means allow to the neighbourhood of London) the contagion of vice and folly, it may be presumed, is not so epidemical. In short, he is persuaded, that women of worth and sense are to be found every where, but most frequently in the calm of retreat, and amidst the coolness of recollection. pp iv 

There can be nothing so advantageous as instruction. Yes, thank you very much Mr. Collins!

Austen Book Sleuth: New Books in the Queue for June

The Jane Austen book sleuth is happy to inform Janeites that many Austen inspired books are heading our way in June, so keep your eyes open for these new titles.

Fiction (prequels, sequels, retellings, variations, or Regency inspired)

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, by Laurie Viera Rigler

Twenty two days and counting to the highly anticipated parallel story of author Laurie Viera Rigler’s best selling Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. This time around it is Regency era Jane Mansfield who is transported into the body of 21st-century Courtney Stone, and confronted head on with the modern world, resplendent with iPods, television and modern mores! (Publisher’s description) While Confessions took twenty-first-century free spirit Courtney Stone into the social confines of Jane Austen’s era, Rude Awakenings tells the parallel story of Jane Mansfield, a gentleman’s daughter from Regency England who inexplicably awakens in Courtney’s overly wired and morally confused L.A. life. Jane relishes the privacy, independence, even the power to earn her own money. But how is she to fathom her employer’s incomprehensible dictates about “syncing a BlackBerry” and “rolling a call”? How can she navigate a world in which entire publications are devoted to brides but flirting and kissing and even the sexual act itself raise no matrimonial expectations? Even more bewildering are the memories that are not her own. And the friend named Wes, who is as attractive and confusing to Jane as the man who broke her heart back home. It’s enough to make her wonder if she would be better off in her own time, where at least the rules are clear—that is, if returning is even an option. Dutton Adult, ISBN: 978-0525950769

The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy: A Novel, by Maya Slater

Previously published in the UK as Mr. Darcy’s Diary, Maya Slater’s clever, funny and insightful novel was my favorite Jane Austen inspired book of 2007.  Now, this controversial look at Pride and Prejudice from Darcy’s perspective has been transported across the pond, renamed, and will be storming the American colonies on June 15th. This look at Mr. Darcy’s private diary may be a shock to Austen purist, but in my humble opinion, he is the Darcy you should get to know. (Publisher’s description) Literature’s most famous romantic hero opens his diary: it’s intimate, dramatic, deeply passionate, and sometimes downright shocking. Have you ever wondered what Mr. Darcy was really thinking? Find out his secrets in this captivating novel of love, pride, passion, and, of course, prejudice. Mr. Darcy’s intimate diary reveals his entanglements with women, his dangerous friendship with Lord Byron, his daily life in Georgian London, his mercurial mood swings calmed only by fisticuffs at Jackson’s—and, most importantly, his vain struggle to conquer his longing for Elizabeth Bennet. W.W. Norton & Co, ISBN: 978-0393336368

Prada and Prejudice, by Mandy Hubbard

Not an Austen knockoff per se, but close. This young adult novel appeals to this not so young adult too! (Publisher’s description) To impress the popular girls on a high school trip to London, klutzy Callie buys real Prada heels. But trying them on, she trips…conks her head…and wakes up in the year 1815! There Callie meets Emily, who takes her in, mistaking her for a long-lost friend. As she spends time with Emily’s family, Callie warms to them—particularly to Emily’s cousin Alex, a hottie and a duke, if a tad arrogant. But can Callie save Emily from a dire engagement, and win Alex’s heart, before her time in the past is up? More Cabot than Ibbotson, Prada and Prejudice is a high-concept romantic comedy about finding friendship and love in the past in order to have happiness in the present. Razorbill, ISBN: 978-1595142603

