“England isn’t like Harry Potter,” she snapped. “It’s the other way around!

“…you idiot.”

OK, that last part was implied. But I see her point. It belittles England to compare it to just one of the works of literature it has produced. I mean, calling England “Harry Potter Land” is like calling New York “Gossip Girl City” or San Diego “Ron Burgundy Town.” But I wonder how many Americans do this, because these windswept moors are so “Jane Eyre”:

And the Georgian streets of Bath are straight out of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion”:

And I’m not idiotic in pointing out the connection to Harry Potter here:

I mean, this is a country that has a whole wing of its most famous Abbey dedicated to its great poets, playwrights and authors. In the very same building, mind you, as the remains of centuries of its most powerful rulers, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I included.

Americans, where’s our joint monument to Kerouac, Hemingway, Wharton and Melville? I’ll tell you what: it’s definitely not next to major memorials in DC, and it definitely DOESN’T EVEN EXIST.

This makes England, not America, the perfect country for a pilgrimage. And I don’t mean a medieval-style, cloak-wearing, drag-your-knees-through-the-mud cathedral pilgrimage, although England has plenty of opportunities for that, too.

That shit’s for peasants. And I’m not a peasant.

I’m a nerd.

And like all nerdy trips, it was with my mom, an English professor and reader extraordinaire. Mom and I powered through a series of author holy sites. And, to our delight, we found that England really is like [insert book title here].

Gloomy and creepy in the best possible of ways

First up, Haworth, England—the dismal, windswept home of the Bronte sisters.

We had to wake up at 5 a.m. to catch a train there, spend about four hours in transit, then walk through the shabby little town of Keighley. But once we finally arrived in the picturesque, hilltop town of Haworth, we knew it was totally worth it.

First off, it was easy to see why the Bronte sisters were such masters of the dark-and-romantic vibe. The fields behind their parsonage home are wildly romantic. And the view out front? A graveyard.

But the high point of this visit, and maybe even the high point of our whole trip, was the walk through the moors we took afterward. When they say the English countryside is beautiful, this is what they’re talking about.

We were AMONG the sheep. AMONG them. In strangers’ fields.

“EW THEY’RE ACTUALLY POOPING!” -what I’m saying as this photo is being taken

Lost in Austen, but mostly a sea of tacky merchandise

Our next stop was the Jane Austen Museum in Bath. Honestly, it’s cheesy, and rather small. The museum workers dress up in awkward period clothing and sell “I <3 Darcy” tote bags. But the museum redeemed itself when a curator gave us a lecture, which was *nerd alert* a fascinating look into Jane Austen’s life.

Plus, they had this:

This.

And, not to worry—the trip to Bath was totally worth it. The town itself is an eye-pleasing assortment of Roman columns, limestone buildings and picturesque streets. Not to mention, it’s an easy daytrip from London.

The Birthplace of Harry Potter books, not the actual Harry Potter because he doesn’t exist

Yeah, I said it: Harry Potter ISN’T REAL. I’m not big on Harry Potter. Sue me.

But on our weekend trip to Edinburgh, we literally walked past the café where J.K. Rowling wrote the first few books, and we happened to be hungry.

All my friends ask if I felt “inspired” being there, like in a fantasy-book-writing kind of way, but I didn’t. I mostly had to pee, which was fortunate. Because the bathroom was the coolest part.

In the BR, or as our British cousins call it, the loo, fans scribble messages to Rowling, Harry, Dobby or whomever inspires them in the Harry Potter world. Even for a Scrooge like me, it was heartwarming. Maybe even enough to make me reconsider my dislike of all things Hogwarts.

Well, we’ll see.

The rest of our trip was spent strolling past statues, staring at graves in cathedrals and quizzing each other on who-wrote-what. Oh, and rolling our eyes at fellow train passengers. More on that later.

Jane Austen- Pride and Prejudice

Sammy is adjusting really well, with only a few minor set backs of peeing when excited and not wanting to eat outside his kennel. Anybody have any tips for house training dachshunds?

Jane Austen for President bumper sticker.

As the political season heats up I thought I’d introduce a little added civility to the mix with these bumper stickers (and sister lawn signs and t-shirts) supporting the REAL tea party candidate, Ms. Austen.

My favorite novel of all time is Pride and Prejudice by the lovely Jane Austen, so I try to read any and all sequels of P&P whenever I can. I had heard about this novel from the Jane Austen blogs/twitters that I follow, but never picked it up till it was on sale at Barnes & Noble. Anything that has to do with P&P is worth a shot…

The year is 1803, six years after Elizabeth and Darcy married. They are settling into their lives at Pemberley, with two wonderful boys, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth and Darcy’s love is as strong as ever, as they prepare for Lady Anne’s ball (which was a ball held every year by Darcy’s mother). Elizabeth is taking over the duties of mistress of Pemberley, as is evident from her planning of the ball that Lady Anne used to throw. They are a happy family, with regular visits from Jane and Bingley and Georgiana growing up into a beautiful women who maybe getting married soon (2 candidates to choose from there). There are no major problems in their life and they are content to live the rest of their days at Pemberley. All that is bout to change when, the night before the ball. Darcy, Elizabeth, Jane, Bingley, and others are relaxing in the drawing-room, when Darcy notices a wildly careening carriage coming down the lane to Pemberley. This can only bring bad news, and all of them run to the door to find out what is wrong. The carriage opens and a hysterical Lydia falls out screaming and crying that Wickham is dead. The shock to everyone is immediate. They are all stunned as they take in the information that Wickham could be murdered (and privately they are all thinking, why the hell is Lydia here…she is never invited to Pemberley). As Lydia sobs, the story comes out. Wickham, Lydia and Captain Denny were travelling together and Lydia was going to be dropped off a Pemberley for the ball (a surprise to Elizabeth and Darcy, since she wasn’t invited) while Wickham and Denny would travel on. In the Pemberley woodlands, Denny got out of the carriage and refused to go on with Wickham. Denny walked into the woodlands and Wickham followed, all the while Lydia was screaming for them to not leave her. Minutes passed, Lydia heard gunshots and became hysterical and told the coachman to drive to Pemberley straight away. Upon mounting a search for Wickham, Darcy, along with Colonel Fitzwilliam and a young lawyer named Alverston, found Denny dead in the woods, with Wickham leaning over the body covered in blood and shouting that he had killed his friend. The body, carried, back to the house by Darcy and the Colonel, where the constable and magistrate will come to view the body. After interviewing all the guests and servants at Pemberley, the magistrate takes Wickham into custody to await an inquest (which is where it will be decided if he is guilty and will move on to a trial). Wickham, thought of as guilty at the inquest, will await trial in the spring. As the story progresses, the Darcy’s become embroiled in the scandal and are trying to learn the truth of what really happened that night. The book ends with the culmination of the trial, where we all find out what truly happened in the woods.

As I said above, I love sequels to P&P, so I try to read as many as I can. Trust me, there are some good ones out there. To me, however, Death Comes to Pemberley was not one of them. I really could just not get into this book. There was too much narrative and not enough character interaction. This book is obviously geared towards readers who have read P&P, but she spent so much time with background into the characters and the story before this story. It all felt redundant and there was too much explanation of every little detail. I read these sequels because I want the magic of P&P to continue; I want to see the characters after they got married. I don’t, however, want a story that is all narrative especially when it is narrative that I have already read. To me, the story really did not start getting interesting till pg. 195 (out of 291 page novel) when the trial began. That is when the story started progressing and you finally got the characters interacting with each other. Really, until this last part, Darcy and Elizabeth didn’t speak but more than two sentences to each other (come on!). The premise of the book was interesting, I enjoyed the macabre sense of death being brought to the wholesome world of Pemberley and Jane Austen. That is something that is not done often with sequels to P&P, so it was a good start. Yet, the book just didn’t take off. It was a slow read (it took me 5 days to read it) and I really could not get into the novel at all. 

That being said, P.D. James is a good writer and she really was thoughtful in how she portrayed her Austen characters. They stayed true to the sense of Jane Austen, which is most important when writing a sequel. She is a strong writer with good skills and maybe this book can appeal to some. I just couldn’t get past the no interaction between characters. I really wanted to like this book…

Rating: 150 pages out of 500.

Upcoming: Juliet by Anne Portier and Deadlocked by Charlane Harris.

