Jane Austen Made Me Do It

 It's my pleasure to welcome Zoe Wheddon, with a charming tale of Jane Austen's best friend.

---oOo---

‘Jane Austen made me do it’ is a refrain that we may have heard before, but in my case, it really is true. In the summer of 2017, the bi-centenary year of Jane Austen’s death, book benches designed and painted by local artists were dotted around my Hampshire home as part of an art trail that encircled various places where Jane Austen had once walked before us. Amongst other things following the map to each bench spawned a reading frenzy about our beloved authoress, the like of which I had never embarked upon before. Why had I never made the most of the opportunity to find out more about our local heroine in the past? I could not answer, but I read every biography I could get my hands on.  

With the end of the Summer would come the end of my obsession – or so I thought, but instead I fell headfirst down a very beautiful rabbit hole as I stumbled upon the chance to volunteer both at Jane Austen’s House and ‘the Great House,’ Chawton House. It was as I spent time in these beautiful places the following Spring, the words of talented biographers weaving their way through my mind and mingling with the images and objects of her affection all around me, that a thought struck me. I will not forget that moment (one that anyone who has ever followed a creative impulse will recognise.) A question loomed in on me...who is this Martha Lloyd? She flitted in and out of my peripheral vision, almost like a ghost, her name would sometimes appear and then disappear, there were whispers of her on the wind here and there – who really was she and why, if she had spent so many years living with Jane, had no-one said anything about her before? My feelings began to stir and I realised I felt more than a little passionate about this, ‘If Jane had been married you can bet your bottom dollar, we would know about it’ I quietly ranted in my head, thinking of the many films and tv series that this would have inspired over the years. Yet this friend, who apparently cooked for Jane and lived in a little room just along the upstairs landing from her bedroom was barely ever mentioned. The thought would not shift, I began to turn it over and over in my mind, I had to find out more. So, I began and it was as if Jane was nodding at me now, encouraging me along to find out more, she wanted Martha to be talked about too.

Why would Jane want the world introduced to Martha I wondered? Could it be that her story was so unique that Jane wanted it shared? Perhaps. Was it that she had inspired one of the characters in Jane’s novels? Possibly. Slowly but surely, it dawned on me it was about the uniqueness of their friendship, a friendship that had been so very important to Jane - Jane the person as well as perhaps Jane the novelist. I realised that I wanted to tell this story more than anything, because Martha knew Jane as only a best friend can, just as Henry knew her as only a brother could and James Edward as only a nephew could. This, this was a completely different perspective, one with more meaning and interest to Jane’s followers than a male relative’s view of her, one that would reveal more of the person that Cassandra so touchingly depicted in her own eulogy letter to her niece. Here was a way for us to peep behind the curtain into Jane’s homelife and see her as another young woman might have seen her. This was too special an opportunity to pass by, too rare a glimpse not to be sought after with every effort and using every possible source available. This was a dream come true – the dream of everyone who has ever read a Jane Austen novel or seen an adaptation and wished with all their heart that they could carry on the conversation with the author herself. This was surely a narrative for our time, and with the resurgence of the female voice through campaigns such as the #MeToo movement it seemed even more important, more relevant than ever, that we should seek a clearer picture of Jane Austen the woman. For in doing so we might not only indulge our dreams of being Jane’s friend but also reveal a more authentic view of Jane and thus with it a deeper understanding of her messages to us in her novels. 

The book written, I took a trip to Jane and Martha’s Chawton home and sat on the beautifully carved commemorative stone bench. I imagined them both coming and sitting with me as we gazed out upon verdure. I felt truly grateful for the many hands of friendship offered to me throughout the research and writing journey, especially to Catherine the very first to reach out and encourage me.  ‘Friendship is certainly the finest balm’ not just for ‘disappointments in love’ as Jane pointed out, but also for our hopes and dreams, those really quiet ones that we perhaps flick away like flies or that lay hidden deep within our hearts. Learning about Jane and Martha’s friendship taught me to have faith in my own creativity. It unearthed the realisation that I, as we all do, have a contribution to make to life through love and connection with others. 

Hidden in Jane Austen’s Best Friend: The Life and Influence of Martha Lloyd there is a challenge implicitly issued to every reader - what would Jane have YOU do? In writing this book I have found she would have you be your truest and fullest self, to find a way to bring your dreams into the light, and to give your own ‘darling child’ a lease of life. She would encourage you to let the spark catch, to start where you are, to find your own small group of supporters and to begin to carve out moments, to mould your time to do your bidding. She would acknowledge that you need to dredge up the gumption and put in the hard work even though that work be difficult or imperfect because in letting forth this fountain, this force, you will know, as Jane did, the thrill that only the expression of yourself can bring and you will, in that moment, know how to value yourself as you should. 

---oOo---

A native of Jane Austen's beloved county of Hampshire, Zoe lives in a North Hampshire village, on the outskirts of the town that she and her husband Matt both grew up in, with their 3 grown up children and their cat Leia. When she is not researching or writing, Zoe can be found in the classroom teaching Spanish and French or singing ABBA songs loudly in her kitchen.

