Category: Jane Austen

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen

Updated on December 14, 2013 by Diane Gaston

Today is Jane Austen’s 238th birthday and all this week Risky Regencies will be celebrating with special Jane Austen-themed blogs and giveaways. In fact, Myretta already started us off with a Jane Austen Gazetteer!

Today I’m giving away a set of Jane Austen notecards (shown right) to one lucky commenter, chosen at random. All you have to do is comment to this blog and answer this question: What birthday present would you give Jane Austen?

It can be something real, like a ream of writing paper and a lifetime supply of ink or something fanciful, like giving her her very own Darcy.

I tried to discover how Jane Austen might really have celebrated her birthday during her lifetime or even how her characters celebrated birthdays in her books. I could not find anything, except one blog by David W. Wilkin that basically said Austen never wrote about birthdays in her books or correspondence. Wilkin found only a few vague references to birthdays in Dickens.

I found references to music honoring the birthdays of royals, but not much else, so poor Jane probably did not have any birthday parties, like we celebrate birthdays in our families today. We need to really make it up to her. Let’s give her some really nice stuff.

And speaking of nice stuff, tomorrow is release day for A Marriage of Notoriety, book 2 in my Masquerade Club series. In fact, I’ll add a signed copy of A Marriage of Notoriety to the Jane Austen prize today. My little gift in honor of Jane’s birthday.

Don’t forget about the Harlequin Historical Authors Holiday Giveaway with daily prizes and a grand prize of a Kindle Fire HDX WiFi. Click HERE for the Advent calendar and HERE for how to enter my contest, which ends tomorrow night at midnight!

So…What would you give Jane Austen for her birthday?

Posted in Giveaways, Jane Austen | 45 Replies

Regency Gift List

Updated on December 12, 2013 by Elena Greene

I’m just about done with my real Christmas shopping ; I’m still awaiting one item ordered online and need to pick up some candy for stocking stuffers. But in case anyone’s looking for gifts for a Regency-phile—or herself, I found some fun items online.

The Jane Austen Centre Giftshop always has some interesting items. I’m partial to sweet-smelling things and these “Scents of Austen’s World” candles sound lovely, especially the honeysuckle.

Since I’ve been playing piano again, with pleasure though not particularly well, this collection of piano music, “A Carriage Ride in Queen’s Square: Easy to Play Piano Pieces for Jane Austen’s Bath” also intrigued me. It’s described as a collection of “original compositions by Gwen Bevan, great-great-grandaughter of Jane Austen’s niece, Fanny Knight.”

I regularly direct my husband to the Republic of Pemberley Store for stocking stuffers and such. Pemberley Puddings looks like fun, along with the original Republic of Pemberley Cookbook

I love the “Amiable Rancor” section. Here’s a magnet from the collection. The text is from a letter from Jane to her sister Cassandra: “There was a scarcity of men in general, & a still greater scarcity of any that were good for much”.

If you’re feeling extravagant—or just like to window shop as I do and call it research—there’s one of my favorite antique jewelry sites: www.georgianjewelry.com.

Here are some Halley’s Comet earrings, from 1835, one of the years the comet made an appearance. Just a bit after the Regency but festive and a little geeky at the same time.

I also love the vivid blue enamel on this pearl and diamond cluster ring, c. 1790.

How’s your holiday shopping going? Do you ever treat yourself?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Frivolity, Jane Austen | Tagged gifts, jewelry | 5 Replies

Undressing Mr. Darcy! Karen Doornebos shows you how…

Updated on December 11, 2013 by Janet Mullany

Next week it’s all Austen all the time here at the Riskies as we celebrate Jane’s birthday (December 16) so we have a special guest to get you in the mood. We invited Karen Doornebos to talk about her release UNDRESSING MR. DARCY.
As an ice-breaker to each leg of my Blog Tour for UNDRESSING MR. DARCY, I’m taking you along for a ride to England, where I traveled during the summer of 2012 to do some research for the book.

Where am I on this stop? Today I’m providing you a smattering of some of my London shots that inspired, but didn’t make it directly into the book. Since I’m visiting Risky Regencies here, I thought you’d enjoy the pub sign for Ye Olde Cock Tavern, for obvious, middle-grade humorous reasons! I went into Fortnum & Mason, but my heroine’s friend Sherry, didn’t, and bemoaned the fact that my heroine wouldn’t let her! She certainly missed out.