Laters, Baby

Tori

A couple mysteries, two biographies, and a novel.

127) Until thy Wrath is Past by Asa Larsson (kindle) #15

Bettan and Simon are young people in love with adventure and each other.  And then they mysteriously die on a dive to see a crashed airplane in a remote lake.  We are led through another murder investigation in Sweden’s far north on the Finnish border with Rebecka Martinsson, now District Prosecutor.

This investigation brings her back into collaboration with the local police and unravels old, treacherous bonds dating to World War II when Sweden allowed all combatants to travel across the country to war with each other.  Bully brothers and elderly friends and family play key roles in determining exactly what happened and why.

I continue to enjoy Rebecka’s character and learning more about this tiny village where she grew up.  I grew up in a town probably about the same size and understand how intertwined and complex histories can become – although I didn’t know of any murders.  Accidental deaths aplenty (kids with a shotgun, drunk driving, kids on a motorcycle, kids swimming etc.).  These books bring together Rebecka’s struggle to find her way and define herself with her deep determination to figure out what happened to the voiceless murder victims.

505) Headhunters by Jo Nesbo (kindle, library) 

This, the latest Jo Nesbo a famous Norwegian mystery writer, is somewhat different from his other books (that I’ve read).  For one, Harry Hole never appears.  For another, we have a story told by a murder victim.

Roger is a top headhunter in the Oslo area working hard to match clients with employers or employees.  He is under massive financial stress as he has works to make up for his lack of height and beauty by providing his wife, Diana, with more than he can afford: gallery, million dollar house, everything but the baby she so desperately wants.  As he works over his clients, he undercovers their art collections for his sideline of art thief.

Diana brings Roger together with Clas Greve, executive extraordinaire, and the perfect addition to Roger’s stable of clients.  But Roger quickly learns that Clas isn’t his normal client intimidated by his use of interrogation techniques to manipulate and score.  And so begins a cat and mouse game involving an endless process of humiliation and injury, including a smash up with a tractor trailer, being buried in human waste in an outhouse, and a strange and unappealing mistress.

This book kept me going, but often skimming through to get to the major plot points.  None of the characters are particularly likeable, but the action is good and Nesbo leaves questions and mysteries sprinkled throughout.  I have The Snowman and The Redbreast left to read – I’m hoping they involve Harry Hole again (actually, The Redbreast is the 3rd Harry Hole, and the first translated into English).

506)  Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of Childhood in India by Madhur Jaffrey (library, hard copy)

Oh, Madhur, how I love thee!  My absolute favorite food writer and cookbook author.  A wondrously gifted writer, actress, and restauranteur, Jaffrey has written a fascinating story of her privileged mid-20th Century upbringing.

Madhur grew up in a huge extended family with multiple adult siblings living together with their father, the patriarch, in a massive enclave.  Surrounded by cousins, she spent her childhood playing, studying, and eating.  Of course, the descriptions of food are to die for (real Indian food is my favorite to eat and to cook) and Jaffrey includes some recipes at the end.  But I have several of her great cookbooks already, so I doubt I’ll be trying to make these.  This is the marvelous story of a very different way of life, told by someone who has lived in the United States for decades at this point in her life.

507) Affairs at Thrush Green by Miss Read (hard copy, library)

Miss Read, or Doris Jessie Saint, died last month at 99.  So, this seemed a good time to read some of her work.

She is known for the lengthy Fairacre and Thrush Green novels of rural English life.  This 1983 book is about midway through the series.  And you can tell – I got out my notebook to try to keep track of all the characters and quickly filled a page with them.

These books were mostly written in the 70s-90s (!) and they idealize British village life that is likely largely gone.  So far, nothing too shocking – everyone is well-mannered, in an old-fashioned way, although eccentrics and resentments abound.  This book reminds me of the Miss Marple series (which I love) but is maybe a bit less knowing.  It is enjoyable, but I don’t envision gathering up all the other books in the series and charging through them – Pym’s funny and smart portrayal of village life is a bit more my style.

508) Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin (kindle, library)

I haven’t read Austen in a long, long time, but I’m enjoying this biography of her very much.  As Tomalin (who has also written biographies of a long list of Victorians: Dickens, Shelley, Wollstonecraft, Shelley) explains, writing an Austen biography is very challenging as her letters were largely destroyed by family and she left no childhood diary.  So, Tomalin pieces together her story from the writings of her family and contemporaries.  Austen grew up as a member of a large pastor’s family surrounded by her brothers and the boys of the small boarding school her family ran.

Jane would have been a lot of fun.  She was something of a tomboy and began writing very early, with stories and plays staged by her friends and family.  As so many middle class and upper middle class British families of the 19th Century (I’m thinking of Trollope here) had, the Austens were connected to royalty and wealth, although they themselves had to work hard to finance their large family.  Tomalin brings Austen and her family to life and I expect I’ll read more of her biographies at some point.  And soon I’ll have to dive into some Austen as I find if highly enriching to read an author’s work after learning something of their life.

Ticks and Black Flies

This is a shot from my recent camping trip at a national forest campground I like a lot.  Many of the campsites there are right on the lake, as you can see this one is.  The tradeoff is that this campground tends to be pretty buggy.  You can see my new Coleman “Eight Person” (why do tent makers always exaggerate how many people can comfortably sleep in their tents?) Instant Tent (with rain fly – extra).  As a single woman, I love a great tent but I need to be able to get it up solo.

Coleman brags that you can set this tent up in a minute (and they provide a video showing how it is done) so, of course, the WWW abounds with videos of people making attempts on a one minute setup.  I largely set it up in my backyard to test it out (bummer to get out in the woods and find you can’t set your tent up!) and to learn if I could get it back in the bag after (a common complaint in reviews).  I was able to do both, but was a bit chagrined to learn that I should have fully extended the upper poles before the lower poles – something I didn’t learn until I was in the campground trying (vainly) to outrun an incoming storm.  On one hand, the tent doesn’t need super-detailed directions, but on the other hand, some would be helpful – I didn’t find the heavily image-oriented directions provided to be as useful as I would have liked.

But, ultimately, I was able to get the tent and rain fly up completely solo and the next time around, it will be much easier. And yes, I got it back in the bag.

I LOVE this tent.  I got it mainly because, after last summer’s multitudes of bugs, I wanted a screen house, and, as you see, it has one in front.  This is a really big tent and there is no way I could erect it alone unless it was “instant.”  I’m satisfied with the ease of setup and the tent is perfect for me and the three dogs.

When I’m camping, the dogs spend a lot of time in the tent – dogs sleep most of the time, and they prefer, as we do, to be free of biting insects.  So, they quickly learn that the tent is a refuge and beg to be let back into it when the bugs get bad.  I’ve seen more black flies, no see ums, and mosquitos on other trips, but it was fairly bad this time around (they decline in the drier months of July and August) so the dogs made good use of this spacious tent.

I spread out copious blankets etc. to give the dogs some cushion – usually we’re all a bit crammed together, but not in this tent.  And I really liked having my front “porch” screen house.  Not only did it give me more space for stuff, but I could also set a chair up in front and read in the evening hours – allowing the dogs a better rest (as I was with them) and saving us all from our devourers.

This is a very tall tent (perhaps 6 feet inside).  The only thing I didn’t like about it is the front, main zipper.  As many other reviewers noted, it is tough to get this zipper up and down – forget one-handed (which is desirable), even two-handed is hard. Those brilliant tent engineers (who hold the 50% of US ingenuity not being used by dog costume designers) aimed to make an incredibly water-tight zipper, but in the course of doing so they made the cloth on either side of the zipper really wide and it gets caught nearly every time you use it (not to mention the clever velcro strips along the sides which don’t make things easier).  But you get used to it.

Another challenge was finding a suitable ground cloth (to protect the tent bottom and keep it dry) – I ordered a 10 x 14 foot one, but the company I ordered from didn’t fill the order, so I made due with a partial one. I’m going to try again with another company – the bottom on the tent is sturdy, water-proof and of a bath tub design (it extends up the side of the tent about six inches, providing extra protection).  But we were on top of gravel and I worried about the wear and tear on even such tough material and, because this tent is like an expandable umbrella, it is challenging to completely dry the external bottom after use.

The many windows and ceiling vents make this an airy tent – arguably, the rain fly is not necessary, but I like having that extra insurance against storms which, with climate change, seem to be getting more common and extreme up here (and we just had four thunder and lightning storms in just one week).