JANE AUSTEN'S BEST FRIEND: THE LIFE AND INFLUENCE OF MARTHA LLOYD is a heart-warming examination of the 'recipe for friendship' between Jane Austen, (with whom all Janeites are best friends in their imaginations,) and Martha Lloyd. In looking back somewhat longingly at Martha and Jane's strong and enduring bond we can examine all their interests, including the hits and misses of their romantic love lives, their passion for shopping and fashion, their family histories, their lucky breaks and their girly chats.

Through an examination of the defining moments of their shared lives together, the book gives readers an insight into the inner circle of the famously enigmatic and private authoress and the life changing force of their friendship.

Jane Austen's Best Friend at Pen & Sword

Jane Austen's Best Friend at Amazon

The Tsarina's Lost Treasure

It's an absolute pleasure to welcome Gerald Easter and Mara Vorhees to the salon today. Gerald and Mara are the authors of the wonderful new book, The Tsarina's Lost Treasure, all about the search for the ship Vrouw Maria, which was lost in 1771. When the ship went down, it took with it Catherine the Great's priceless collection of art. Two and a half centuries later, the Vrouw Maria and her cargo have been found deep beneath the waves. This gripping book tells the full - sometimes mindboggling - tale.

Read more about the book and its remarkable story by clicking here.

---oOo---

 

An Excerpt from

The Tsarina’s Lost Treasure 

Catherine the Great A Golden Age Masterpiece, and a Legendary Shipwreck

 

Gerald Easter and Mara Vorhees

 

In the 18th century, Catherine the Great set out to make the Imperial Russian court in Saint Petersburg a great cultural power of Europe, and in so doing, became one of the continent’s most voracious art collectors. The 1771 auction of the Braamcamp estate in Amsterdam was the art event of the era, attracting aristocrats and art lovers from far and wide to vie for the European masterpieces in the celebrated collection. Catherine’s agents outbid and outspent all of her competitors, snapping up Braamcamp’s most desirable Dutch paintings for her own growing collection (which would become the foundation of the Hermitage Museum). 

 

Catherine scored a dozen invaluable paintings, which were loaded onto the merchant ship Vrouw Maria for transport to Saint Petersburg. In a late autumn squall, the ship crashed off the stormy Finnish coast, taking the historic cargo to the depths of the Baltic Sea. The Tsarina’s Lost Treasure recounts the fascinating tale of the Vrouw Maria – her loss and discovery – delving into the history and fate of Catherine’s precious cultural treasure. 

 

****

 

In ancient Rome, Minerva was goddess of wisdom and culture. The daughter of Jupiter, she inspired and defended those dedicated to knowledge and creation. For Catherine, myth became muse. The empress viewed herself as the “Russian Minerva, Patroness and Protectress of the Arts.” She encouraged the likeness. Images of Catherine wearing Minerva’s high-crested winged helmet were cast into commemorative coins, carved in ivory cameos, and painted onto fine porcelain plates. She even commissioned Flemish sculptor Jean-Pierre Tassaert to carve a life-sized marble figure of herself and Italian painter Gregorio Guglielmi to paint a ceiling fresco of herself in the guise of her favorite goddess. But the empress lacked a proper venue in which to play Minerva.

 

When the ship arrived with Catherine’s first major purchase, two-hundred-plus paintings from the Gotzkowsky collection, the empress fretted: she had no suitable space to display her spoils. Frederick the Great of Prussia had his Sanssouci; Catherine would have her Hermitage. The more she heard about Frederick’s Potsdam retreat, the more she coveted her own stylish sanctuary: a place removed from state affairs and court intrigues; a place reserved for stimulating conversation, soothing music, and exquisite artwork; part salon, part stage, part trophy room. 

 

Just twenty miles outside the capital were the gilded gardens of Tsarskoe Selo, where Empress Elizabeth had her favorite builder Bartolomo Rastrelli fashion a swanky rotunda for entertaining purposes. The inside was a modern marvel, with each dining table fitted with mechanical dumbwaiters. Following aristocratic fashion, Elizabeth gave her garden rotunda a French nickname, l’Ermitage. Catherine considered this site for her art collection, but it was both too far away and too flamboyant. Catherine wanted to keep her stash close by. So she decided to

build her own “Little Hermitage” along the Neva Embankment next to the Winter Palace, where she lived and worked.

 

Like Elizabeth, Catherine loved to build. She confessed to Grimm: “We have a mania for building. It is a fiendish thing and consumes so much money, but the more I build, the more I want to build. It is as addictive as alcohol.” Unlike Elizabeth, Catherine loathed ostentation in her buildings. For her new Hermitage, the tsarina passed over Rastrelli, whose rococo creations were like whipped cream, she said. Instead, she gave the commission to Yury Velten, Rastrelli’s longtime assistant. 