Miss Bennet & Mr. Bingley, by Fenella J Miller

I like to support emerging authors and this first effort gives us a new perspective on two characters from Pride and Prejudice that have not been over done, yet! The cover art by Jane Odiwe (Lydia Bennet’s Story) is enchanting. (Publisher’s description) In Miss Bennet & Mr. Bingley, Fenella J Miller returns to Jane Austen’s best loved novel, Pride and Prejudice, giving an insight into both Charles and Jane’s private thoughts through that difficult year. We discover what Jane did in London and how Charles filled the days until he was able to return to Netherfield. This book takes us past the wedding – when Kitty Bennet becomes the heroine of the hour. “Jane Bennet is in the spotlight in Fenella-Jane Miller’s delightful novel. We see Jane’s growing love for Bingley as well as her view of Elizabeth and Darcy’s unfolding relationship, and we find out what happened to her in London when she thought all was lost. Humorous, engaging and true to Jane Austen’s world, this is a charming read for Austen fans.” Amanda Grange is the bestselling author of Mr. Darcy’s Diary. Park Publishing, ISBN: 978-0956153104

The Other Mr. Darcy, by Monica Fairview

For UK readers, watch for this creative new novel focusing on Caroline Bingley and Mr. Darcy’s American cousin! US readers will be happy to know that Sourcebooks has picked up the paperback rights and The Other Mr. Darcy will be available with a beautiful new cover and a longer title starting in October. (Publisher’s description) When Caroline Bingley, for the first time in her life, collapses to the floor and sobs at Mr. Darcy’s wedding, she does not think anyone is watching. Imagine her humiliation when she discovers that a stranger has witnessed her emotional display. Miss Bingley, understandably, resents this unknown gentleman very much, even if he is Mr. Darcy’s American cousin. And a year later, when she is forced to travel to Pemberley with him, she still has not forgiven him. But her attempts to snub him fail completely, and, as the Bennet’s descend upon them, she finds herself spending more and more time in his company, with her rigid standards of behaviour slipping slowly away…Is there more to the infamous Miss Bingley than meets the eye? And can this other Mr. Darcy break through her reserve? Robert Hale Ltd, London, ISBN: 978-0709088110

The Corinthian, by Georgette Heyer

The next installment by Sourcebooks of Regency romance queen Georgette Heyer’s classic novels is the reissue of The Corinthian which was originally published during war torn Britain in 1940. It is as welcome to readers today as it was sixty-nine years ago. (Publisher’s description) Georgette Heyer presents her sparkling wit with a Shakespearean twist. Walking home at dawn, quite drunk, Sir Richard Wyndham encounters heiress Penelope Creed climbing out her window. She is running away from a dreaded marriage to her fish-lipped cousin, while Sir Richard himself is contemplating a loveless marriage with a woman his friends have compared to a cold poultice. Sir Richard can’t allow her to careen about the countryside unchaperoned, even in the guise of a boy, so he pretends to be her tutor and takes her on a fine adventure. When their stagecoach overturns, they find themselves embroiled with thieves, at the center of a murder investigation, and finally, in love. Sourcebooks, Casablanca, ISBN: 978-1402217692

Nonfiction 

Jane Austen and the Enlightenment, by Peter Knox-Shaw

This scholarly treatise is now available for the first time in paperback for those, like me, without deep pockets. It amazes how Austen’s prose style is dissected and compared to everyone and anything. Scholars can not agree when the age of Enlightenment started and ended, but its principles of self actualization certainly apply to Austen characters and plots. (Publisher’s description) It is now widely understood that Jane Austen’s writing and thought derived directly from her late eighteenth-century childhood, but astonishingly this is the first study of the influence on Jane Austen of the Enlightenment. In drawing out the Enlightenment principles and ideas which lie behind much of Austen’s writing, Peter Knox-Shaw brings a whole new perspective to the study of Austen’s novels. Jane Austen and the Enlightement is essential reading for all those interested in Austen and her writing. Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 978-0521759977

