This weekend, I watched the Trevor Nunn version of Twelfth Night. I loved it. It’s fun and accessible Shakespeare, with great acting and an atmospheric Cornish setting. It also made me think about something Shakespeare did that romance writers often dabble in as well: the heroine masquerading as a man plot (let’s call it HMAM).

Georgette Heyer wrote some fun HMAM stories: MASQUERADERS and THE CORINTHIAN come to mind. Julia Ross wrote another excellent one in THE WICKED LOVER. I enjoyed all the things the heroine of that story learns about herself as she embraces some of the increased freedoms of maleness.

Usually in HMAM stories the heroine assumes the disguise for an external plot reason–to protect herself and/or perform some mission. Pam Rosenthal’s ALMOST A GENTLEMAN deals with this concept in a different way. I’ll avoid spoilers and just say that this is an intriguing story because the heroine has deeper reasons for going into disguise than most.

As you can probably tell by now, I enjoy HMAM stories and even have one in my idea file. I’ve also heard some people don’t care for them. Some people have credibility problems. I also once heard someone say she dislikes HMAM stories if the hero starts wondering why he’s attracted to another man. That part doesn’t bother me depending on how it’s handled. If I’m remembering correctly (wish I could find my copy in these stacks of books!) the hero of ALMOST A GENTLEMAN briefly wonders if he’s leaning in a new direction. He’s puzzled but not horrified. He figures out the heroine’s disguise pretty soon after that, so it’s an edgy riff but not the sole conflict of the story.

The one time a HMAM story didn’t work for me was when the hero, horrified by his seemingly homosexual desires, actually roughs up the innocent heroine. He also never penetrates her disguise; she reveals herself to him long after I thought he should have figured it out.

Which is another important matter to me. Exactly when the hero figures out what’s going on can vary, depending on how practiced the heroine is in the role and other circumstances. But if he gets fooled for too long, well, I begin to wonder if he should ever procreate…

So what do you think of HMAM stories? What makes them work or not? Do you have any favorites to share?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

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The WIP is finished! No more Henry VIII story forever! (Okay, that’s not entirely true. The rough draft is done, I’m still polishing and tweaking. But the hardest part is over!). I saw two movies over the Memorial Day weekend (this is unusual, even though I love movies, because the huge multiplex that always has Exclusive Engagements on the interesting films is in the middle of the mall and is a pain to get to. I usually wait for the DVD). I saw Waitress, a wonderful little gem I highly recommend, just be sure you have somewhere to go for pie afterward. And I saw Pirates 3. I was disappointed. Very, very disappointed. Very, very, very–you get the picture. And I found this great website that sells beautiful handmade pendants. I’m going to order the Jane Austen and Marie Antoinette models ASAP, and don’t be surprised if you see the Muses necklaces as giveaways here someday when my Muse books come out.

And now the point of this post (yes, I do sometimes have one). I don’t know a lot about Australian history. What little I do know comes from books like Blue Latitudes and The Fatal Shore, and movies like Strictly Ballroom (though I don’t imagine SB is really represantative of the lives of most–or any–Australians!). A couple weeks ago I saw an episode of the PBS series Secrets of the Dead called The Voyage of the Courtesans (to be more accurate, they really should have called it “The Voyage of the Streetwalkers and Pickpockets,” but whatever). It was very fascinating!

Three modern Australian women wanted to trace the lives of their convict ancestors from the late 18th century. The research starts in London, where they go to the British Library to track down old court records. An historian took one of the women to what’s left of Newgate (I didn’t realize there were still cells left, underground beneath a block of posh flats–very creepy), and told her what life was like for the women before they were transported. Then they follow the 10-month voyage, their arrival in Australia, and what happened to them there.

It was also quite inspiring. One of the women (an 18 year old prostitute at the beginning) ends up running a chain of pubs and owning two houses. One runs a ferry service with several employees. One marries a rich shipowner and becomes a famous hostess, invited to balls at the governor’s house. And one (11 years old when she was caught thieving and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to transportation for life in an amnesty following George III’s “recovery from madness”)–she ends up dying at nearly 90, surrounded by children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. Respectable and loved. They all did far better for themselves there than they ever could have in London.

Any of these women would make terrific heroines in novels! They came from the most adverse conditions imaginable, and built terrific lives for themselves. Amazing.