A highly recommended tent!  Would be great for a family with kids – it comes with a black partition, which I didn’t use, but it would provide a bit of privacy and allow parents to hang out in front at night when the kids are sleeping in the back.  Parents with a couple kids could be very comfortable sleeping together in the main part – but you could easily put more people in front – the screen room has the same ability to be buttoned up and closed in as the rest of the tent.  Eight adults would be pushing it – definitely would be cheek by jowl.  If you are looking for a very flexible tent, this is a great one.  It also comes in 6 and 10 person versions.

Happy reading, Ruby

I can’t really call this a review because I don’t think I’m anywhere near qualified to be reviewing a classic, especially as great a satire as this book is, but as a critique I think that there is quite a lot of detail that could easily have been left out because it has nothing to do with the story line at all. Granted it was written at first in installations through a newspaper, which makes more sense, but it took me quite a while to get through it because of all the unnecessary details that I wasn’t sure if I would need to remember for later in the book or not.

I really like Thackery’s own description of it as a “novel without a hero.” Although if it had to have a hero, I feel like it would be Dobbin, because of his unceasing love for Amelia, his perseverance, military prowess, and the fact that he will not lie – although he does allow others to keep their own assumptions by not correcting them. Dobbin is the character who I think most readers want to finally win the girl, rather than George, who squanders all his money in gambling and doesn’t even really love her or care about her.

I have now started my readings for my Jane Austen class with Northanger Abbey. I’ve read it before, a few years ago, and still find it a really interesting story. Austen is very good at making you sympathize with different characters. But, the way she writes also leads the thoughtful reader to feel sympathy for the characters who are the antagonists of the piece, in this case Mr. Thorpe.

I also have the good news, going away from the book side of my blog, that Zach is bringing me two band tshirts! This is great because I’ve been wanting to put together a more punky style outfit that still looks put together and acceptable for women in their 20s, rather than for 16-year-olds. He is coming in late tonight from his trip to Texas, so hopefully I will have some new outfits up tomorrow and Monday! I also just bought two new Lilly Dresses! I got the Kori dress in chum bucket print, and the Adeline in white.

Art is endless like a river flowing,
passing, yet remaining, a mirror to the same
inconstant Heraclitus, who is the same
and yet another, like the river flowing.

- Jorge Luis Borges, from The Art of Poetry

To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well; and professing myself moreover convinced, that the General’s unjust interference, so far from being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength to their attachment, I leave it to be settled by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.

- Jane Austen, from Northanger Abbey

This game is seven-card stud.

- Tennessee Williams, from A Streetcar Named Desire

More final sentences from literary works of all sorts at “The Final Sentence.”  (Even more here– from whence the end tile card, above.)

***

As we sum up, we might send carefully-composed birthday wishes to Alexandr Sergeyevich Pushkin; the Russian author was born on this date in 1799 (using the calendar then in effect in Russia).  Pushkin was born into the nobility, an achieved literary acclaim early in his creer.  But his free-thinking bought him trouble with the Tsar.  Indeed, it was while he was under surveillance by the Imperial secret police that he wrote the work for which he’s probably best known, Boris Godunov.

(The people are silent with horror.)

- The stage direction that is the last line of Boris Godunov

 source

I am thrilled to have you here and to start this blogging journey with you. I have wanted to start a blog for quite some time and, now that I am a college graduate ready to start my teaching career, I am ready to take on this adventure. I am slowly but surely finding my purpose for this blog—I’m thinking a lifestyle, food, style, and teaching blog rolled into one—and hope that it can continue to expand and grow as I meet life’s challenges.

So why would I choose The Modern Austen for the title of my blog? Here’s where the English nerd in me comes out…In college, I wrote my senior capstone project on Jane Austen, exploring why her novels remain timeless and relevant even in the twenty-first century. I also explored how each new age takes Austen and redefines her to meet their needs. What’s great about Austen is that she is not a cookie cutter; she is useful. She is relevant. Austen may touch upon classic themes and ideas, but that’s what makes her so helpful to modern audiences. We all need a little tried and true advice from time to time. (I promise I won’t go into the 30+ pages of my capstone to explain this, but I hope you get the picture!)

Now, I certainly don’t claim to be the modernized version of Austen or even believe I have the authority to give advice or make claims about modern society, but I hope that my blog always maintains the same spirit as Austen’s novels do. I hope it is classic, yet modern, simple, and refreshing, and that it always encourages women (and maybe men, too) to strive for both “freedom and fairy tales,” or rather the independence to live freely without giving up the pleasures of love, friends, and family.

I assure you that all of my posts won’t be as in-depth or serious, but I believe that this purpose and spirit unifies all that I stand for. I am always open to feedback and ideas, so please don’t be shy! It will probably take a while for this blog to stand on its own two feet, so I would appreciate your patience along the way!

Austen writes about the above events in the letters, but there are others about which she is silent. This could be because she and her sister Cassandra, the main recipient of her letters, were together, but it could also be because Cassandra destroyed selected letters after Jane’s death in 1817. One event not in these letters is the famous proposal by Harris Bigg-Wither in 1802. Austen accepted the proposal but the next day changed her mind, and promptly left the Bigg-Wither home with Cassandra. It was a distressful situation, as the Bigg-Withers were family friends.

Something else she doesn’t talk about in this selection of letters is her writing. She didn’t write a lot during this time, and nothing, as far as we know, from the time of her father’s death until they settled in Chawton in 1809. But, she did revise Northanger Abbey (then called Susan) in 1802, selling it to a publisher in 1803, and she started her (unfinished, as it turned out) novel, The Watsons, in 1804.

So, there’s quite a bit she didn’t talk about – in the surviving letters – but there’s still plenty to interest here. These letters were written when Austen was aged 25 to 30 years old, years when she was still relatively young but old enough to have some experience of the world. As with the later letters, there’s a lot of gossip and chat about family and friends, but there are signs of the novelist she was becoming, in addition to insight into life in Georgian England.

As with my last post on her letters, I’ll use headings to structure my discussion.

Georgian England

Jane Austen wrote novels about her own era and in many ways her letters replicate in reality much of what we learn from her fiction. She describes, in these letters, modes of transport and particularly travelling arrangements for women, the boats her Naval brothers worked on, accommodation hunting in Bath, fashion, card games, balls and food. All of these we find in her novels – sometimes with barbed effect.

I particularly liked her descriptions of place. Here is Bath, soon after her arrival:

The first view of Bath in fine weather does not answer my expectations; I think I see more distinctly through rain. The sun was got behind everything, and the appearance of the place from the top of Kingsdown was all vapour, shadow, smoke, and confusion, (Letter 35)

And a little town called Appleshaw:

that village of wonderful Elasticity, which stretches itself out for the reception of everybody who does not wish for a house on Speen Hill (Letter 30)

How could someone who writes that not be a novelist!

Lyme, as Austen readers will know, is where a major scene occurs in Persuasion. What, though, do you think she thinks of the place when you read this description of

a new odd-looking man who had been eyeing me for some time, and at last, without any introduction, asked me if I meant to dance again. I think he must be Irish by his ease, and because I imagine him to belong to the hon(ble) Barnwalls, who are the son, and son’s wife of an Irish viscount, bold queer-looking people, just fit to be quality at Lyme

On her self

Not surprisingly, we learn quite a lot about Austen, directly and indirectly, through these letters. We learn much  about her likes and dislikes. She’s interested in fashion but she doesn’t like “tiny” parties with only a few people “to talk nonsense to each other”. She spanned the Age of Reason and of Romanticism, but she’s more a child of the former: she highly values “wit”, a word that appears repeatedly in her descriptions of people, often defining whether she likes them or not, and she approves rationality. “To be rational in anything”, she says, “is great praise” (Letter 43).

We also learn something about her character. She’s stoical, for example, writing about a disappointment that “there is nothing which energy will not bring one too.” (Letter 33).

Clergy

If you’ve read Jane Austen you know that she has pretty definite ideas on the clergy. She ridicules pomposity (Mr Collins in Pride and prejudice) and vanity (Mr Elton in Emma). She admires sense and responsibility (Edmund in Mansfield Park). I had to laugh, then, when I read this in her letter:

You told me some time ago that Tom Chute had had a fall from his horse, but I am waiting to know how it happened before I begin pitying him, as I cannot help suspecting it was in consequence of his taking orders; very likely as he was going to do Duty or returning from it.  (Letter 44)

How I wish I could write letters like this!