Relocating Shakespeare and Austen on Screen, by Lisa Hopkins

Professor Lisa Hopkins, a Shakespearean expert, chats about Austen film adaptations and reinterpretations: Bridget Jones’ Diary, Bride and Prejudice, Becoming Jane, Pride and Prejudice (2005) and two of the 2007 adaptations: Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey. Not much room left for Shakespeare, but Janeites won’t mind. (Publisher’s description) Lisa Hopkins analyzes eight film adaptations which have taken either Shakespeare or Jane Austen – icons of Englishness – out of their original geographical or cultural context and transposed them to a new location, allowing for a powerful interrogation both of what these texts mean in the modern world, and of Englishness itself. Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN: 978-0230579552

Austen’s Contemporaries

Castle Rackrent (Oxford World’s Classics), by Maria Edgeworth

From Maria Edgeworth’s perspective, it is easy to see why she disliked Jane Austen’s novel Emma, claiming “there’s no story in it.” I respectfully disagree with her opinion, and so do many, but she preferred instead to write about a larger sphere than “two or three families in a country village” and delved into areas where Austen never chose to tread: politics, religion and social unrest. Sir Walter Scott thought both writers were brilliant, so that evens the score. (Publisher’s description) With her satire on Anglo-Irish landlords in Castle Rackrent (1800), Maria Edgeworth pioneered the regional novel and inspired Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley (1814). Politically risky, stylistically innovative, and wonderfully entertaining, the novel changes the focus of conflict in Ireland from religion to class, and boldly predicts the rise of the Irish Catholic bourgeoisie. Set in Ireland prior to its achieving legislative independence from Britain in 1782, Castle Rackrent tells the story of three generations of an estate-owning family as seen through the eyes — and as told in the voice — of their longtime servant, Thady Quirk, recorded and commented on by an anonymous Editor. This edition of Maria Edgeworth’s first novel is based on the 1832 edition, the last revised by her, and includes Susan Kubica Howard’s foot-of-the-page notes on the text of the memoir as well as on the notes and glosses the Editor offers “for the information of the ignorant English reader.” Howard’s Introduction situates the novel in its political and historical context and suggests a reading of the novel as Edgeworth’s contribution to the discussion of the controversial Act of Union between Ireland and Britain that went into effect immediately after the novel’s publication in London in 1800. The second edition now includes new notes informed by the latest scholarship. Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN: 978-0199537556

Until next month, happy reading!

Laurel Ann

Catharine and Other Writings, by Jane Austen (Oxford World’s Classics) – A Review

“Beware of swoons, Dear Laura …  A frenzy fit is not one quarter so pernicious; it is an exercise to the Body and if not too violent, is, I dare say, conducive to Health in its consequences — Run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint –”  Letter 14, Laura to Marianne, Love and Freindship 

Jane Austen grew up in the perfect fertile environment for a writer. Her family was highly educated and passionate readers, including novels which were considered by some in the late 18th-century as unworthy. Educated predominately at home, her father had an extensive library of classics and contemporary editions at her disposal. In her early teens, she began writing comical and imaginative stories for her family and close friends as entertainments and transcribing them into three volumes that would later be known as her Juvenilia. The plots and characters of these short stories are filled with unguarded satire, comical burlesque and “splendid nonsense”; — shrewd parodies of contemporary novels, historical figures and even her own family engaged in unprincipled deeds: lying, cheating and occasionally murder. Described by her father as “Effusions of Fancy by a very Young Lady Consisting of Tales in a Style entirely new”  they represent the creative beginnings of a clever and perceptive mind whose skill at keen observation of social maneuverings and the importance of wealth, so valued in her mature works, are apparent from the early beginnings. 

