Monthly Archives: October 2008

JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB: The Duchess

Updated on October 16, 2008 by Elena Greene

Welcome to a surprise meeting of the Risky Regencies JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB!

(Janet, I hope you feel better soon!!!)

Today we’re discussing the new movie THE DUCHESS.

Based on the Amanda Foreman biography of Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, who lived from 1757 – 1806, THE DUCHESS tells her story from just before her marriage until several years in.

The movie is visually sumptuous, as these pictures show. (By the way, if you want to see any of the pictures bigger, you can just click on them!)

Here’s some useful background info on the movie itself:

DIRECTOR: Saul Dibb

SCREENPLAY: Jeffrey Hatcher, Anders Thomas Jensen, and Saul Dibb

Jeffrey Hatcher, by the way, wrote the play and screenplay for the Restoration theatre drama STAGE BEAUTY, and co-wrote the screenplay for the Heath Ledger CASANOVA.

CAST:

Keira Knightley: Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire

Knightley, of course, played Lizzy Bennet in the recent film of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

Ralph Fiennes: Duke of Devonshire

Charlotte Rampling: Lady Spencer

Dominic Cooper: Charles Grey

Cooper played Willoughby in the most recent TV version of SENSE & SENSIBILITY.

Hayley Atwell : Bess Foster

Atwell played Mary Crawford in the recent TV attempt at MANSFIELD PARK.

Simon McBurney: Charles Fox

Aidan McArdle: Richard Brinsley Sheridan

So…have you seen it?

If so, what did you think?

How did you like the script, the casting, the performances?

What did you think of the costumes and the stately homes?

All answers welcome!

Cara
Cara King, who wouldn’t mind living in Somerset House herself

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Jane Austen Movie Club | 22 Replies

Writing in Season

Updated on October 15, 2008 by Elena Greene

One of our autumn rituals is to go apple-picking at a local orchard, coming home with bagfuls for eating and making pies. I use a recipe from my grandmother’s little old Lithuanian ladies’ group cookbook, with honey, raisins and nuts. Yum! I have to confess, though, I cheat and use the premade pie crust from the store. I used to try to make them from scratch and though they came out OK, the process involved a lot of cursing and sticking torn bits back together, and flour everywhere. Now everyone is happy. 🙂

But while I’m steeped in autumn activities with the family, I’m also working on a section of a story that occurs in April. As a reader, I have no problem transitioning between seasons. If the author has done her job, I could enjoy a snowbound-in-a-cottage romance from a beach-chair. But as a writer, I find it takes some work to look away from the colors coming through my windows and picture springtime in England instead. It helps to look at images like this one, of a bluebell wood in England, like one I used to walk through when I lived there. For anyone who hasn’t smelled bluebells, the scent is similar to hyacinths. I know some people who think the fragrance is too strong but I love it. Walking through a wood like this and drinking in the purple-blue color and the scent is a heady experience!

I also like to visit sites such as The British Library’s wildlife sounds archive to get an idea of the birdsongs of the season.

So for my fellow writers, do you have to do anything special to help you convey the sense of the season you are writing? For those of you like Amanda and Diane who write Christmas novellas, is this an issue for you? Personally, I’d find it hard to get into the holiday mood if it was 90 and humid outside. I don’t know what I’d do: turn up the AC and drap fake mistletoe around the writing room?

For our reader friends, is it ever a wrench for you to read a story set in a different season? Do you prefer certain sorts of books at certain seasons?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Scandalizing the Ton Winner!!!

Updated on October 14, 2008 by Diane Gaston

The Winner of Scandalizing the Ton is………..

Arkiern !

Congratulations, Arkiern.

Send us an email by Oct 20 at riskies@yahoo.com with your name and address and your signed copy of Scandalizing the Ton will be on its way!

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged Uncategorized | 1 Reply

The Huntington

Updated on October 14, 2008 by Elena Greene

It occurs to me that I’ve never talked up the Huntington at Risky Regencies!