He’s an old-fashioned, hardcover book reader who writes in quill pen and hails from England. She’s an American social media addict. Can he find his way to her heart without so much as a GPS?

You can read the first chapter here!

Buy now at Berkley Penguin – Indiebound – Amazon – B&N – Kobo – BAM – iTunes

I’d like to thank you, Janet, for having me back at Risky Regencies!

I learned from your bio that you used to work in advertising, and I’m wondering whether that inspired your heroine Vanessa Roberts. Do you identify with her?

Vanessa works in PR, that infinitely more glamorous cousin of advertising. PR girls get to go to all the galas, fundraisers and schmooze the media with wining and dining. But yes, working in the ad world did in part inspire Vanessa’s character. In the worlds of both advertising and PR, everything is very fleeting, deadlines are looming multiple times per day, and you’re always busy. Too busy. Work doesn’t stay in nice tidy boundaries, but overflows into nights and weekends. Since Vanessa is an * older * heroine at thirty-five, it made sense that her busy-ness would have distracted her from falling in love and settling down. I identify with Vanessa career-wise, but I happened to have gotten married at age twenty-six and had two kids by the time I was her age of thirty-five!

One thing I loved about the book was watching Vanessa become a Jane Austen fan. What was your Jane Austen journey?

Thank you, Janet, I’m so glad you enjoyed her coming around to the Jane side! Here was my journey: read about Mr. Darcy at age sixteen; smitten for life. Seriously, though, my journey to appreciating Austen was much more typical than Vanessa’s. P&P was assigned in high school, and I have to say, I really did fall for Darcy within Austen’s first few lines about him, but of course, she deliberately hooked us all. I became an English major, read more of Austen, but I have to say I didn’t come out of the Austen closet until the 1995 version of P&P and then the Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant version of Sense & Sensibility. I discovered Republic of Pemberley online and had already, by 1997, had the beginnings of my first book, DEFINITELY NOT MR. DARCY, written. By 2008 I had joined the Jane Austen Society of North America…and felt like I had found my tribe!

You include real places and real people, including events and speakers at JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) conferences. What’s your best JASNA experience?

I have to say my best JASNA experience happened to be my first in 2008, but they have all been great, really. The first conference I attended was in Chicago, my hometown, and I presented a larger than life academic poster called How Not to Write a Jane-Austen Inspired Novel that you can see on my website here. But that wasn’t even the best part. The best part happened to be joining in on the Regency promenade and then, without any lessons, getting pulled onto the ballroom dance floor. Janeites are all very friendly!

On your research trip last year did you learn anything about London that surprised you?

I learned that London is still one of my top three places in the world. I didn’t really know that until I went back. What surprised me was that I promised myself another return trip very soon because I didn’t get to do everything I wanted—restored Globe Theatre, anybody?! I also wanted to try and find Benedict Cumberbatch.

(Hmmm. She’s not telling us whether she did or not!) Who is your dreamteam cast for the movie version of the book?

I’ll be dating my * old * self here, but I always saw Julia Roberts as Vanessa…hence the name Roberts. She’s a little too old to be playing a thirty-five year old, though. I could see Henry Cavill as Julian, although he needs to be a little older! Hugh Grant would be wonderful if he were a little younger. Johnny Depp could still play Chase!!!

What do you think is the enduring appeal of Mr. Darcy and P&P?

Janet, I wrote an entire essay on that subject for the January 2012 issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine. It boiled down to the vast size of Mr. Darcy’s…library! Seriously, though, Darcy is an avid reader, with a large and growing library. As I say in UNDRESSING MR. DARCY, he’s the smart girl’s pin-up boy. How clever of Austen to snare her female readers with a man who values reading! Nothing better than the image of a gorgeous specimen of a man reading a book on the settee!

What are you working on next?

Laundry. Frantically getting ready for Christmas! Really, I have to say that once again I have too many ideas for my next project. I need to get serious about which one is worthy. Not sure yet. They’re duking it out in my head.

WIN!

Risky Regency readers, comment below for your chance to win one of TWO copies of UNDRESSING MR. DARCY. What do you think makes Darcy so enduring and…sexy?

