For the next 6 weeks it is going to be all Regency Era, all the time here. Why? Because on 16 December (the birthday of She Who Is Greatness – Jane Austen) my book Mansfield Parsonage will be released by Made Global Publishers.
This makes me soooooooo happy!
The book is a retelling of Austen’s Mansfield Park from the point of view of Mary Crawford. For me, Mary was a far better protagonist and heroine than that fearsome drip of a wet hen, Fanny Price. In fact, the reason television and film adaptions of the book tend to deviate so strongly from the novel is because no one in their right mind can root for a milquetoast, self-righteous, sniveling twerp like Fanny Price or her slave-owing yet moralizing relations, the Bertrams. Thus, the film adaptions tend to make Fanny feisty little critter and either elide or criticize the Bertram family’s dependence on slavery for income. Moreover, it is hard for the modern reader to understand why Mary Crawford was setup as the “bad girl” in contrast to Fanny. Mary’s “sins” are a desire to live in the city, to be happy in marriage, and to try to save Maria Bertram from social ruin when Maria has an affair.
Oh, the horror, right?
Apparently, to be a Good Girl like Fanny Price you need to become useless when faced with the hellish shock of adultery (which is way more morally repugnant than, say, owning your fellow human beings as chattel) and want the adulterers punished forever for their lapse. Otherwise you lack delicacy. Or aren’t a sanctimonious prig. Either one, really.
So, anyone have any questions about The Regency Period, Jane Austen, or the forthcoming book? Comment here, email me, ask me on Facebook, or send me a Tweet and I’ll do my best to be obliging.