Observations of people

It is her observations of people, however, that most delight readers of her letters and show us her novelistic eye in the making. In this group of letters, for example, is a wonderful description of an older woman that doesn’t take much to remind us of Emma’s Miss Bates:

Poor Mrs** stent! it has been her lot to be always in the way; but we must be merciful, for perhaps in time we may come to be Mrs** stents ourselves, unequal to anything & unwelcome to everybody. (Letter 44)

I would not have wished our Jane to have ended up as impecunious as poor Miss Bates, but I do wish she’d lived a bit longer to give us more novels and more letters to enjoy.

Note: This is my fourth post on Austen’s letters. The first covered her letters from 1814 to 1816, the second from 1811 to 1813, and the third from 1807 to 1809.

Today marks the first…I want to say annual but it won’t be annual so…first sporadic book haul!

Check out my new little gems.

Update: Once I finish a book I’ll add a link to the review. Try clicking on the book covers to see if there is a review available.

Lost In Time By Melissa De La Cruz

Pride & Prejudice By Jane Austen

Across The Universe By Beth Revis

Firelight By Sophie Jordan

Be sure to stay tuned! I’m currently working on two different book challenges, the  100 Book Challenge by BBC and a Personal Book Challenge. These books will appear on those challenges and once I finish them I will post links to the reviews.  

Have you had any good book hauls lately, or have a suggestion of a book I should put on my challenge? Leave a comment below.

Happy Reading!

1. I like to smell books, especially old ones.

2. I cringe when people overuse exclamation marks!!!! (See, that was an incorrect use. One exclamation point is unnecessary, and four is just ridiculous.)

3. I cried when I visited Jane Austen’s grave.

4. When I’m writing and I need to invent new words for a story, I read etymologies of related words for inspiration or as part of my new words (then I realize several hours later that I’m just having fun reading etymologies).

5. I love learning random facts. For example, did you know that the “y” in “ye” (as in Ye Olde Shoppe) was actually an abbreviation for “th”? So, Ye Olde Shoppe is actually The Olde Shoppe. (Thank you, QI.)

What about you? Any geeky facts you’d like to share about yourself?

The film is based on the children’s books by Gideon Defoe, and is silly, daft and…jolly good fun. The books are Douglas Adams-y in tone, and revolve around the hapless goings-on of The Private Captain and his crew. The crew are a rum bunch and are never individually named. They are merely referred to as The Albino Pirate, The Pirate with Gout, The Pirate with a Scarf and …The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate (And yes, no one guesses she  really is a girl…the beard no doubt helps her in her disguise-see below)

The Pirate captain is dim and ineffective, and the story revolves around his Parrot ( really a Dodo-see below) his quest to be Pirate of the Year, the crew’s love of ham, Charles Darwin( Yes, the Charles Darwin) and his monkey, Mr Bobo and ….Queen Victoria. Its all rather silly and yet rather magnificent at the same time.

Jane Austen appears, totally anachronistically, for the film  is set in 1837, in a tavern scene, ( Tavern scene!) and it is a fleeting appearance so if you do go to see the film, keep an eye out for her. I won’t give away the joke, save to say it involved the Pirate Captain and the Elephant Man.

The cast is tremendous. Hugh Grant voices the Pirate Captain beautifully and David Tennant is poor Charles Darwin. As is typical of Aardman animations, there is a lot going on around the main action and visual jokes abound. I thoroughly enjoyed this silly, funny film. Despise me if you dare.

Here’s the trailer to tempt you:

In fact, I originally thought to post one simple recommendation to my readers because I felt that those who appreciated me might appreciate it as well, but then-in true Oprah fashion-I thought you’d like to hear more about my favorite things.

So, let us begin with my first recommendation. I am an Austen-ophile. That is, I love Jane Austen‘s literature. In the course of my internet obsession, I fell upon the knowledge of this little endeavor: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Now the link you see there is the link to the archive, there are 14 episodes so far and they are only a few minutes each. Watch them all. This vlog is a very clever modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice . The character depictions are adorable.

Felicia Day (Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

Next, probably should have come first, but I originally thought to just recommend LBD because I felt it fit with my possible demographic (I say that like I have enough followers to have a demographic, ever optimistic). However, I have to give credit where it is due…. Here the credit belongs to Felicia Day. I am a gamer chick… a redhead gamer chick. I am socially awkward and I love Jane Austen. Felicia Day is a (self-proclaimed) socially awkward redheaded gamer chick that has an obsession with Lord Darcy (an Austen character). There are more similarities, but details escape me at the moment. I joke with my husband that she is a celebrity version of me. I heart her.  So, when she started a vlog, I subscribed. She does an “Oprah-esque” segment detailing her “Fave Five” each week on the vlog. One week, she professed her love for Lord Darcy and introduced me to the previous new favorite (see above). Her vlog, aptly named The Flog (F as in Felicia), is a gamer-stylized show where Felicia talks about things she likes, answers questions (by typing and mailing an actual note to the asker), and learns new skills (i.e. unlocks achievements) in things like blacksmithing and crocheting. It’s very fun. Watch it.

And finally, the source of The Flog, Geek and Sundry. (This is proving to be the inception version of my favorite things….) Geek and Sundry is this great collaborative effort to provide a one-stop-shop for vlogs and webisodes that appeal to the gamer crowd. It houses The Flog, The Guild, TableTop, and many other fun things. It just started a weeks ago, so get in on the ground floor and stop by! If you haven’t checked it out…. do it.

Related articles

• Catching up on Geek & Sundry! (comicbooked.com)
• Felicia Day Brings Down the Hammer on THE FLOG (comicbooked.com)

Part 1-The Road of Politics has a lot of Potholes and certainly no true friends

As mentioned a couple posts ago Warren Hastings, who was the first Governor of India, is a fascinating Regency Era study since many believe him to be the natural father of Eliza de Feuillide, who married Henry Thomas Austen, the brother of Jane Austen.

That connection, provides many of those who love novels of the Regency, and Jane Austen, a connection. Real history, interacting with our literary giantess.

As with the OJ Simpson trial, a few years ago, this trial between 1788 and 1795 was the big court case of the times.

What we see is that the door to a greater discussion of what was happening in India and what the East India Company was doing came about.

Hastings became Governor General of India in 1773, after 23 years with “The Company”. Appointed by Prime Minister North whose government was also those party in charge when the British lost the American colonies.

A great deal of the foundation of the impeachment trial was based on the governing Calcutta Council that Hastings led as Governor General. He had one man who was in opposition to nearly all that he did. Sir Phillip Francis and he disagreed so much that they even fought a duel, which Francis was wounded in. Francis then returned to England and began to raise questions about Hastings conduct. He found support in the Whigs who were in opposition to Lord North’s government.

After this, the Second Mysore War came, when Mysore thought to take on the British while they were heavily involved in the American colonies. The war ended with the status quo from when it started. However, back in England much was made of the company’s mismanagement, and thus Hasting’s position.

The many wealthy nabobs who returned to England were quite unpopular, and Francis’ attacks did not make Hastings any better received. Then after the Fox government fell, Charles James Fox attacked Hastings as well. Pitt made no mention of Hastings in introducing a new India Act in 1784 and this was seen as the government not supporting the Governor General.

Hastings returned to England in June of 1785. On the return journey, he wrote The State of Bengal the defense of his conduct. He expected to be attacked by Parliament and the press when he returned but it to be short lived.. King George III gave him an audience and he received a unanimous vote of thanks by the East India Company when he returned. He even thought he might get an Irish peerage. Edmund Burke who is regarded as the father of Anglo-Conservatism, supporter of American Independence and opposed to allowing the French such rights, though, had other plans for Hastings.

In reviewing the material of what the politicians were up to, it seems that Hastings was a nice little scapegoat for the opposition party to embarrass Prime Minister Pitt’s government. Francis (and one can only surmise that he hated that he lost to Hastings in India, and then was wounded by him as well in their duel) made eleven specific charges against Hastings.

William Pitt finally said, after defending Hastings against all charges, that perhaps one action, the punishment of the Rajah of Benares, was excessive. Hastings was arrested on May 21, 1787 and taken to the House of Lords to hear the charges against him. Not often had the house of Lords had an Impeachment trial.

