“Miss Bennet,” replied her ladyship, in an angry tone, “you ought to know that I am not to be trifled with. But however insincere you may choose to be, you shall not find me so. My character has ever been celebrated for its sincerity and frankness, and in a cause of such moment as this, I shall certainly not depart from it.” (Pride and Prejudice, chapter 56)
My current work-in-progress, The Ladies of Rosings Park, is really coming along well! I’ve got about 25K words already. That’s about 1/4 of a novel. (See this previous post for more about the book plus the prologue.)
Before moving on to a sequel story line, the first section of this book revisits the timeline of Pride and Prejudice with “missing scenes” and scenes retold from the perspective of the ladies of Rosings Park – Lady Catherine, Anne de Bourgh, and even Mrs. Jenkinson. What did the three of them think of Elizabeth Bennet when she came to Rosings? Which of them first detected the danger she represented to the supposed engagement between Anne and Darcy? Was Anne heartbroken or indifferent to discover Darcy would marry Elizabeth instead of her? These were things I needed to sort out.
Jane Austen doesn’t tell us how Anne felt about the broken engagement, but she does tell us how Lady Catherine reacted to having her careful plans frustrated. In the final chapter of Pride and Prejudice, you’ll find these lines:
“Lady Catherine was extremely indignant on the marriage of her nephew; and as she gave way to all the genuine frankness of her character in her reply to the letter which announced its arrangement, she sent him language so very abusive, especially of Elizabeth, that for some time all intercourse was at an end.”
There’s that word again: frankness. That’s all we get, though. Jane Austen tells us about the letters but she doesn’t show them to us. The exact contents are left to our imaginations. Once again, that’s where I step in, to fill in those blanks.
Lady Catherine, with her superior air, her overdeveloped sense of entitlement, and her ‘celebrated frankness’ is such fun to write for! I’m glad for the excuse of this new book to do a lot more of that, and I have always especially enjoyed writing the letters included in my novels (see related post). So writing these two juicy letters – the one from Darcy to Lady Catherine and her abusive reply – was a dream assignment!
I couldn’t help sharing recently on FB how much fun I’d had doing it. And, since several of you have said you positively couldn’t wait to read them, here they are!
The Ladies of Rosings Park (This chapter is told by Lady Catherine)
I should not have been so surprised that Miss Bennet failed to recognize my authority, even after all my kindness to her; she was obviously very badly brought up. But Darcy had not the same excuse, which makes his downfall – caught, as he was, in the web of that young woman’s arts and allurements – all the more tragic. Still, I held out some hope that he might meditate further on my frank advice to him that day and come to his senses in time, that is, until I received this communication from him not long afterward.
Dear Aunt,
I am a most fortunate man. Miss Elizabeth Bennet has done me the great honor of accepting my proposal, and we are to be married in November. I do not delude myself into thinking you will receive this news gladly. However, now that everything is definitely settled, I pray you will adjust your mind to accept my decision, that you will determine to put aside your former prejudices and welcome the lady who is soon to be my wife into the family. All intercourse between Pemberley and Rosings will be at an end otherwise, for my sister and I will not continue to associate with any person who persists in insulting someone we both care for deeply. The matter is entirely in your hands, Madam.
Fitzwilliam Darcy
Words fail me to adequately describe what I felt upon receiving this letter. Indignant? Incensed? Livid? Outraged? Yes, all of these things and more. And when I considered that one who had been near and dear to me was the cause of my suffering… Again, the English language does not contain anything equal to the task.
Yet language was all that was left to me at that point. Therefore, I sat down at once to get on with the job of making my honest sentiments known to my nephew, in order that I might have done, once and for all. There was nothing to be gained by delay. I wrote as follows.
Darcy,
I can no longer address you as ‘my dear nephew,’ for by your actions you have surrendered your right to any such regard. You spit in the face of everything I hold sacred by this disgraceful marriage you plan to perpetrate upon the family. I only thank God your father and your sainted mother did not live to see this day!
As for your ludicrous suggestion that I meekly accept your decision and your intended bride, this can never be! My character, which has been ever celebrated for its frankness, will not permit it. I shall speak my mind as long as I draw breath, and my opinion is this. Miss Bennet has behaved disgracefully. In total disregard for honor and right, she has forced herself in where she was not wanted. She has entered through the back door like a common thief and carried away the peace and integrity of a noble family, treating these things as cheaply as dirt. Mark well my words, Darcy. She cares only for money and status. She cares nothing for you, your sister, or for your beloved Pemberley, and she will ruin all three in the end.