To increase your chances of winning you can share this post on your Facebook page or Twitter via our nifty Rafflecopter widget and enhance your social media pleasure by following Risky Regencies, Karen, and Janet on Facebook or Twitter. Contest limited to US entrants only.

Mr. Darcy’s Stripping Off…

His other stocking. At each blog stop Mr. Darcy will strip off a piece of clothing. Keep track of each item in chronological order and at then end of the tour you can enter to win a GRAND PRIZE of the book, “DO NOT DISTURB I’m Undressing Mr. Darcy” door hangers for you and your friends, tea, and a bottle of wine (assuming I can legally ship it to your state). US entries only, please.

Karen Doornebos is the author of UNDRESSING MR. DARCY published by Berkley, Penguin and available here or at your favorite bookstore. Her first novel, DEFINITELY NOT MR. DARCY, has been published in three countries and was granted a starred review by Publisher’s Weekly. Karen lived and worked in London for a short time, but is now happy just being a lifelong member of the Jane Austen Society of North America and living in the Chicagoland area with her husband, two teenagers and various pets—including a bird. Speaking of birds, follow her on Twitter and Facebook! She hopes to see you there, on her website www.karendoornebos.com and her group blog Austen Authors. You can also check out the other stops on her Blog Tour.

WIN!

Risky Regency readers, comment below for your chance to win one of TWO copies of UNDRESSING MR. DARCY…

What do you think makes Darcy so enduring and…sexy?

To increase your chances of winning you can share this post on your Facebook page or Twitter via our nifty Rafflecopter widget below! You can also increase your odds by following Karen and Janet on Twitter or Facebook, or, if you’re not already, following Risky Regencies on Facebook. Contest limited to US entrants only.

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Posted in Giveaways, Guest, Interviews, Jane Austen, Risky Regencies | Tagged Karen Doornebos | 15 Replies

On Holidays, Period Food, and What We Feed Our Characters

Updated on December 6, 2013 by Gail Eastwood

Having finally finished the clean-up from Thanksgiving (the wedding crystal goblets I have to wash by hand tend to decorate the kitchen counter for days), I am now looking ahead to the next holidays, and more meals to be planned in celebration. Special occasions and special food always go together. Do you have a traditional holiday food you make or fondly remember? For Christians, this past Sunday was the first Sunday in Advent, the season leading up to Christmas, and in some parts of England, is also known as “stir-up day” –the day you are supposed to stir-up the batter for your Christmas cake or pudding so it will have enough time to age properly. (The day can also be the last Sunday before the start of Advent.) There’s a double meaning to the name, as one of the old texts used by the church for the start of Advent begins “Stir up , we beseech thee O Lord” and one site claims “this activity of stirring-up the ingredients symbolizes our hearts that must be stirred in preparation for Christ’s birth.” Christmas cakes (aka fruitcakes) have a pedigree as long as the technique of using rum or brandy to preserve food. “Plum Pudding” was also around long before the Victorians popularized it as “Christmas pudding”. Either one could include meat with the dried fruit in their early forms, but one is baked and the other was boiled –steamed in later times.

For someone who’s not a great cook, maybe it’s ironic that I’ve always been interested in period food, but it comes honestly from my interest in the daily life of other times. The Regency isn’t my only pet period –I’m a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and indulge in medieval interests, too. I collect cookbooks on period food, and recently added Dinner with Tom Jones: Eighteenth Century Cookery Adapted for the Modern Kitchen, by Lorna Sass (1977, the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Sass also wrote To the King’s Taste (Richard II) and To the Queen’s Taste (Elizabeth I).

I can’t believe I found this treasure in my church yard sale!! I recommend it as a research gold-mine; it has notes about menus, how dishes should be arranged on the table, and all sorts of extra goodies besides the recipes, and while it covers a period slightly earlier than our beloved Regency, back then things did not change as rapidly as they do now. Casting about for what to feed our characters, a ragoo of asparagus or heavens, yes, a chocolate tart(!) might be just the thing we need to serve them. And the book is illustrated with delightful sketches of county life by Thomas Rowlandson (behaving properly for a change).

On my Christmas list is another cookbook just released last month which should also be of great interest to us all —Dinner with Mr Darcy by Pen Vogler, a new addition to the existing canon related to food in Jane Austen’s books and life. Besides recipes inspired by Jane’s novels and letters, it also promises notes about table arrangements, kitchens and gardens, changing mealtimes, and servants and service, etc.