 

In a restrained Baroque style, Velten produced a two-story South Pavilion, bordering

Palace Square. At this time, construction was also underway on a new gallery for the Academy of Arts on Vasilievsky Island. Catherine viewed its progress from her palace windows. She was so taken by this building’s elegant simple lines that she commissioned its Classical Revivalist architect, Villain de la Mothe of France, to design the next phase of her Hermitage. Mothe crafted a three-story neoclassical North Pavilion, along the riverfront. He then connected the two facing pavilions with long open galleries, surrounding a hanging garden courtyard. This structural ensemble became Catherine’s salon, the Little Hermitage.

The Small Hermitage, built by Catherine the Great to display her art collection, now part of the State Hermitage Museum.

The empress paced the halls of her new playhouse in solitude. She contemplated the plaster walls, an empty canvas to be filled. She envisaged various arrangements for her artworks. Catherine alone decided which of her favorites would be displayed, and how. The Flemish masters Rubens, Bruegel, and van Dyck adorned one gallery wall; the Italian masters Tintoretto and Veronese the opposite side; while Dutch masters Hals, Rembrandt, and Steen were placed where everyone who entered would see them. The smaller scale Dous were grouped together and hung low, so visitors could admire the lifelike detail of the Leiden fijnschilder. When new

acquisitions arrived, the empress took care and pleasure to find their right place among her treasures.

 

The empress’s days were full of formality—counsels, ceremony, correspondence; but the evenings were given to informality—conversation, games, entertainment. Intimate parties of a dozen or so select guests gathered at night in the Little Hermitage. To assure the proper atmosphere, Catherine composed a list of ten rules For the Behavior of All Those Entering These Doors:

1) All ranks, swords and hats shall be left at the door;

2) Haughtiness in all forms shall be left at the door;

3) Act merry, but do not upset or break anything;

4) Sit, stand or walk as you please, regardless of others;

5) Do not talk loud, or give others an earache or headache;

6) Do not argue too passionately or angrily;

7) Do not sigh, yawn or anything that fatigues and bores others;

8) Agree to participate in any innocent games suggested by others;

9) Eat and drink as you please, but always leave on your own legs;

10) All that is said and done here must stay here after you leave.

 

As punishment for those who violated the rules one through nine, the empress made them guzzle a glass of ice water and recite passages of poetry. Those who trespassed against the tenth rule, however, were forever banned from the premises.

Portrait of Empress Catherine the Great, née Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, Fyodor Rokotov (?), 1780s, State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

“My pictures are beautiful,” the empress told Falconet. “When can you come see them?” Catherine was most comfortable in this combined setting of high culture and casual socializing. Philosophers discussed, musicians played, poets recited, and actors performed. While Frederick composed his flute sonatas at Sanssouci, Catherine tried her hand as a playwright, using the Hermitage theatre to stage her comedies. Invited guests played whist and bridge and other gambling games. Catherine was always eager to make a wager, even though she most often lost. Silver serving trays of food were laid out, alongside brimming crystal decanters of wine and vodka. Inevitably, at some point in the evening, the empress escorted guests to the galleries to view her most recent Old Master triumph. Here in the Little Hermitage, Catherine was indeed the Russian Minerva.

The Tent-Roofed Hall in the New Hermitage, now part of the State Hermitage Museum, displays 17th century Dutch paintings.

In mid-March 1771, the empress sat down with her vice chancellor for the morning

briefing. Through the tall palace windows, she could see the Neva River was finally stirring, as late winter ice crackled and churned. Alexander Golitsyn read to Her Majesty a letter just arrived from cousin Dmitry in The Hague: An extraordinary opportunity, the Amsterdam merchant Braamcamp is dead. His famous Temple of Arts, filled with rare and precious Old Masters, soon will go to auction.

 

 

Homosexuality in 18th Century England

It's my pleasure to welcome Lucy May Lennox, to life the lid on a little-explored part of 18th century life!

---oOo---

With the prominence of gay identity today, there is sometimes a misconception that homosexuality is modern, but in reality that could not be further from the truth. There is abundant evidence of a flourishing gay subculture in eighteenth century London, despite attempts to outlaw it. As I was researching my novel, The Adventures of Tom Finch, Gentleman, which is set in the opera world of Covent Garden in 1735, I kept coming across surprising, fascinating details about gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. Although the title character is straight (this is not a m-m romance), the novel explores many different types of marginalized people, so I decided to include some gay and bisexual characters, with references to real practices and people of the time. 

My main source of information was the fantastic website by Rictor Norton. He provides detailed contemporary descriptions of the molly-houses, which were essentially eighteenth century gay bars. These are the roots of modern gay culture, particularly camp and drag performance. Men would dress as women and act out the marriage ceremony, followed by a trip to the marriage bed that everyone witnessed, then an elaborate lying-in and pantomime birth of a wooden doll. As sodomy was a capital offense, men who visited a molly-house were literally risking their lives, and they were frequently raided. Despite the danger, it sounds like there was an atmosphere of fun and freedom, and we can see some element of gay pride, as in this song:

Let the Fops of the Town upbraid
Us, for an unnatural Trade,
We value not Man nor Maid; 

But among our own selves we'll be free

Transcripts of court cases are an amazing picture of how ordinary people talked and thought at the time, and there were, sadly, many cases involving gay men. In 1726, William Brown was tried and found guilty of attempted sodomy in a popular cruising ground north of London called Sodomite’s Walk. He was a victim of what today we would call entrapment: Thomas Newton, a male prostitute, had been sent there to entice other men, in exchange for avoiding prosecution himself. The trial transcript includes this remarkable line:

We asked the Prisoner [Brown] why he took such indecent Liberties with Newton, and he was not ashamed to answer, I did it because I thought I knew him, and I think there is no Crime in making what use I please of my own Body.