If intercourse between our households must now cease, so be it. However, I refuse to take the blame. I lay it instead where it rightly belongs, at Miss Bennet’s feet. This is her doing. I warned her what she could expect if she succeeded in drawing you in – that she would never receive any notice from the family, that she would be censured and despised wherever she went, and that she would drag you down with her in the eyes of the world. That you were (and apparently still are) too blind to see it is most regrettable, but that in no way acquits you of responsibility.
I am most seriously displeased! But beyond refusing to see you again or to ever acknowledge your wife, it is not for me to mete out the punishment you deserve. Nevertheless, punishment is surely coming. The course you have set for yourself makes that certain. You are bound to suffer the inevitable consequences of this decision for years to come. Perhaps painful experience will finally teach you to repent of this foolishness where reason failed to do so. I have done my best, but I now wash my hands of you.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh
I folded the letter, wrote the direction, sealed and posted it the same day.
What do you think? Have I captured Lady Catherine’s tone and her celebrated frankness correctly? Do you think she might later have regretted being so harsh?
As some of you know, this year is the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s much-too-early death, and many of the faithful are noting events leading up to the end as they pass on the calendar. Yesterday (May 24th), for example, marked the day when Jane left her home in Chawton for what would turn out to be the last time, seeking medical help in Winchester, where she later died.
Reading the recent posts about Jane’s move to Winchester (such as 
So, I said goodbye to my mother, knowing it would be, in all likelihood, the last time I would see her on this side of heaven, and I allowed myself to be carried off to Winchester. Cassandra travelled with me in my brother James’s carriage, with Henry and my nephew William riding escort alongside.
We drove on to College Street, where we had arranged to rent rooms, but attaining those rooms was no easy task. In my dependent state, I had to nearly be carried up the narrow flight of stairs. I was especially glad for young William’s presence then, for it was an awkward business and I doubt as to Henry’s being able to have managed it on his own. Once more I apologised for my helplessness, and once more I was assured that my friends considered it a privilege to be of service to me.
The best feature of our apartment was the neat little drawing room, which boasted a bow window with a view to the street, the old city wall, and Dr. Gabell’s garden. It was a pleasant room, but as I looked about myself I could not help wondering if I would ever leave that place again. Were those four walls, with the faded paisley paper peeling at the seams, the last sight my eyes would behold before closing forever? If so, the glories of heaven were sure to be the more impressive for the dramatic contrast.
First, let me thank everyone who has already read one or both of my two new releases, Leap of Faith and Leap of Hope, especially those who have gone the extra mile and posted a review. I appreciate your confidence and support more than I can say!
Two things Anne de Bourgh understood from a very early age: first, that she was loved by her father, and second, that she would one day marry Fitzwilliam Darcy.
“My sister and I arranged it all between ourselves,” Lady Catherine frequently told her only child, sometimes varying her exact words but never her conclusion. “And the men mean to make no difficulty about it. When the time comes, you shall marry your cousin. It is not only the cherished wish of your mother and aunt, it is a solemn promise and therefore to be considered a settled engagement. The two great estates will thus be united in one family. There could be no connection more highly desirable on either side, no alliance more perfectly natural.”
Today’s the opening day of baseball season! We’ve made it through that 2-month-long drought after Superbowl, where there was nothing to watch on TV, sports-wise, except soccer and basketball, neither of which interest me very much. Now, there will be a Mariners’ game on almost every night to keep me company while I clean up the kitchen, fold the laundry, or putter around on the internet. And just maybe this, at long last, will be Seattle’s year!
For me, baseball is just one of many interests, a pleasant diversion, an undemanding entertainment – not my passion. But for someone aspiring to play the game professionally, it is serious business and, by necessity, an all-consuming passion. Nothing less than single-minded dedication would produce success in one of the most competitive sports on the planet.
Baseball is a beautiful game, one that has been stitched into the fabric of my life since I began playing when I was eight years old. I spent seventeen years on the field and sixteen of them as a catcher behind home plate – a fitting name, for no matter which field, that patch of ground always feels like home to me.