If you have consumed all of Austen’s major and minor novels, this reissue by Oxford University Press of their 1998 edition is an enticing treasure. In Catharine and Other Writings, we are introduced not only to a writer in the making, but a collection of prayers, poems and unfinished fragments of novels written in maturity and rarely reprinted. As with the other Oxford editions of Jane Austen’s works reissued in the past year, this edition contains excellent supplemental material: a short biography of Austen, notes on the text, a select bibliography, a chronology of Austen’s life, textural notes, insightful explanatory notes and a superb introduction by prominent Austen scholar Margaret Anne Doody that details the inspiration from her family and her environment that influenced and formed Austen’s creative mind.  

“Jane Austen was not a child as a writer when she wrote these early pieces. She possessed a sophistication rarely matched in viewing and using her own medium. She not only understood the Novel, she took the Novel apart, as one might take apart a clock, to see how it works – and put it back together, but it was no longer the same clock. Her genius at an early age is as awe-inspiring as Mozart’s.” pp xxxv 

What I found so engaging in this collection was the lightness and comical devil-may-care freeness in Austen’s youthful approach. It was like a rush of endorphin to a dour mood, taking you outside of your troubles and elevating you into a magical world of a youthful imaginings and farcical fancy. I have several favorites that I will re-read when I need a laugh, especially Love and Freindship, The Beautiful Cassandra and The History of England. Not all of the works are comical. When Winchester races  is a verse written when Austen was mortally ill and dictated from her deathbed to her sister Cassandra three days before her death. It is her final work. A moralistic piece, it resurrects the ghost of St. Swinthin who curses the race goers for their sins of pleasure. 

When once we were buried you think we are gone

But behold me immortal! 

An interesting choice of subject for the last days of her life, and ironic in relation to what acclaim she has garnered since she has gone. Like St. Swinthin, Jane Austen is indeed immortal! 

4 out of 5 Regency Stars 

Catharine and Other Writings, by Jane Austen (Oxford World’s Classics)
Edited by Margaret Anne Doody and Douglas Murray
Oxford University Press, USA (2009)
Trade paperback, 424 pages
978-0199538423

Jane Austen Selected Letters (Oxford World’s Classics) – A Review

“You deserve a longer letter than this; but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve.” Jane Austen, 24 December 1798 

Jane Austen’s personal correspondence has stirred up controversy since her untimely death in 1817 at age 41. The next year her brother Henry Austen wrote in the ‘Biographical Notice of the Author’ included with the publication of her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion that she ‘never dispatched a note or a letter unworthy of publication’. Years later, a niece Caroline Austen did not agree, ‘there is nothing in those letters which I have seen that would be acceptable to the public.’ In comparison to her published works, the letters do dwell upon ‘little matters’ of domestic life in the county, but to the patient reader we begin to understand Austen’s life and experiences beyond the minutia and realize through her clever descriptions and acerbic observations how this simple parson’s daughter became the author of novels that are so valued and cherished close to 200 years after their publication. 

This reissue by Oxford University Press of their 2004 edition of Jane Austen Selected Letters is more than worthy of a second printing. Not only does it include two thirds of the known surviving letters and a thoughtful introduction by scholar Vivien Jones chronicling the history of the letters stewardship with the family, its supplemental material alone makes it an incredible value for the price. As with the other Oxford World’s Classics of Austen’s major and minor works that have been reissued this past year, it includes a brief biography, notes on the text, a select bibliography, a chronology of Jane Austen’s life, and explanatory notes. Unique to this edition, and by far the highlight are the glossary of people and places and the detailed index for quick reference. 

For students and Austen enthusiast seeking a compact edition in comparison to the comprehensive and hefty Jane Austen’s Letters edited by Deirdre Le Faye, this reissue is a sleek and densely informative package. Usually I abhor abridged editions of anything, but in this instance we are given an excellent selection of letters and a lively introduction at less than a third of the price of its competitor. In this economy, I say better and better.   

4 out of 5 Regency Stars 

Jane Austen Selected Letters (Oxford World’s Classics)
Selected, introduced and notes by Vivien Jones
Oxford University Press, USA (2009)
ISBN: 978-0199538430