I was so impressed by this sentiment that I borrowed it for one of my characters, although under happier circumstances. While the court cases show the suffering caused by homophobia, we don’t have the same clear record of ordinary gay people living their everyday lives, although we can imagine it. Brown’s sense of self hints at a rich private life.

Cross-dressing was very popular with people of all classes and persuasions, particularly in theatrical performance and at masquerade balls, where straight men frequently dressed as women. While cross-dressing in daily life was less common and riskier, it did still happen. A man who went by the name Princess Seraphina shows up in a trial in 1732, and the comments of witnesses make it clear that she used female pronouns and dressed as a woman often. But this was not a sodomy trial—Princess Seraphina sued another man for stealing her clothes. Aside from this case (which she sadly lost), she was never troubled by the law again. Unfortunately we know very little about her life, but I included her as a minor character. 

There is less information about female homosexuality but it definitely existed. Unlike sodomy, which was illegal, sex between women was not a crime, and seems to have been considered more of a quirk than a moral failing. There are accounts of women (especially actresses) alternating between male and female lovers, such as Elizabeth Ashe who had a fling with Caroline, Countess of Harrington. The common practice of well-to-do women keeping a lady’s companion also allowed sexual relationships between women to hide in plain sight, as society would assume they were merely friends. I reflected this more relaxed attitude towards bisexuality in women in the character of Tess Turnbridge, an aspiring opera diva who has male and female lovers.

While femme women who took female lovers seem to have been somewhat tolerated, the same was not true of women who dressed as men in daily life. There are some tragic cases of women attempting to pass as men who were publicly whipped or pilloried, including Mary Hamilton in 1746 and Ann Marrow in 1777. It’s interesting to note they were convicted of fraud, not lesbianism (which was not a crime), but the viciousness of their punishment speaks to a deep-seated anxiety about women taking on a male role.

The slang term for lesbian sex was “a game of flats” or “a game at flats.” There was a charming love poem with the title “The Game at Flats” published in 1715, with the footnote “These Stanzas were made on Mrs. B––le, and a Lady her Companion, whom she calls Captain.” How enticing to wonder who this couple might have been.

The Joys of either Sex in Love
          In each of them we read,
Successive each, to each does prove,
          Fierce Youth and yielding Maid.

Even in previous eras with less personal freedom than we enjoy today, there were people who did not conform to society’s rules. I think it’s important to include LGBT characters even in novels that are not specifically about homosexuality, because they have always existed.

---oOo---

The Adventures of Tom Finch, Gentleman

By Lucy May Lennox

London, 1735. Covent Garden offers a world of pleasures and diversions, even for a blind man. Tom Finch approaches life with boundless good cheer and resilience, whether he’s pursuing a musical career or pursuing women. And as for his blindness, to him it’s merely an inconvenience. Join Tom for a picaresque romp through high and low Georgian society among rakes, rovers, thieving whores and demireps, highway robbers, bigamists, and duelists, bisexual opera divas, castrati, mollies, and cross-dressers, lecherous aristocrats, and headstrong ladies. This meticulously researched, witty and lively tale overturns stereotypes about disability and revels in the spectacle and excitement of 18^th century opera.

A Tyrant and a Demon

It's a pleasure to welcome Lucienne Boyce, author of Death Makes No Distinction, for a tale of two women from different worlds.

---oOo---

A Tyrant and A Demon

In Death Makes No Distinction one of the subjects I was particularly interested in was the relationship between the rich and poor. One of the ways I explored this was by looking at the relationship between two fictitious women writers – Louise Parmeter, a bluestocking who had been mistress to the Prince of Wales – and Agnes Taylor, her protégée. 

Their relationship is inspired by the story of Hannah More and Ann Yearsley. Both women were born in Bristol. Hannah More (1745–1833) was brought up in comfortable surroundings. Her father, a school teacher, encouraged her to pursue a wider education than that usually allowed to girls. He taught her Latin, and she also learned French, Italian, and Spanish – though he did draw the line at too much mathematics, which was not considered appropriate for a girl. 

After her wealthy fiancé, William Turner, jilted Hannah, he compensated her by settling an annuity on her which gave her financial security and independence. She became a renowned playwright who moved in bluestocking circles, counting Dr Johnson, David Garrick and Elizabeth Montagu amongst her friends. She also befriended William Wilberforce and supported his campaign against slavery. 

Unlike Louise Parmeter in Death Makes No Distinction, however, she was strict in her own morals – and in the standards she set for others. She wrote several books exhorting women to lead virtuous and Christian lives. She later turned her moralising and evangelical attention to the working classes, setting up charity schools for poor children and lecturing the poor on their duties in a series of tracts.