…But, looking back, was it all worth it? – the enormous effort and countless sacrifices made so I could play professional baseball?
victory by the collective sum of their individual efforts.
Now it’s time for me to go on book tour! – virtual book tour, that is, visiting several blogs this month as a guest blogger, all in an effort to get the word out about Leap of Faith and Leap of Hope to a wider audience. Along the way, I’ll be giving more books away (but you still have one day left to enter to win the biggest giveaway at the 
My big double launch day is finally here! And I do mean FINALLY. One of these two books has been waiting a very long time for its turn at publication.
I’ve always been intrigued by the idea that a single choice in life can change everything that happens subsequently. For example, what if rather than choosing to go to college A, where you met your future spouse, you had selected college B? Would you have ended up marrying someone else instead, and consequently having different children? Yikes! Even a minor decision (such as where to eat lunch, what to order, or what route to take getting there) might make the difference between an ordinary day and winding up in the hospital from food poisoning or a car accident. Of course, being the romantic that I am, I’m thinking you might meet that certain someone wonderful in the hospital, which you never would have if you hadn’t gotten sick/injured. The possible variations are endless.
At the Crossroads Center, they’re in the business of granting second chances. And their newest client is Ben Lewis, a former star athlete who never recovered from the death of his dream to make it big in the big leagues. Now he’s being offered the opportunity to return to 1991 and try again, this time without the illness that originally ended his baseball hopes. What’s the catch? He will pay for his second chance by forfeiting his memories of the first… and possibly along with them, the love of his life. Can he find his way home to the woman he’s long forgotten but never stopped missing? Or will reaching for the brass ring with both hands cause the treasure he once possessed to slip forever from his grasp?
At the Crossroads Center, they’re in the business of handing out second chances. And their newest client is Hope O’Neil – college student and Jane Austen devotee, who has always believed she’d be more at home in the past, wearing corsets and courted by men in cravats. But can a modern girl really fit into a world with no electricity, cell phones, or indoor plumbing? Hope is about to find out when her wish for an Austen kind of life is unexpectedly granted. Although she envisions her second chance will be like something straight out of Pride and Prejudice – complete with her own Mr. Darcy and a romantic happy ending – she gets more than she bargained for in this delightful romp through Regency England… a lot more.
Today, in coordination with Austen Variations, I have a scavenger hunt for you, complete with buried treasure! If you’ve already been to 
Before, you were looking at quotes from Jane Austen. Now here’s one of mine from
Winners will be chosen by random drawing from those submitting a correct entry via email as directed above. Along with your answers, include your preference of the three prizes, which book you would like and in what format. Winners will be posted (here and on my post at Austen Variations) on 1/11/17 and also notified by email. Good luck!
“Write what you know!” You’ve probably heard the saying, intended as sound advice for anyone with literary aspirations.
I want to acknowledge Jane Austen’s creativity and innovation. She pushed the envelope of her limited world about as far as she could have – as a woman in a man’s profession, as one of the early pioneers of the novel as a literary form, and also for writing what she loved – stories centered around courtship and romance, even though she supposedly had little of these things in her own life (here again, unless you subscribe to my plausible alternate version).
Have you ever wondered how your life would have been altered if at point A you had turned left instead of right? Would you have been happier or not? If you had a chance for a world-class “do over,” would you choose to go back to improve on your own life or pick a different life altogether, perhaps in a totally different time and place? I have always been fascinated by such questions, which led me to start a new series that’s all about second chances (the first two books to be released together in January).
assist these down-on-their-luck people to sort out what to do next. With their help, Ben decides to turn back the clock a few years to take another shot at his dream (read blurb 
But what about the enigmatic Cora and Poindexter? I said I was going to tell you about them, but that’s not easy because nobody seems to know exactly where they came from, what their relationship is, or even what they really look like. Just as with Jane Austen, no photographs exist and descriptions vary. Poindexter, who always wears white, puts Hope in mind of Colonel Sanders. Ben, who doesn’t get along as well with him, 
says Poindexter reminds him of a former pet albino rat named Roscoe. No consensus there! Cora is either a middle-aged brunette or a young, gorgeous blonde, depending on whom you ask. But one thing is for sure, she has a very quirky (even outrageous) fashion sense.
Join me as I weave together my passion for writing and my love of all things Jane Austen. Please also look for me on Facebook.
Shannon Winslow's "Jane Austen Says..." 