The Regency Timeline

My previous posts I’ve explained that I was working on the Regency timeline. I posted my entries for 1788 thru 1791. Now I have the entrees for 1792 and have uploaded all these years to the Regency Assembly Press website. You can see a little preview of this below in the picture.

My sources which include the Internet and The Timetables of History by Grun and Stein as well as the Chronology of CULTURE by Paxton and Fairfield should cover a lot of events. There are now over 5000 listed for the period between 1788 and 1837 when Victoria comes to the Throne. I have also just found a third book I own with timelines in it, very USA centric though. What Happened When by Carruth.

I may post a year at time every so often in between scanning through all these to find something that will be a good article for this blog and the blog at English Historical Fiction Authors. I will also have the full listing up shortly at Regency Assembly Press.

Those who have feedback, it is appreciated or if someone would like a specific year in a future post. The very first entry is to show who was Prime Minister of Great Britain, later it was the United Kingdom, during the period of the chronology. In choosing our dates, 1788 is the first sign of madness in George the III, it is the beginning of the end of the French Monarchy with the riots in Paris, it is the time when the mama’s of the girls during the true Regency would be girls going to London for their own season, and when our heroes are young lads or babes as well.

We need to know of the events that occurred when they were children, as well as what happens when they are on stage in our stories.

Click on the link below or the picture to go to the entry. More years coming. The list is now over 5000 event entries long and growing.

Regency Assembly Press 1792 Tineline

The Writing LIfe

I am now 130+ pages (over 40,000 words) on A Magician Murder Mystery. A had a good idea for a mystery, with a twist. What if the sleuth is a magician. I am looking for readers for this. Thirty years ago I wrote a mystery. And this is now my second. The first I know needs help. This though is working well. But then, a mystery needs a little more care I think then my regencies, etc. I could use other eyes if anyone is interested to be sure that I am hiding the clues well enough. That, the plot flows, and that the reader can put the entire thing together by the end.

I enclose a few more paragraphs from the first draft and first chapter for perusal.

Chapter 1 continued

He then started his coin tricks. He went amongst the kids and palmed and hid coins about them all. Bertlestein had gotten him fifty coin dollars. That was just the number for the kids that the Bar Mitzvah boy had invited. Bertlestein forgot that he had nephews and nieces, kids of friends. There were closer to eighty, then fifty. Yet as Eric went about placing dollars about, he did not seem to rub out. He put coins in pockets, in little handbags. He performed card tricks and found that he had decks of cards with all 52 cards, rather than the select few he would need to force the hand.

Shame that the alcohol infused memory was not for a crowd of adult women. Then he could have slipped some of those dollars into bras, down dresses. With thirteen year old girls, he had to be creative with the placement of the dollars. Nothing that would make their parents think he was some kind of pervert. He loved playing for fraternities where he could palm a coin provocatively, and he got college gigs twice a year or so. There were a lot of colleges in Los Angeles, and they all wanted the woman sawn in half.

That old standby was a trick he couldn’t do, but when one frat had hired him, he told the brother in charge of entertainment that such a trick would add a two thousand to his fee. He had to hire the assistants. That they couldn’t be sorority girls from the crowd. And the marks didn’t know that there had to be two of them, and that they had to be short, thin and bendable. If he let the man boy who was in charge of entertainment know that, then it was like giving away the secret. Eric had always kept the price beyond the budget for the event.

Only once had anyone ever taken him up on it, and three days after he had booked that gig, he made up an excuse and cancelled so he did not have to perform the trick. He knew how. He had done it twice. But he had the habit of getting flustered with the big tricks. At least he had gotten so once.

That was why he and Lance were friends. They both had their shot at the Palace of Magic on the same day. Lance’s show had done great. Eric had ended up tongue tied.

A surprise that with what he had drank at the Bertlestein party, he hadn’t ended up tongue tied. He went on to do other tricks, but they were expected, and he had all his props and gimmicks for them. They came out correct. They came out the way he was sure they would.

He switched to coffee for the rest of the afternoon and night. He had to be sober enough to drive. A DUI and his car and driving privileges would be gone, and in Los Angeles, getting around without a car was not easily done. A DUI also would not look good at Wal-Mart. He pretty much believed that if he was booked for that, he would be let go. The big corporate giant didn’t seen to have much patience for screw-ups, and what Eric did at Wal-Mart wasn’t something that ten thousand other people couldn’t do with ten minutes of training.

Playing with the deck of cards, Eric stopped thinking about the Bar Mitzvah and focused on his practice. Or rather, doing his best to manipulate the cards without watching them. His peripheral vision coming into play. Not that he could concentrate on his surroundings while working the trick.

He felt the presence of Lance sliding into the seat across from him in the diner’s booth, rather than saw it. When Eric looked up, he saw that Lance looked harried.

“What, bad night?”

“Sort of. You know, Sunday night.” The Palace of Magic was dark on Monday, so Lance had the night off. Then he worked Tuesday, off Wednesday, and Thursday thru Sunday. Two performances on Saturday, two on Sunday, when he was in town. But Sunday was brunch and early birds. Never packed out.

Eric knew that even though he had only performed there once, for a Sunday brunch performance. That was when the new acts were tried out. The marks always seemed to appreciate it. Almost always. You had to be a truly bad act to be booed. Something Eric had remembered well.

“Yeah, I know that feeling.” Eric said, thinking that maybe he sounded successful.

Lance looked at him, sweeping a hand up to try and straighten out his hair. That was different since his hair was generally perfected, as if he had seen his own stylist before coming to breakfast.

“Look, Jenny’s coming. She still doesn’t get it so be cool, will ya. Nothing dirty.” Lance said. He then pointed at Eric and motioned for him to move over. “Make some room, okay?”

Eric looked at his coffee for a second. Lance did that sometimes. Invited others to come to breakfast. Jenny, if Eric remembered, was the new assistant. One of them, because you always needed two, if you were going to do some of the big illusions.

“Jenny! Over hear!” Lance looked up and called. Eric glanced at his watch. 9:30.

“What did you tell here, be here at 10?” He asked.

“Yeah, now scoot over.” Lance ran his hands through his hair again. Then let out a smile. Mussed hair, a girl who was there early.

Eric shoved his buttocks over, and then mouthed, “You scored.” Lance must have had sex the night before. He probably came from leaving his lover to breakfast.

Lance smiled wider and nodded, then motioned with his hands that Jenny was to sit down next to Eric. “Yeah. Hey there Jenny, you remember me telling you about my best friend in LA, Eric? This is the man. I was just telling him how shitty things were at yesterday’s performances.”

Eric said, “Hi Jenny. Nice to meet you. Lance said you were the star of last month’s Vegas show. Told me that you had the audience eating out of your hand.” They had been friends seven years and change. He owed Lance. He owed Lance alot. More than once he had been short in the rent, and somehow Lance knew and covered him until he could repay a loan.

No interest, no questions, and no pressure. Lance even had brought Ephron Calman to breakfast twice, trying to get the man to give Eric another chance at the Palace of Magic. Ephron knew he had to play nice with Lance, his star attraction. Eric did get a yearly gig at the Palace. Two weeks during the christmas season he had a table doing sleight of hand in the downstairs lounge. The watering hole for the cheap marks.

But it was a gig, and it was professional. That counted for something.

It was at the Palace of Magic.

That counted for a great deal more than something.

Eric owed Lance. And he wasn’t trying to keep score. When he was younger, when he had hope and ambition he might have been a score keeper. He might have known how many favors he was ahead of Lance, or actually how many favors Lance might have been ahead of him. But he gave up trying to keep track of that. Maybe when he started drinking more, he gave up keeping track.

“You’re the magician Lance is always talking about. His ‘inspiration.’ ” She was pretty. Blonde, and natural since she was out in the day. Eric had done a study of magicians assistants from when he first started to training and kept his tally on this subject. On stage, 4 out of 5, like the toothpaste commercial, were blondes. Or the wigs they wore made them blondes. To use the second assistant in the act, the one the marks didn’t know about, there were a lot of women who wore blonde wigs in the business. Something then didn’t have to do when not performing.

It was all part of the illusion.