Ann Yearsley (née Cromartie) (c1753–1806) was also born in Bristol. Her mother was a milkwoman, and it was from her that Ann learned to read and write. Nothing is known about her father. She married a labourer, John Yearsley, and they had six (some sources say seven) children. In 1784, the family was destitute and living in a stable in Clifton. A Mr Vaughan rescued them from near-starvation. Ann then worked as a milkwoman, selling milk from pails she carried about the streets. Hannah More and her sisters were running a school on Park Street at the time and it was their cook who showed Hannah some of Ann’s poetry. Hannah was so impressed she took Ann under her wing, taught her grammar and spelling, and collected subscribers to fund the publication of a book of poems. 

Ann Yearsley (British Library on Flickr, No Known Copyright Restrictions)

However, it was not More’s intention that Ann should give up selling milk. She was very careful to ensure, as she pointed out in her introduction to Ann’s Poems, on Several Occasions, published in 1785:

“It is not intended to place her in such a state of independence as might seduce her to devote her time to the idleness of Poetry….as a wife and mother, she has duties to fill, the smallest of which is of more value than the finest verses she can write: but as it has pleased God to give her these talents, may they not be made an instrument to mend her situation, if we published a small volume of her Poems…?...if I did not think her heart was rightly turned, I should be afraid of proposing such a measure, lest…by exciting her vanity, [it should] indispose her for the laborious employments of her humble condition…” 

Hannah More, A Prefatory Letter to Mrs Montague. By a Friend, Bristol, 20 October 1784 

The power structure was very clear: Hannah was Ann’s patron and Ann must know her place. And to keep her control over the poet known as Lactilla, More tied up the profits from her writing in a trust fund to which neither Ann nor John had access, and only doled out so much money as she thought was appropriate. Worse, Hannah would not return Ann’s manuscript poems to her, and told her they had been burned at the printers. 

When Ann protested, Hannah accused her of being insane or drunk. It was a painful situation for both women, with Hannah More disappointed by what she saw as the working woman’s ingratitude, and Ann infuriated by Hannah’s attempt to control her. 

But Ann was in the unusual position of being able to tell her own story. In 1787 she published her version of the quarrel, claiming she had been rushed into signing the Deed of Trust: 

“I had not time to peruse [the deed of trust], nor take a copy; and from the rapidity with which this circumstance was conducted, I feared to ask it…My feelings were all struck at – I felt as a mother deemed unworthy the tuition or care of her family…Even the interest was not allowed me, but on the capricious terms, that she should lay it out as she thought proper…”

Ann Yearsley, To the noble and generous subscribers, who so liberally patronized a book of poems, published under the auspices of Miss H More, of Park-Street, Bristol, the following narrative is most humbly addressed, in Poems on Various Subjects, 1787. 

The two women parted company, Ann found a new patron, Frederick Augustus Hervey, the earl of Bristol, and the trust funds were later made over to her. She used some of the money to set up a circulating library in Hotwells, Bristol. She published more poems, a play and a historical novel. After the death of her husband in 1803, she moved to Melksham, where she died in 1806. 

In spite of all Hannah More had done for Ann Yearsley, she ended up being accused of being a “tyrant”. As for Ann, from being Hannah’s “meritorious woman” she changed into a “Demon”. For Hannah and Ann, it was a sad end to a relationship that, as Yearsley suggested, could never develop into true friendship because of its deep-rooted inequalities. The same tensions underpin dealings between Louise Parmeter and Agnes Taylor in Death Makes No Distinction – but it’s up to Bow Street Runner Dan Foster to decide if they have any connection with Louise’s murder.  

Contact:

Website: www.lucienneboyce.com

Twitter: @LucienneWrite

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucienneWriter

Blog: http://francesca-scriblerus.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6437832.Lucienne_Boyce

Buying Links:

Death Makes No Distinction is available in paperback and ebook.

Amazon  

Amazon.com  

SilverWood Books  

Barnes and Noble
Books Depository  
AppleBook
Kobo
Nook 

For more information see my website. 

Unwed Mothers in the Regency by Colin Odom

It's a pleasure to welcome Colin Odom, who is visiting the salon as part of the blog tour for A Covenant of Marriage. Colin is here to share  fascinating post about the lot of unwed mothers in the Regency.

---oOo---

A Covenant of Marriage and Unwed Mothers in the Regency

C. P. Odom

During the writing of A Covenant of Marriage, I wrote a situation involving an unwed mother who, for various reasons, had no recourse to friends or family. Before I could write my way out of that dilemma, I did do a little research into just what would have happened during that particular time and whether or not the charity I postulated might have existed in reality. As shown below, unfortunately, the answer is a tentative Maybe.

In the time of the Regency, society was essentially based on marriage and the family, and adults had their place in that society based on their position in the family unit. Married women were held in higher esteem than unmarried women, and married men were given the respect due to someone who had proven their capability to support a family. Women were identified for tax purposes as either wives, widow, or spinsters, while men were identified by their occupation or social status.

