Regency Romance Novels

Cari

Book review: Lady Susan by Jane Austen

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Jane Austen wasn’t a woman who lived life wrapped in tissue paper. Sex, scandals, thoughtless abusive parents; these things weren’t just subjects of salacious prints, they were realities.

Frances Wilson (the author of a biography on Regency courtesan, Harriet Wilson) revealed in her book (The Courtesan’s Revenge) that Jane actually mentioned the very young Harriet in a letter (though not by name) because Harriet’s (first admitted) named lover was connected to the Austen family circle. How many of us think of Jane as someone who’d pass on gossip about a mutual acquaintance stabling his young mistress at his country pile? Knowing this about Jane, it’s easy to see how she could write her short story, “Lady Susan”.

Lady Susan, the main character, is a despicable selfish woman. We’ve all met people like her (or found ourselves cursed to endure them for the sake of family or friends) lying sociopaths who use good looks and charm to ensnare anyone they might find useful (or to their benefit). Lady Susan, a beautiful young widow of 35, is forced by straightened means (and her failed scheming) to retreat to her brother-in-law’s home where she causes more unhappiness. After the first few letters I was glued to my computer screen. It’s a brilliant short story and one you can read on line or download for free HERE (thanks to Project Gutenberg). I highly recommend it!

A Contest for Jane Austen Fans…winners chosen!

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Sadly, the contest is over and the winners chosen (the necklace won by Coleen, the Scarf by someone known as Jo’s Daughter, and the ring was won by Heather). Congratulations to all the winners! The contest centered around the 1995 BBC version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (the one with Colin Firth as Darcy). The singer-songwriter Jasmine Kyle (a devoted Janeite) wrote a song inspired by the movie and wanted to share it…ie give it away to other Janeites. It’s too late to enter, but you can still…Download a free copy of Jasmine Kyle’s song “Dear Jane”.

Three lucky people won (along with an autographed album) one of these…(one prize per person)…

The ring! Sadly it won't come in the box.
The replica Jane Austen ring! Sadly it won't come with the box (or with magic powers that will zap you back in time). You will have to imagine up that adventure...I see a sensible Regency hero agonising in the jewelry shop wondering what to buy his sweetheart. Oh, what to get that says I think you're wonderful without even the slightest suggestion that the lady might do anything improper...at least not in public...and certainly not until after his proposal...

[Read more…] about A Contest for Jane Austen Fans…winners chosen!

Health update…

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I apologise for my sparse blogging. In mid March I went to the doctors with a number of symptoms. The blood tests revealed an over active thyroid (which is an auto immune disorder). That’s the one where you die if you don’t take medication to sort it out. After a month I heard back from the specialist and my GP put me on some pills. My poor brain felt like a worn tire being driven at speed down a gravel road. By the time I started taking the medication I’d developed a weird brain slur which made talking and writing a challenge (it’s now better, but my brain is still not quite right). After a couple weeks of the pills I was feeling so much better I forgot I wasn’t “healthy”. I’ll never forget the day I decided to weed the flower beds. My garden is small and the flower beds edge the back of the garden. Since I’d started, I wanted to get them all done…so I pushed myself. I think it was all the bending over and standing up (I should have been kneeling). When I finished I felt like I was going to throw up. I had an awful feeling in my chest. I sat down in the garden chair and thought I was going to have a heart attack and die. [Read more…] about Health update…

Icy shadows…

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Last week the sun came out so even though a Siberian wind was chilling England I bundled up and went for a walk. I think I overdid it, but it was lovely to escape the house. I found some interesting photographs in the shadows on the frozen ditch water. The light shimmered through the hedgerow and glinted off the rough skin of ice. I haven’t retouched the colour in the photos. The hazy pink and green…up close it was like a nebula exploding. Here are my favorite shots… (Click on the photos to see a larger image) [Read more…] about Icy shadows…

Dancing the Maypole is on my website…

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The real Adderbury House in Adderbury Oxfordshire
The real Adderbury House in Adderbury Oxfordshire!

Dear members of Regency Romance Novels.com

I’ve finished Dancing the Maypole and it’s on my website ready to read (all fifty-one chapters). For those of you who prefer e-books Smashwords has approved it. For those who might not have noticed, the Goblin has redesigned my website. It now shrinks down to fit all hand held devices that connect to the internet. I hope you enjoy long stories. Dancing the Maypole is twice the length of my other novels. On the Goblin’s iphone it came out as over 1500 pages (but those are tiny pages). In a paperback the book would be about five hundred pages. I would have liked it to be shorter, but the story had other ideas.

Dancing the Maypole follows on from The Hired Wife. A year older, the five Smirke brothers have decided it’s time to help their father find a wife. Knowing Peter Smirke will be attending a house party they put an ad in all the papers. They assume they’ll have at least a week and a half to interview applicants before their father returns to give them his spine chilling glare.

When I started the story, I knew by the end of chapter two that the title would be Dancing the Maypole. Dancing around a maypole is an old European custom that stretches back into pre-history. Originally Pagan, it was a celebration of May day. The dance is performed around a pole or a tree cut down and trimmed for the occasion. In recent times multi coloured ribbons were attached to the top of the pole and each dancer would hold one ribbon. The dancers then dance…half going one way, the other half going the other…and the ribbons entwine around the pole.

The heroine, Isabel de Bourbon, is a tall woman so she is what some unkindly term, a maypole, but half way through the story I realised that the maypole being danced was something bigger. The story is a romance novel, but it’s also about the weaving of the generations. We often think that our choices alone define us, but really it’s a combination of our choices and the choices of our parents/ancestors (both genetic and adopted). Our great to the tenth grandparents made decisions that genetically and emotionally affect us today. All these layers of stories woven together make up our story. I find that utterly fascinating.

Happy Reading!

Even if you’re not a member, the first ten chapters are free to read here.