“I don’t know if I inspire Lance all that much,” she said. Soft voice, Eric noted. That helped with the assistant the audience saw for most of the show. You could give them speaking lines. Some of the girls could speak two words together and not sound like cutting glass. They were the ones who might also have careers with the number signs at boxing matches. Great bodies in skintight clothes.

Not a lot of clothing, though in the Magic game, they often had sequins and trains on their dresses, depending on the trick. Lance, Eric knew, had his girls do four changes in an hour’s act.

“Hey buddy, you are a great inspiration to me. I got lucky, thats what the TV and Vegas deals are all about. You are in the trenches working hard and honest for every dollar you make. Ask anyone at the Palace and they’ll tell you there is more nobility in the money you earn than in what Calman pays us.” Lance said.

Eric knew that was a lot of smoke. Lance worked hard for his money too. They all started with the same repertoire. The floating man, the rabbit in the hat, the sawing a girl in two. It was how they put the act together, what they said, how they looked for a magician had to be pleasant to an audience as well as the girls. Then, to make your act break out, that was where a magician shown. New illusions. If you could come up with good ones, and not just the Houdini escape pieces, you could headline at the Palace, or get gigs on the late night shows. Get weeks in Vegas.

Siegfried and Roy like wealth and fame. Copperfield, Henning, Burton, Penn and Teller. Not that they were idols for Eric. They were good mostly. Well Penn and Teller made him laugh, and it was Henning’s act when he was younger that gave him the bug.

“Some days I would trade being an inspiration for some more cash.” Eric said with a lopsided grin.

Jenny turned and looked at him, probably seeing if he was joking like friends did with each other. “You shouldn’t say that. Either of you. I think magicians are some of the hardest working performers in the business. I was doing commercials before this. This is much harder.”

Eric did not have a comeback for that. He would have thought commercials were hard. She was a pretty young woman. Eric knew he was cynical from the hard years out in the cold that he endured. For a young woman like Jenny, not having caught a big break, she could be doing everything and anything to pay the bills. Working conventions and trade shows, which so many girls did. A booth babe. She had the looks that would make her some money doing that.

“You are such a dear,” Lance said. “You see Eric, didn’t I tell you. Jennifer is earnest about all this. Not jaded like you and me. Shhh. I am teasing. Well a bit. I guess I am a little jaded, but have I got something to tell you! I’ve thought up some new ideas for not just one trick, but a series of connected tricks.” Betsy came just then with a little serving tray. It had the carafe of coffee and two cups.

“Mr. Silverton, what can we get you today. Eric’s already ordered his usual. And the lady, would you like coffee too?” She took one of the cups and placed it before Lance. Betsy had been their waitress for two years or so. She knew they both drank coffee, and those other times that there was someone else, coffee was the safe bet.

“Oh, yes. A coffee and just some toast, please.” Jenny said. Still sounded pretty. Like soft syrup. Assistants came from the many girls trying to break into show biz. Jenny may have been the best thing at whatever high school she had come from. Then, perhaps going to one of the theater and stage programs at the local universities. Could she sing with that voice? Did she not get any nibbles from agents and representations? Eric bet she must have gotten something. Commercials and then someone hooked her up with Lance for his Vegas gig. She must have known someone somewhere. Lance hired out of Los Angeles so he could train with the girls before taking them to Sin City. Eric had no true knowledge of the life of pretty girls in Vegas, but he expected that they worked the shows for as long as they could, then had to resort to the life of the escort, which the yellow pages of Vegas was filled with ads for.

Lance egged Jenny to order more than toast, and she relented. She ordered a fruit bowl as well. Not nearly as much food as Lance had tried to get her to eat. But sensing no way to get her to order more, he placed his own order and Betsy left.

Whatever use the imagination productions of other peoples–predecessors, ancestors, or distant cousins–can have for our moral lives, then, it cannot be to simplify them. The image of the past (or the primitive, or the classic, or the exotic) as a source of material wisdom, a prosthetic corrective for a damaged spiritual life–an image that has governed a great deal of humanist thought and education–is mischievous because it leads us to expect our uncertainties will be reduced by access to thought worlds constructed along lines alternative to our own, when in fact they will be multiplied….the growth in range a powerful sensibility gains from an encounter with another one, as powerful or more, comes only at the expense of its inward ease.

Geertz wrote this in response to not just anthropological theorizing and speculation, both amateur and professional–about ‘other peoples’–but to the worries expressed by Lionel Trilling about ‘the basic assumption of humanistic literary pedagogy’  (in ”Why We Read Jane Austen’ Times Literary Supplement, 5 March 1976, pp 250-252) that no matter how great the distance in place, period and sensibility between us and those that inhabit the pages of literature, the author could  bring us closer, illuminate our lives, and make us aware of who we ‘already were.’ Trilling’s discomfort with this assumption arose from his feeling–as Geertz notes–that

[T]he significant works of the human imagination…speak with equal power to the consoling piety that we are all alike to one another and to the worrying suspicion that we are not.

So the ‘social history of the moral imagination’ is a task of considerable hermeneutic difficulty, one that must confront the difficulties it poses in the ‘instabilities’ it creates, all in an effort to make them relevant to the ‘social frame’ we inhabit.

The working example of such an engagement that Geertz provides is the recently departed Paul Fussell‘s The Great War and Modern Memory, which took on the archaic literary frameworks that were first utilized in perceiving and recollecting the First World War, and then later, were extensively reconfigured to amend–and give shape to–the modern imagination. Fussell’s ambitious conclusion was that the predominance of the ‘ironic’ in the modern was a painful reaction to the Great War, that what we call the ‘modern understanding’  is a sensibility that had found pre-existing literary, poetic and imaginative resources inadequate to do justice to the physical and emotional realities of the Great War’s torn and foul landscapes, soaked by the blood of millions of young men, sent to their deaths by incompetent war pigs.  This imagination was ‘shattered into thousand pieces of sour irony’ by this encounter; the modern imagination was the result of putting these pieces back together, over an extended period of time, painfully and slowly, by those who were present, and those who were not.

Geertz uses this history to suggest that,

[T]his is how anything imaginational grows in our minds, is transformed, socially transformed, from something we merely know to exist or have existed, somewhere or the other, to something which is properly ours, a working force in our common consciousness.

In remembering Paul Fussell, we should thank him for having documented such a transformation as vividly and powerfully as he did.

Note: I intend to write a few more notes here in response to Geertz’s collection.

I have been celebrating WTD since 2004. Created by Tarot Reader Den Elder, WTD has expanded enormously as interest in the Tarot, it’s rich history, and because of the always uncanny and synchronistic RIGHT ON  intriguing self- reflective insights  the Tarot always offers.

The Tarot is a sacred path to enlightenment and Tarot fascination grows minute by minute. There are over a thousand Tarot decks published now, in the 60′s there were only 20. There are always 78 cards in a real Tarot deck. There are many other ORACLE type decks which are very nice, angels etc. but aren’t true tarot decks. 

Starting the archetypal journey with ZERO -THE FOOL , there is

#1 The Magician, #2 The hIGh Priestess, #3 The Empress, #4 The Emperor, #5 The POPE, #6 The LOVERS.

#7 The CHARIOT , #8 Justice, #9 The HERMIT, #10 The Wheel of Fortune, #11 Strength #12 The Hanged MAn

#13 Death, #14 Temperance or Art #15 The Devil, #16 The Tower { 911}  #17 The STAR,  #18 The MOON, #19 The SUN,

#20 Judgement or The Aeon and finally #21 The World

 an entire Archetypal journey

the MOSt popular RIDER WAITE TAROT DECK

There is a  tres modern artsy punky funky Steampunk Tarot

There’s one of my favourite’s is the INNER CHILD TAROT which I use for children’s parties, It is one of my daughter Leah’s favourites since she was a young girl. The Inner Child is a brilliant rendition which takes Fairy Tales and fits them perfectly into a standard 22 major arcana set.

For example Little red Riding Hood is The Fool.

There are Feminist decks, decks based on Rumi’s poetry and a famous Tarot deck from a James Bond movie

there is a LORd of the RINGS Tarot

Gandalf of course is the MAGICIAN, the Wheel of Fortune is the ring of Power itself

There are baseball Tarot decks, housewife Tarot decks,

there is a ZOMBIE TAROT

 there is a HELLO KITTY TAROT DECK

and there is of course an idea I had but someone got to it before me

a Rock and Roll Tarot Guess who is THE EMPEROR Trump # 3

For the literary and higher cultured  there’s a Jane Austen Tarot deck

You get the picture. I am in process of developing my own Tarot deck….