Spinsterhood was a definite liability for a woman, even for an upper class girl (though almost a fourth of such girls remained unmarried). If a single woman had an independent income sufficient for her to support a household, she was able to carry on an independent life. If not, a spinster would be faced with the choice of somehow finding employment suitable to her genteel status or else would have to live in the house of a relative. If a single woman possessed independent means—a fortune of her own sufficient for her to live on, it was possible she could maintain her own household and carry on an independent life.

However, the above situations offered far better prospects than did a young woman who became pregnant without benefit of marriage. In the best of cases, the unfortunate young lady’s family might be able to force the responsible young man to marry their daughter. But this solution depended on money and secrecy to make it work, since neither the bride or the groom could withstand the shame if their situation became openly known. And, if the man later proved incapable of supporting his dependents, this might be described as a case of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

But many such women were not able to manage such a marriage. Filled with shame at their condition, they and their families often looked for places in which they could be hidden away during their pregnancy. While investigating this situation, I was quite surprised to find that some places advertised themselves in newspapers offering discreet refuge away from the public view. After the mother gave birth, many unwanted children were left on church steps and porches, assuring that the parish would provide care and sustenance for these abandoned orphans. Again, secrecy and money were necessary requirements in making such solutions work.

Less fortunate were those unwed mothers who left their homes, perhaps to keep their family from suffering for her disgrace or because they simply could not bear to openly admit their condition to parents and/or siblings. Many such pregnant women, unable to support themselves, were soon hungry, exhausted, and in poor health and found themselves forced to enter a workhouse, the last retreat for those at the end of their tethers. Some abandoned babies, such as Charles Dickens character in Oliver Twist, also wound up in such a workplace, having been born after his unwed mother died bringing him into the world. The conditions were appalling, and even pregnant women awaiting the birth of their child were expected to work. Many women, like Oliver Twist’s mother, were simply too weak after birth to survive, leaving their unwanted babies as orphans.

But to get back to my novel and the reason for this research, I had come up with the idea of a charity providing a refuge for unwed mothers in a more open environment in London, and I wanted to see if such charities had actually existed. Unfortunately, all I could really uncover was that the first maternity homes were set up to provide shelter for expectant or nursing mothers. However, a very famous institution titled London’s Foundling Hospital was opened in 1741 by an old sea-captain named Thomas Coram who had become a wealthy shipwright and merchant following his time commanding merchant ships. During his travels to and from London on business, Coram had been shocked by the sight of the many unwanted children that tried to find what shelter and sustenance they could. Even if they were found, many of them died from hunger or disease because they were not found in time. He founded his hospital, which is believed to be the world’s first incorporated charity, as a way to take in unwanted children and care for them until they could fend for themselves. The Hospital opened their doors to illegitimate children in 1801.

So, despite the dearth of historical data to validate my invention of a charitable institutions such as “The Bedford Charitable Home for the Unfortunate” in my novel, I still believe such institutions likely existed. The absence of definitive historical documentation could well be the difference in size between my fanciful charity, with only a few dozen beds and perhaps one or two midwives and the large Foundling Hospital. The latter institution was substantial in size, enough so that Charles Dickens and his family worshiped in the Foundling Chapel. Certainly, there was a critical need for such charities, and the less wholesome (and less documented) parts of London could have included such small institutions, many of which might only have lasted for a few years until the founder exhausted his funds and they were forced to close their doors.

In summary, this author asks for a little suspension of disbelief in this matter due to lack of evidence either way. No matter how much internet research one does, a “WayBack Machine”such as in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon shows of my childhood would be needed, and I’m fresh out.

---oOo---

A Covenant of Marriage — legally binding, even for an unwilling bride!

Defined as a formal, solemn, and binding agreement or compact, a covenant is commonly used with regard to relations among nations or as part of a contract. But it can also apply to a marriage as Elizabeth Bennet learns when her father binds her in marriage to a man she dislikes. Against her protests that she cannot be bound against her will, the lady is informed that she lives under her father’s roof and, consequently, is under his control; she is a mere pawn in the proceedings.

With such an inauspicious beginning, how can two people so joined ever make a life together?

Author Bio: 

 By training, I’m a retired engineer, born in Texas, raised in Oklahoma, and graduated from the University of Oklahoma. Sandwiched in there was a stint in the  Marines, and I’ve lived in Arizona since 1977, working first for Motorola and then General Dynamics. 

I raised two sons with my first wife, Margaret, before her untimely death from cancer, and my second wife, Jeanine, and I adopted two girls from China. The older of my daughters recently graduated with an engineering degree and is working in Phoenix, and the younger girl is heading toward a nursing degree. 

I’ve always been a voracious reader and collector of books, and my favorite genres are science fiction, historical fiction, histories, and, in recent years, reading (and later writing) Jane Austen romantic fiction. This late-developing interest was indirectly stimulated when I read my late wife's beloved Jane Austen books after her passing.  One thing led to another, and I now have four novels published:  A Most Civil Proposal(2013), Consequences(2014), Pride, Prejudice, and Secrets(2015), and Perilous Siege(2019). Two of my books are now audiobooks, Most Civil Proposaland Pride, Prejudice, and Secrets. 