A few links:

Voyage of the Courtesans

Australian Explorer

More Australia stuff

Roger Ebert’s Review of Strictly Ballroom

Have any of you ever tried to trace your ancestors? What did you find? And have you seen any good movies so far this summer???

I came across an essay with that title recently in an old copy of Persuasions, the publication of JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America), and it made for some fascinating reading. One of the major themes of Austen’s books is money–who has it, who doesn’t, what size house can they afford, and can they marry, should they marry, must they marry?

Naturally I now can’t find that issue and the article,* but fortunately I took notes, and I also came across this wonderfully useful site, www.measuringworth.com where you can translate the value of the pound from the thirteenth century into modern (2006 British pounds) currency, based on the retail price index. If you double that figure, you get, more or less, today’s $ value. As a rough guide, for calculating yearly incomes, for instance, multiply by one hundred.

Quick currency lesson/refresher: 12 pennies (d for denarius) make a shilling; 20 shillings (sh or s) make a pound (can’t find the symbol on blogger, but it’s a curly L for libra). Then there are guineas, which are a pound and a shilling, and used for some items–wages, horses, carriages, gambling debts–mainly luxury items. Sometime I’d like to research what was priced in guineas and what wasn’t. Anyone know? These are both sides of a golden guinea from the first decade of the nineteenth century.

The article took some prices from Jane Austen’s letters of 1810 and I translated these into the modern equivalent (rounding them up to the nearest 50c). Jane liked silk stockings which cost her 12s a pair or about $65–what you’d probably pay now for silk stockings by Prada (yes, it was an excuse to go onto ebay). She had a cloak made for 10s, about $54, which seems quite cheap for tailor-made clothes. Meat was 8d a pound ($3.50), butter a shilling a pound ($5), cheese 9 1/2d a pound ($4)–fairly close to our prices. But fresh salmon was a whopping 2s 9d a pound for a whole fish, $14–presumably because of the expense of shipping it (anyone know which rivers were the salmon rivers then? I’m guessing the Avon–I think the Thames, coming back now as a salmon river, was too polluted). A copy of Pride & Prejudice cost 18s–$94! She paid 30 guineas for the piano at Chawton, or $3,282–about what you’d pay now for a superior upright.

The most telling figures I found, however, were for the price of a quartern, the four pound loaf, which cost 11 3/4 d (eleven and three farthings) in the period 1800-1804, but by 1810 the price had risen to 2s 6d (half-a-crown), or from $6 to $13. This was the staple food of most common people and laborers made probably only a few shillings a day–life was very hard at the bottom of the social scale.

And now it’s question time. What’s your favorite money-related scene in something you’ve read or written?

Feldman, James, “How Wealthy Is Mr. Darcy–Really?” Persuasions, 1990, Vol. 12.

Sign up for the Riskies newsletter at riskies@yahoo.com and learn how to spin straw into golden guineas. Or not. But put NEWSLETTER in the subject line.

I recently found out that a Dutch translation of LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE is being released!

It’s my first international sale. I’m delighted about the nice little sum I got from the foreign rights sale, which will help keep me in paper and print cartridges as I work on finishing mess-in-progress. But mostly I just think it’s very cool.

I googled around and found the cover and blurb at www.chasingdreams.nl. You have to scroll down about halfway to find it.

Though I wish it were larger I think I like the cover–better than most on the site which lean heavily (and I mean heavily!) toward man-titty. The dress looks a bit off but Livvy and Jeremy look right.

I used an online translator to figure out the title. “Reputatie op het spel” translates literally to “Reputation on the game” which I think probably means something like “Reputation on the Line” or “Reputation at Stake”. Either way it sounds right for the book, which I’ve heard isn’t always the case with translations.

Now for the part that drove me a bit crazy. In my googling I also ran across a Dutch message board where (I think) readers were discussing the book. I felt the temptation to run their comments through the translator but then decided I’d better not blow writing time to discover they hated the thing. Oh well, there were lots of emoticons of all sorts in one of the posts so at least the book sparked a reaction.

So anyway, friends, what do you think of the packaging? Which cover do you like better?

And do you think I should go figure out what those Dutch readers think of my book or just get back to my mess-in-progress? OK, I think I know the answer to that one!

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, RT Reviewers’ Choice for Best Regency Romance of 2005
www.elenagreene.com

Lois, you’ve won a signed copy of The Spy Wore Silk!!! Please send your address to riskies@yahoo.com

Thanks to everyone who commented! Stay tuned this weekend as the Riskies visit with Colleen Gleason…