MAy 25 MOON enters LEO at 3:11 pm PDT/ 6:11 pm EDT and in honor of WTD

I am giving away special  discounted readings and I will donate 10% of all proceeds to a charity

The offer to order a special reading is ONLY available for ONE DAY ONLY! MAY 25  ORDER NOW : http://www.taratarot.com/

Here is a pic from Nikki De St. Phalle’s TAROT GARDEN in Tuscany. I will be making a pilgrimage there this summer.

if you’ve been to Tuscany to see the Tarot Garden please send me your pics and comments

My dream and intention is to start taking tours and doing TAROT INITIATIONS there

Blessings for World TArot Day

The current reading list.

I love Soomo Publishing’s re-imagining of Bad Romance. Soomo uses Alice Paul’s radical fight for suffrage as a platform to explain feminism. Obviously, I find this totally awesome. However, the video falls into the same trap Alice Paul did, displaying a whitewashed portrayal of women’s suffrage. Despite this failing the video always makes me grin. I also develop the urge to make monster hands. Grrr…

My friend showed me “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” during our finals week. Suddenly, I didn’t need chocolate, coffee or my cuddly purple hippo. Having said this, everyone should have a cuddly purple hippo.

“The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” is one of those ideas I wish I had. Also I wish I knew how to video blog – but we’ll delve into my utter failure as a child of 21^st century at a later time. The videos, at a short and sweet 2-3 minutes, cheerfully explore the world of Pride & Prejudice. I love the way Lizzie comes across as a judgy-judge face and still totally loveable. I’m less thrilled by crazy Mrs. Bennet’s southern accent and the way everyone slut shames Lydia. Not cool. Not cool at all. Still, geek-chic Charlotte and “Bing Lee” go a long way to make up for any mistakes. For a Jane Austen enthusiast, this is the way to go.

Like Emily Dickinson, many other women writers have been concerned with the unspoken – with the silence of women’s voices in literary history.

In Katherine Mansfield’s short story “Prelude” for example, we can see Mansfield’s attempt to describe the secret language of, and between generations of women. In the dreams of the story’s central character, Kezia we see surfacing the language of the symbolic and images of plants of birds and of other animals that she has inherited from her mother and grandmother. For Kezia and the other women in Mansfield’s story, the symbolic replaces traditional discourse, and is their birthright as women.

The difficulty, both for the characters in Mansfield story and for her readers, is to find meaning in this secret code:  Kezia does not understand the fearful “It” she sees in her dreams – she only knows to be afraid.

Likewise in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. There, Woolf discusses the the literal silencing of women’s words, voices and work in the western canon of literature.  In this text, Woolf is concerned with the lack of female “foremothers” upon whom the modern woman writer can rely for inspiration.

Woolf’s argument in this essay is that women writers can and should turn their exclusion to their benefit – by learning to write what she calls “a woman’s sentence.”

Just what might such a sentence might look like? On this topic, Woolf is less than clear, offering Jane Austen’s work as a guideline (but which one of Austen’s sentences we want to ask!) What is more clear for Woolf is what a Woman’s sentence is not: it is not the same as a man’s sentence.

In Woolf’s own fiction, and perhaps most especially in her fictional biography Orlando,  gender and the effect it has upon the mind of the writer is of central importance. But how far might a work like Orlando be said to cross the boundaries into women’s language, reliant as it is upon critiquing and deconstructing patriarchal forms such as the traditional biography, male literary and military history and even the male body? For Woolf and many women writers before and after her, the overwhelming demand to define oneself against what one is not (ie, Orlando may be best defined as “not a traditional biography of an aristocratic man; I know I am a woman because I am not a man, etc.) led to a kind of frustrating cul de sac of expression, but also to new forms of fiction informed by the symbolic, the rhythmic and by making use of silence itself to subvert meaning. But more on that soon….

“If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it.” (Chapter XXV)

It is, perhaps, not to be wondered at that Miss Crawford possesses these flaws. Her impropriety in speaking ill of her uncle, can, as Fanny observed, be seen as “a reflection itself upon Mrs. Crawford, as her niece has been entirely brought up by her”. Edmund agrees, “That is a fair remark. Yes, we must suppose the faults of the niece to have been those of the aunt; and it makes one more sensible of the disadvantages she has been under.” (Ch. VII). Later Edmund speaks of Miss Crawford,

“There goes good-humour, I am sure,” said he presently. “There goes a temper which would never give pain! How well she walks! and how readily she falls in with the inclination of others! joining them the moment she is asked. What a pity,” he added, after an instant’s reflection, “that she should have been in such hands!” (Ch. XI)

Mary’s uncle and aunt had an unhappy marriage. “Admiral and Mrs. Crawford, though agreeing in nothing else, were united in affection for these children, or, at least, were no farther adverse in their feelings than that each had their favourite, to whom they showed the greatest fondness of the two. The Admiral delighted in the boy, Mrs. Crawford doted on the girl” (Ch. IV).

When Miss Crawford speaks of her “late dear aunt”, Mrs. Crawford, she speaks of her as a woman “whose knowledge of the world made her judgment very generally and deservedly looked up to by all the young people of her acquaintance” (Ch. XXXVI) — though, in the situation she was speaking of, Mrs. Crawford had advised a young woman to accept a marriage proposal that afterwards led to her being very unhappy. Miss Crawford says, “My poor aunt had certainly little cause to love the state [of matrimony]; but, however, speaking from my own observation, it is a manoeuvring business. I know so many who have married in the full expectation and confidence of some one particular advantage in the connexion, or accomplishment, or good quality in the person, who have found themselves entirely deceived, and been obliged to put up with exactly the reverse. What is this but a take in?” (Ch. V). Her aunt seems to have been an unhappy, worldly-wise woman. Being “doted on” (Ch. IV) by such a woman must have had something of the same effect on Miss Crawford that being the darling of Mrs. Norris had on Maria Bertram.¹

Mary’s uncle, Admiral Crawford, must also have been a bad influence on Miss Crawford, even apart from the example the strife in his marriage must have been, for “Admiral Crawford was a man of vicious conduct, who chose, instead of retaining his niece, to bring his mistress under his own roof” (Ch. IV). After Miss Crawford speaks ill of her uncle in public, Edmund and Fanny discuss her behaviour,

“It was very wrong; very indecorous.” [said Edmund]

“And very ungrateful, I think.”

“Ungrateful is a strong word. I do not know that her uncle has any claim to her gratitude; his wife certainly had; and it is the warmth of her respect for her aunt’s memory which misleads her here. She is awkwardly circumstanced. With such warm feelings and lively spirits it must be difficult to do justice to her affection for Mrs. Crawford, without throwing a shade on the Admiral. I do not pretend to know which was most to blame in their disagreements, though the Admiral’s present conduct might incline one to the side of his wife; but it is natural and amiable that Miss Crawford should acquit her aunt entirely. I do not censure her opinions; but there certainly is impropriety in making them public.” (Ch. VII)

Her aunt and uncle are the primary, but not the only, bad influences in Miss Crawford’s life. She has bad friends, and “Be not deceived: evil communications² corrupt good manners.” (1 Corinthians 15:33). Edmund tells Fanny his opinion of one of Miss Crawford’s “particular” and “intimate” friends (Ch. XXXVI):

I do not like Mrs. Fraser. She is a cold-hearted, vain woman, who has married entirely from convenience, and though evidently unhappy in her marriage, places her disappointment not to faults of judgment, or temper, or disproportion of age, but to her being, after all, less affluent than many of her acquaintance, especially than her sister, Lady Stornaway, and is the determined supporter of everything mercenary and ambitious, provided it be only mercenary and ambitious enough. I look upon [Miss Crawford's] intimacy with those two sisters as the greatest misfortune of her life and mine. They have been leading her astray for years. Could she be detached from them! — and sometimes I do not despair of it, for the affection appears to me principally on their side. They are very fond of her; but I am sure she does not love them as she loves you. (Ch. XLIV)

Fanny’s opinion on the subject is, “Her friends leading her astray for years! She is quite as likely to have led them astray. They have all, perhaps, been corrupting one another; but if they are so much fonder of her than she is of them, she is the less likely to have been hurt, except by their flattery.” — which is true (Ch. XLIV).