I retired from engineering in 2011, but I still live in Arizona with my family, a pair of dogs (one of which is stubbornly untrainable), and a pair of rather strange cats.  My hobbies are reading, woodworking, and watching college football and LPGA golf (the girls are much nicer than the guys, as well as being fiendishly good putters). Lately I’ve reverted back to my younger years and have taken up building plastic model aircraft and ships (when I can find the time).

Contact Info:

Colin Odom Facebook page

C. P. Odom Amazon Author page  

C. P. Odom Goodreads page  

C. P. Odom Meryton Press page

Buy Links:   

Amazon USeBook, Paperback, Kindle Unlimited

Amazon UKeBook, Paperback, Kindle Unlimited

Blog Tour Schedule:

11/05 A Covent Garden Gilflurt’s Guide to Life

11/06 More Agreeably Engaged

11/07 From Pemberley to Milton

11/08 Half Agony, Half Hope

11/09 My Love for Jane Austen

11/11 Diary of an Eccentric

11/12 Darcyholic Diversions

11/14 Margie's Must Reads

11/15 Austenesque Reviews

11/16 My Jane Austen Book Club

11/17 Babblings of a Bookworm

11/18 My Vices and Weaknesses

11/19 Interests of a Jane Austen Girl

Giveaway:

Meryton Press is giving away 8 eBooks of A Covenant of Marriage via the link blow!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0ca86b9b33/?

The Bride of Northanger – and Netley Abbey

It's a pleasure to welcome Diane Birchall, with a look behind the inspiration for a literary location!

--oOo---

As an early practitioner of what is now called the Austenesque, I wrote my first piece of pastiche in 1984, winning a contest in Persuasions (the journal of JASNA), with an imitation of Miss Bates’ discursive chat in Emma.  I found this to be such a delightful pastime, I haven’t stopped yet. Hundreds of stories and a few novels later, I’ve found a lifetime study of Austen’s work to be a resoundingly entertaining education. Examining Austen’s methods and her witty and elegant style with the object of improving my own, led to an ever deepening appreciation of her uniquely re-readable novels.

Why, then, did it take such a long time for me to come around to a real consideration of Northanger Abbey? An early work, though one she revised later, it has enormous charm and humor, though perhaps not the same weight of thought and workmanship as her more mature works. Northanger Abbey satirizes the Gothic genre, the “horrid novels” read for thrills by its young heroine Catherine Morland and her more experienced friend Isabella Thorpe. Jane Austen also seized a revealing chance to air her own opinions about novels and novel-writing. However, it was not so much the Gothic literary playfulness that I found most appealing about Northanger Abbey: it was the central relationship, which was a puzzling one to me.  I never quite understood why or how an unusually clever man like the captivating Henry Tilney could fall in love with such a young, naïve, uneducated girl as Catherine. This was something I wanted to explore, psychologically, realistically, and romantically. 

After some consideration of Henry’s father, General Tilney, I realized that Henry had been fairly bullied and brutalized by this dreadful man, and that a girl like Catherine, with her refreshing honesty and lack of guile, was therefore very appealing to him. 

A sequel to Northanger Abbey, my novel The Bride of Northanger contains plenty of Gothic adventuring.  Austen enjoyed the genre herself, and I duly read several of the books Catherine and Isabella pored over, full of incidents of the sort that Henry Tilney memorably said made the hair on his head stand up on end. These episodes were fun to research and to invent; but I never wanted to stray too far away from Henry and Catherine themselves, and how their own love story might have progressed. Their engagement we know lasted a year, during which time they corresponded; and I was sure Henry recommended plenty of good reading to his naïve young fiancée. Thus, by the time of the wedding, she had been exposed to much more thinking and education, and was consequently a better, more interesting wife for Henry. Their marriage became a more equal one than it might have seemed at the conclusion of Northanger Abbey. Certainly there were Gothic horrors for them to contend with, but Catherine, with her natural common sense and improved mind, became a most admirable heroine, in my mind at least:  a true Bride of Northanger.

In trying to find the right cover picture to represent Catherine, I needed to look no further than a portrait by the French artist Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, of a young girl who would have been exactly the same age as Austen’s Catherine. This was Corisande Armandine Leonie Sophie de Gramont (1783 – 1865), a granddaughter of Marie Antoinette’s favorite friend the Duchesse de Polignac. Corisande married an English MP, the Earl of Tankerville, and lived in England. She was visually my Catherine to a T (or a C), but I wanted the cover to be more than a pretty girl’s head. I needed an Abbey, to represent Northanger. 

