I’m late for an important date!  I finally got around to drawing a winner for a signed copy of The Runaway Countess!  It’s…Barbara Elness!  Congrats, and I hope you enjoy.  Email me your address at amccabe7551 AT yahoo….

Marianne & Elinor

Well, who are you?  I’m of the belief that we’re all one of Jane Austen’s characters and, heaven knows, there are enough online quizzes to bear this out.  Only Sense & Sensibility, however, gives us two heroines from which to choose, and they couldn’t be more different.  I think that we all have a little bit of either Elinor or Marianne in us (or possibly both).  Literary criticism, in general, has signed the traits of sense and sensibility to Elinor and Marianne, respectively.

The cult of sensibility was a late 18th century social construct that was characterized by the exaggerated expression of emotion.  So Marianne. The Marianne whom we first meet in Sense & Sensibility is all sensibility.  After Willoughby leaves Allenham, Marianne indulges in every symptom of sentimentality associated with sensibility.

When breakfast was over, she walked out by herself, and wandered about the village of Allenham, indulging the recollection of past enjoyment and crying over the present reverse for the chief of the morning.

The evening passed off in the equal indulgence of feeling. She played over every favourite song that she had been used to play to Willoughby, every air in which their voices had been oftenest joined, and sat at the instrument gazing on every line of music that he had written out for her, till her heart was so heavy that no farther sadness could be gained; and this nourishment of grief was every day applied. She spent whole hours at the pianoforte alternately singing and crying; her voice often totally suspended by her tears. In books, too, as well as in music, she courted the misery which a contrast betwen the past and present was certain of giving. She read nothing but what they had been used to read together.

Such violence of affliction indeed could not be supported for ever; it sunk within a few days into a calmer melancholy; but these employments, to which she daily recurred, her solitary walks and silent meditations, still produced occasional effusions of sorrow as lively as ever.

Elinor, on the other hand, is all sense, the embodiment of early 18th century rationalism.  It is Elinor who takes charge when the Dashwoods must leave Norland and gets them moved and settled at Barton Cottage while Marianne mourns the loss of “dear, dear Norland.”  It is Elinor who worries about Marianne’s emotional attachment to Willoughby and who tries to talk sense into both Marianne and her mother.  It is Elinor who confronts Willoughby when he calls during Marianne’s illness.  And, although Elinor is also nursing a broken heart, she never wallows in melancholy, but gets on with what must be done.

The conversation that, perhaps, best exemplifies these two personalities occurs in Chapter 16:

“Dear, dear Norland,” said Elinor, “probably looks much as it always does at this time of year. The woods and walks thickly covered with dead leaves.”

“Oh!” cried Marianne, “with what transporting sensations have I formerly seen them fall! How have I delighted, as I walked, to see them driven in showers about me by the wind! What feelings have they, the season, the air altogether inspired! Now there is no one to regard them. They are seen only as a nuisance, swept hastily off, and driven as much as possible from the sight.”

“It is not every one,” said Elinor, “who has your passion for dead leaves.”

I’m in the middle of 1) finishing a novella by Friday, and 2) packing my 1000s of books for a move (ugh!).  But I’m also over at the Pink Heart Society blog today for a Pets And Their Authors post, talking about my bossy Poodle Abigail!  In honor of that, and to save my sanity, I am reposting a blog from August 2009 about some famous dogs in history.  My question still stands–how do I get rid of Pug hair???

I wasn’t really sure what to blog about today! I’m still working on the same projects I was last week (“Irish book 2,” etc), I couldn’t find anything interesting that happened on this date in history (though I’m sure there must be something somewhere!), and the heat and humidity of August has me stupefied and seeking the arctic AC of movie theaters and shopping malls (tax-free weekend on clothes last week, woo-hoo!). Then I found some interesting websites on famous dogs in history, and since I love dogs I decided to talk about that!

Mary Queen of Scots was well-known for her love of animals, bringing several small dogs with her from France when she returned to Scotland as a young widow. She had greyhounds and spaniels, as well as cages of songbirds. Her most famous pet was a Skye terrier named Geddon, who was devoted to her in her last years and accompanied her to her execution. Her cousin Elizabeth I was also fond of spaniels (her father, Henry VIII, had tried to cut down on the stench of his palaces by banning all dogs indoors except for ladies’ lap dogs–and monkeys). Elizabeth II, of course, is well-known for her love of Corgis. (A friend of mine has one–they are adorable, but they shed like crazy! I always wonder if the queen has someone following the dogs around Windsor with a ShopVac…)

Charles II loved his little spaniels so much that they are now named for him–Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. (He even passed a law saying these little dogs could go into any public place, even Parliament! I’d love to see if that is still in effect).

In later years, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were well-known for their troop of Pugs (11 altogether, including Dizzy/Disraeli, Davy Crockett, Trooper, Winston, etc) who traveled with them equipped with their own jeweled collars and silver, monogrammed water bowls.

(Pugs have always had their champions! Prince William of Orange was said to have been saved by his Pug Pompey when the dog barked in the night to warn him of the approach of the Spanish in 1571. His descendents William and Mary brought Pugs with them to England when they assumed the throne in 1688. And an aunt of Catherine the Great, Princess Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, had 16. I cannot imagine the amount of Pug hair there must have been in her palace)

No other British monarch was as well-known for their affinity to dogs than Queen Victoria. Starting when she was a princess and she acquired her first dog, a spaniel named Dash (a gift from her bete noir Sir John Conroy–the puppy didn’t improve her opinion of him, but she adored Dash, and was heartbroken when he died in 1840), she always had a troop of dogs following behind her. She owned about 15 different breeds–mastiffs, border collies, greyhounds, Pugs (Bosco was her favorite Pug), greyhounds, Japanese chins, Skye terriers named Islay and Cairnach, a Scottie named Laddie, etc. Her favorite dogs were Pomeranians. Poms were actually introduced to England by Queen Charlotte, who brought them with her on her marriage in 1761.

Queen Victoria bought her first Pom on a trip to Italy in 1888, a red-sable named Marco (who later won Cruft’s). Her last Pom was Turi, who comforted her on her deathbed.

Dash the spaniel
Princess Vicky with Laddie
Queen Victoria’s Dogs and Parrot, by Landseer
Poms were also beloved by many other figures in history. Michelangelo had one (who watched him paint the Sistine Chapel from the comfort of its silk cushion!), Isaac Newton, Mozart (whose dog was named Pimperl), and Chopin (who did not have one of his own, but loved a friend’s dog so much he wrote “Valse des Petits Chiens” for it).

And Marie Antoinette always had a coterie of little dogs trailing around Versailles behind her, including the Poms! She also adored Poodles, Papillons (including one named Thisbe), and Pugs (such as the famous Mops, an Austrian Pug who was taken away from her on her entry to France–but later returned).

Madame de Pompadour preferred the elegant and tres French Papillon, and had two named Ines and Mimi who went with her everywhere.

(I adore this breed, and if I had room in my house for one more dog–which I definitely don’t!–I’d have this one).

As it is, I have a Poodle (who doesn’t shed at all, but who is very bossy and opinionated), and a Pug (who is laid-back and agreeable, but sheds like crazy and eats a lot). I’d love to have footmen and parlor maids to clean up after them and their cat siblings, as Queen Victoria and Marie Antoinette must have!

What are your favorite dogs, either in history or in your own house? And do you have any tips for getting Pug hair off the sofa???

Congratulations Charlotte and Colette. You have won downloads from Elf Ahearn, who will be in touch with you soon.