Both of these books use Hannah Glasse’s first cookbook, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747), as a chief source. A reviewer of Vogler’s book (http://tinyurl.com/mlrxl6j) says this was “one of the first commercial cookbooks to capture the public imagination and was used by middle-class families like the Austens well into the 19th century.” Does food history interest you? Do you care about what our story characters eat? (The book I’m editing now for reissue, The Captain’s Dilemma, has a running joke about the family’s inventive but not very good cook.) What are some of your favorite resources?

I wish you all very happy holidays and some memorable meals with friends and family, whatever you celebrate!

Mr Collins (Tom Hollander) distracts Elizabeth Bennett (Keira Knightley) from her meal in the 2005 ‘Pride and Prejudice’ -Photo Credit: Rex Features/Everett Collection

Posted in History, Jane Austen, Regency, Research | Tagged Christmas, Christmas cake, food, holidays, period cooking, plum pudding, Regency, research books | 13 Replies

Pam Mingle & Mary Bennet

Updated on November 20, 2013 by Janet Mullany

In mid-December we’ll talk about Austen here at the Riskies, something of a tradition as we celebrate Jane’s birthday on December 15. But we’re getting a sneak preview today with guest blogger Pam Mingle, whose new release The Pursuit of Mary Bennet riskily takes on Mary, the girl Austen probably didn’t intend us to like at all! I was lucky enough to be sent an advance copy, and it’s a great read.

Here’s Pam:

In 2013 we have been celebrating the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen’s iconic novel. But it was sheer happenstance that my book, The Pursuit of Mary Bennet, ended up being published the same year. For many years now, Pride & Prejudice has been my go-to book when I seek comfort. When the world looks dark and unforgiving, and I need a better place to be. If that happens, I usually find myself curled up with my battered copy of the novel.

What does it offer that we can’t seem to find anywhere else? Charm, humor, witty dialogue, memorable characters, enduring themes, and at its heart, a love story for the ages. In the end, it’s the romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy that continues to draw me back time and time again. Some have pronounced Pride & Prejudice the first romance novel, one that set the pattern for all those that have followed. In the first half of the book, all the obstacles to a romance between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are developed: Mr. Darcy’s arrogance, Elizabeth’s family and lack of connections, her attraction to Mr. Wickham, her hasty and premature judgment of Mr. Darcy’s character. Despite all this, he proposes because the “violence” of his feelings for her trumps everything else. Except for her own feelings. The proposal, and Elizabeth’s rejection of him, is one of the great scenes in literature.

In the second half of the book, the obstacles fall one by one. Elizabeth sees Wickham for what he really is; Mr. Darcy, despite his natural reserve, changes. He goes out of his way to help “poor Lydia” and avert disaster for the Bennet family. Elizabeth is not blind to the change in his character. Austen handles it all so beautifully and skillfully. In the end, their coming together is natural and expected. It’s easy to see why Pride & Prejudice is thought of as the original model for love stories.

I chose Mary Bennet as my main character because she, too, is a person in want of change, and with the potential to do so. She reads, she plays music (although not very well). She thinks seriously about matters, even though her conclusions are often faulty. In The Pursuit of Mary Bennet, Mary wants to change, to re-invent herself. She prepares herself to become more independent. If she finds romance along the way…well, there’s nothing wrong with that! Here’s a brief summary:

For most of her life, Mary, the serious and unpolished middle Bennet sister, has been overshadowed by her sisters—Jane, Elizabeth, Kitty, and Lydia. When a very pregnant Lydia returns to Longbourn and scandalously announces she’s left Wickham, Mary and Kitty are packed off to visit Jane in Derbyshire. It is there that Mary encounters the handsome and eligible Henry Walsh.Unschooled in the game of love, Mary finds his warm attentions confounding. With her heart and her future at risk, Mary must throw caution to the wind and begin a journey of discovery that will teach her surprising lessons about herself and the desires of her heart.

HarperCollins has kindly offered two copies of the book, so please enter and spread the word! If you post a comment, Pam would love to hear what you think of the “new” Mary, and the Riskies want to know what YOU love about Pride & Prejudice.

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Posted in Giveaways, Guest, Jane Austen, Reading | 10 Replies