Netley Abbey by Moonlight by John Constable, 1833

The obvious choice was Netley Abbey, which Jane Austen actually visited herself while living in Southampton. Soon after her father’s death in 1805, Jane, her mother, sister Cassandra, and friend Martha Lloyd moved to Southampton, taking lodgings with sailor brother Francis’s wife Mary. Francis would be at sea, and Mary was pregnant, so the arrangement suited all parties. Jane Austen had been to Southampton earlier, as a young girl, and knew it well;  Netley Abbey, on Southampton Water, was a popular excursion. In 1808 Jane wrote to Cassandra about taking their two young nephews, who had lately lost their mother, on an outing there:

“I intend to take them to Netley today; the tide is just right for our going immediately after noonshine, but I am afraid there will be rain.” 

Portrait of John Constable as a young man, 1799

There can be little doubt that Netley Abbey, with its forbidding aspect and dramatic history, seized Jane’s imagination, as it had that of other authors and painters. The suppression of the monasteries in Henry VIII’s time may seem remote to the period in which Jane Austen wrote, but it was an historical subject that was important to her. She saw evidences of monastic buildings taken over by rich landowners for their own gain, all around her. Her depiction of General Tilney’s greedy, self-serving way of running his grand estate that had once been a religious house, reflects this. 

The Ruins of Netley Abbey, sketch by John Constable, 1826

The decorative painting I chose of Netley Abbey for my own book cover is by the English landscape painter John Constable, titled Netley Abbey by Moonlight. The painter and his wife visited Netley in 1816, on their honeymoon, though the watercolor painting was done years later. The ancient Cistercian structure, founded in 1238, has a most bloody history and has been said to be haunted by ghosts of the monks whose home was ripped from them in the confiscations. What better place to set off ghostly imaginings in almost any visitor – and to spark the imagination of genius to recreate it as Northanger Abbey. 

About the  Author

Diana Birchall worked for many years at Warner Bros studios as a story analyst, reading novels to see if they would make movies. Reading manuscripts went side by side with a restorative and sanity-preserving life in Jane Austen studies and resulted in her writing Austenesque fiction both as homage and attempted investigation of the secrets of Jane Austen's style. She is the author of In Defense of Mrs. Elton, Mrs. Elton in America, Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma, and the new The Bride of Northanger. She has written hundreds of Austenesque short stories and plays, as well as a biography of her novelist grandmother, and has lectured on her books and staged play readings at places as diverse as Hollywood, Brooklyn, Montreal, Chawton House Library, Alaska, and Yale. Visit Diana at her Austen Variations author page, follow her on Twitter, Facebookand Goodreads.

The Bride of Northanger

A happier heroine than Catherine Morland does not exist in England, for she is about to marry her beloved, the handsome, witty Henry Tilney. The night before the wedding, Henry reluctantly tells Catherine and her horrified parents a secret he has dreaded to share - that there is a terrible curse on his family and their home, Northanger Abbey. Henry is a clergyman, educated and rational, and after her year’s engagement Catherine is no longer the silly young girl who delighted in reading “horrid novels”; she has improved in both reading and rationality. This sensible young couple cannot believe curses are real...until a murder at the Abbey triggers events as horrid and Gothic as Jane Austen ever parodied - events that shake the young Tilneys’ certainties, but never their love for each other...

PURCHASE LINKS:

• Amazon Paperback Link: https://amzn.to/35uV0KB
• Amazon eBook Link: https://amzn.to/2IM6Eao
• Barnes & Noble eBook Link: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-bride-of-northanger-diana-birchall/1133647214?ean=2940163715497
• Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48205456-the-bride-of-northanger
• Publishers Page: https://whitesouppress.com/the-bride-of-northanger-by-diana-birchall/

THE BRIDE OF NORTHANGER BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE:

October 28                My Jane Austen Book Club (Interview)

October 28                Austenprose—A Jane Austen Blog (Review)

October 28                vvb32 Reads (Spotlight)                            

October 29                A Covent Garden Gilflurt’s Guide of Life (Guest Blog)

October 29                From Pemberley to Milton (Excerpt)

October 30                Drunk Austen (Interview)

October 30                Silver Petticoat Review (Excerpt)

October 31                Jane Austen’s World (Review)

November 01            So Little Time… (Interview)

November 01            Laura's Reviews (Review)

November 04            English Historical Fiction Authors (Guest Blog)

November 04            Confessions of a Book Addict (Spotlight)

November 05            More Agreeably Engaged (Review)

November 05            Vesper’s Place (Review)

November 06            Jane Austen in Vermont (Interview)

November 06            Diary of an Eccentric (Interview)

November 07            All Things Austen (Spotlight)

November 07            A Bookish Way of Life (Review)

November 07            Let Them Read Books (Excerpt)  

November 08            Babblings of a Bookworm (Review)

November 08            vvb32 Reads (Review)

November 11            My Jane Austen Book Club (Review)

November 11            Reading the Past (Spotlight)

November 12            Jane Austen’s World (Interview)

November 12            The Calico Critic (Excerpt)

November 13            The Book Rat (Review) 

November 13            Austenesque Reviews (Review)

November 14            Fangs, Wands, & Fairy Dust (Review)

November 14            The Fiction Addict (Review)

November 15            My Love for Jane Austen (Spotlight)

November 15            Scuffed Slippers and Wormy Books (Review)