If you’re ever in the Los Angeles area, you need to visit the Huntington…which includes the Huntington Library, the Huntington Gardens, and the Huntington Art Collections.

I was there yesterday showing my sister around, and thinking how any Regency fan would love it.

To start with: imagine owning the library pictured above!

Not too shabby.

And as for art…
it has Gainsborough…
Lawrence…
Romney…
Reynolds…
Turner…
Constable…

The most famous of its holdings include Gainsborough’s Blue Boy, from 1770…

And the painting nicknamed “Pinkie,” painted by Lawrence in 1794.

Visitors, by the way, like to fancy that Blue Boy and Pinkie are a couple.

Certainly they stare at each other across the gallery with great fixity…

Walk around the art galleries for long enough,

and you will also stumble across people like Emma Hamilton,

and the great actress Sarah Siddons.

I also saw the Duchess of Devonshire today.

And if you like French art, you can find Boucher, Watteau, Fragonard, Greuze…

And as for the Huntington Library displays, there are first editions of Byron, Burns, and a bunch of other beautiful brilliant books…

Ah, to be a fabulously wealthy railroad magnate in the early 20th century! That’s the sort of luxury I could get used to.

So…have any of you ever visited the Huntington? (Do you all promise to, the next time you’re in the LA area?) Do you particularly like any of the artists mentioned here?

And speaking of the Duchess of Devonshire, has anyone here seen the movie THE DUCHESS yet, or plan to soon? (In other words, how long should we wait until we discuss it here at Risky Regencies?)

All answers welcome!

Cara
Cara King, who also loves the gardens

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged Uncategorized | 14 Replies

A Columbus Day Potpourri

Updated on October 13, 2008 by Diane Gaston

It is Columbus Day, a federal holiday here, but one lots of employers trade for the day after Thanksgiving.

Did you know that Christopher Columbus asked King Henry VII of England for the money to fund his search for a shorter route to the Far East? King Henry said no.

He also was the first to bring cocoa beans to Europe, only he didn’t really appreciate this finding.
After he robbed the cargo of a Mayan trader, he made this comment:
“They seemed to hold these almonds (the cocoa beans) at a great price; for when they were brought on board ship together with their goods, I observed that when any of these almonds fell, they all stooped to pick it up, as if an eye had fallen”

We, of course, understand that extreme need for chocolate.

Take this Christopher Columbus multiple choice quiz
My favorite:
Why were his crew extremely nervous?
A. Columbus had a drinking problem so he was a bit odd at times
(Did I tell you this quiz was intended for children?)

But Columbus has not much to do with the Regency…

So, I thought you might be interested in the legalities that formed the basis of Scandalizing the Ton. These came from Nancy Mayer of the Beau Monde Chapter of RWA, who helped with this part of the story.

It has to do with a posthumous child, the unborn child of a deceased earl, in this case.

The title and inheritance cannot pass until ten months after the father’s death so that, should the man be married, his wife has time to produce the baby. If this baby is a boy he will inherit.

The wife was not allowed to say whether or not she had intercourse; the paternity of the child could only be contested if it could be proved the wife had not been in proximity of her husband. In Scandalizing the Ton, I had to be sure that Lydia’s deceased husband had been with her within a month of her encounter with Adrian. (The time sequence of Scandalizing was another thing that took some careful thinking)

Here’s a real kicker. If a widow marries again and bears a child within the ten months, she can decide whose child it is; that is, she can say it is her deceased husband’s child or her new husband’s child. The child is the legal child of whichever husband she selects.

Of course, this is not true today, but there weren’t any paternity tests in the Regency.

And speaking of Scandalizing the Ton (do I talk about anything else these days?), our sometimes commenter here, the lovely Mallory Pickerloy, went on a search for Scandalizing the Ton at her local Wallmart and she took photos.

Here’s the display of Harlequin Historicals