Fanny is disposed to look on London itself as a bad influence.

It astonished her that Tom’s sisters could be satisfied with remaining in London at such a time, through an illness which had now, under different degrees of danger, lasted several weeks. They might return to Mansfield when they chose; travelling could be no difficulty to them, and she could not comprehend how both could still keep away. If Mrs. Rushworth could imagine any interfering obligations, Julia was certainly able to quit London whenever she chose. It appeared from one of her aunt’s letters that Julia had offered to return if wanted, but this was all. It was evident that she would rather remain where she was.

Fanny was disposed to think the influence of London very much at war with all respectable attachments. She saw the proof of it in Miss Crawford, as well as in her cousins; her attachment to Edmund had been respectable, the most respectable part of her character; her friendship for herself had at least been blameless. Where was either sentiment now? It was so long since Fanny had had any letter from her, that she had some reason to think lightly of the friendship which had been so dwelt on. (Ch. XLV)

In some ways, Mary Crawford is one of the most tragic characters in Jane Austen’s canon. She comes close to changing, to choosing good over evil. In Edmund’s words, “I imagined I saw a mixture of many feelings: a great, though short struggle; half a wish of yielding to truths, half a sense of shame, but habit, habit carried it.” (Ch. XLVII). There was hope for her.

In their [Fanny and Miss Crawford's] very last conversation, Miss Crawford, in spite of some amiable sensations, and much personal kindness [to Fanny], had still been Miss Crawford; still shewn a mind led astray and bewildered, and without any suspicion of being so; darkened, yet fancying itself light. She might love, but she did not deserve Edmund by any other sentiment. Fanny believed there was scarcely a second feeling in common between them; and she may be forgiven by older sages for looking on the chance of Miss Crawford’s future improvement as nearly desperate, for thinking that if Edmund’s influence in this season of love had already done so little in clearing her judgment, and regulating her notions, his worth would be finally wasted on her even in years of matrimony.

Experience might have hoped more for any young people so circumstanced, and impartiality would not have denied to Miss Crawford’s nature that participation of the general nature of women which would lead her to adopt the opinions of the man she loved and respected as her own. But as such were Fanny’s persuasions, she suffered very much from them, and could never speak of Miss Crawford without pain. (Ch. XXXVII)

Mary had felt the attractiveness of virtue, of goodness.

“Mrs. Fraser has been my intimate friend for years. But I have not the least inclination to go near her. I can think only of the friends I am leaving: my excellent sister, yourself, and the Bertrams in general. You have all so much more heart among you than one finds in the world at large. You all give me a feeling of being able to trust and confide in you, which in common intercourse one knows nothing of.” (Ch. XXXVI)

She was becoming more disinterested. She was not unwilling for her brother to marry beneath him — a definite change from her previous attitude of “cold-hearted ambition” (Ch. XLV).

The conviction of his [Henry's] determination [to marry Fanny Price] once admitted, it was not unwelcome. There was even pleasure with the surprise. Mary was in a state of mind to rejoice in a connexion with the Bertram family, and to be not displeased with her brother’s marrying a little beneath him. (Ch. XXX)

Mary’s love for Edmund was overcoming her ambition.

… the more [Fanny] recollected and observed, the more deeply was she convinced that everything was now in a fairer train for Miss Crawford’s marrying Edmund than it had ever been before. On his side the inclination was stronger, on hers less equivocal. His objections, the scruples of his integrity, seemed all done away, nobody could tell how; and the doubts and hesitations of her ambition were equally got over—and equally without apparent reason. It could only be imputed to increasing attachment. His good and her bad feelings yielded to love, and such love must unite them. (Ch. XXXVII)

She has many good qualities. But, in the end, she is unable to understand Edmund’s moral standards, his principles, his character — him. It is Edmund’s ability to make clear judgments that make him so dependable — a “rock” in Mary’s turbulent world. Mary wanted that rock, but she could not understand the discipline behind it — that the same principles that led Edmund to be a clergyman, to condemn his sister and her brother, &c. were what gave him so much more “heart” than the world in general.

In one scene in Mansfield Park, several of the characters are playing speculation together.

“I have two or three ideas also,” said Edmund, “and one of them is, that very little of your [Henry Crawford’s] plan for Thornton Lacey will ever be put in practice. I must be satisfied with rather less ornament and beauty. I think the house and premises may be made comfortable, and given the air of a gentleman’s residence, without any very heavy expense, and that must suffice me; and, I hope, may suffice all who care about me.”

Miss Crawford, a little suspicious and resentful of a certain tone of voice, and a certain half-look attending the last expression of his hope, made a hasty finish of her dealings with William Price; and securing his knave at an exorbitant rate, exclaimed, “There, I will stake my last like a woman of spirit. No cold prudence for me. I am not born to sit still and do nothing. If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it.”

The game was hers, and only did not pay her for what she had given to secure it. (Ch. XXV)

In the end of the book, however, Mary Crawford does not emerge victorious. She loses her “game”. In the end, Edmund’s eyes are opened to Mary’s true character, and she loses him. He leaves her, telling her, “Gladly would I submit to all the increased pain of losing her, rather than have to think of her as I do.” (Ch. XLVII).

Mrs. Grant [after leaving Mansfield] … had again a home to offer Mary; and Mary had had enough of her own friends, enough of vanity, ambition, love, and disappointment in the course of the last half-year, to be in need of the true kindness of her sister’s heart, and the rational tranquillity of her ways. They lived together; and when Dr. Grant had brought on apoplexy and death, by three great institutionary dinners in one week, they still lived together; for Mary, though perfectly resolved against ever attaching herself to a younger brother again, was long in finding among the dashing representatives, or idle heir-apparents, who were at the command of her beauty, and her £20,000, any one who could satisfy the better taste she had acquired at Mansfield, whose character and manners could authorise a hope of the domestic happiness she had there learned to estimate, or put Edmund Bertram sufficiently out of her head. (XLVIII)

Mary Crawford is a charming character, but in the end it is her own choices that cause her downfall (her downfall in terms of the story, that is). She was still a young woman, however. Hope for her amendment is not gone and, though she “was long in finding … any one who could satisfy the better taste she had acquired at Mansfield, whose character and manners could authorise a hope of the domestic happiness she had there learned to estimate”, Jane Austen leaves open the possibility that she did.

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Notes:

This post is part of a series on the character Mary Crawford from Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park. The first post, ‘Sometimes How Quick to Feel!’, is about the good side of Mary’s character. The second two, ‘The Case Against Mary Crawford’, Part I and Part II, discuss Mary’s faults. The last post, ‘This Is What the World Does’, briefly considers how she became the woman that she was.

Screencaps of the 2007 ITV production of ‘Mansfield Park’ with Hayley Atwell as Mary Crawford from angelfish_icons. I used screencaps from this adaptation not because I like this version (I don’t), but because I enjoyed Hayley Atwell’s depiction of Mary Crawford and the pictures are pretty.

¹ “Too late he [Sir Thomas] became aware how unfavourable to the character of any young people must be the totally opposite treatment which Maria and Julia had been always experiencing at home, where the excessive indulgence and flattery of their aunt had been continually contrasted with his own severity. He saw how ill he had judged, in expecting to counteract what was wrong in Mrs. Norris by its reverse in himself; clearly saw that he had but increased the evil by teaching them to repress their spirits in his presence so as to make their real disposition unknown to him, and sending them for all their indulgences to a person who had been able to attach them only by the blindness of her affection, and the excess of her praise. …

“That Julia escaped better than Maria was owing, in some measure, to a favourable difference of disposition and circumstance, but in a greater to her having been less the darling of that very aunt, less flattered and less spoilt. Her beauty and acquirements had held but a second place. She had been always used to think herself a little inferior to Maria. Her temper was naturally the easiest of the two; her feelings, though quick, were more controllable, and education had not given her so very hurtful a degree of self-consequence.” (Ch. XLVIII)

² The word “communications” here is translated from the Greek word “homilia”, meaning, according to Strong’s Greek Bible Dictionary (Number 3657), ‘companionship (“homily”), i.e. (by implication) intercourse’. Communication in this sense is “the successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings”, “social contact” (from Dictionary, Version 1.0.2, Apple Computer, Inc., 2005).