Mary Lydon Simonsen's Blog: What readers are saying about The Second Date, page 5

Darcy and Elizabeth - Class Differences

In 1814, Patrick Colquhoun, a Scottish merchant, statistician, magistrate, and founder of the first Thames River Police, wrote a report entitled A Treatise on the Wealth, Power, and Resources of the British Empire in which he constructed a table of Britain’s many classes:
Highest orders (first class): Royal family, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, great officers of state, and all above the degree of baronet with their families (576 heads of family/2,880 persons comprising their families.
Second class: Baronets, knights, country gentlemen, and others having large incomes with their families (46,861/234,305)
Third Class: Dignified clergy, persons holding considerable employments in the State, elevated situations in the law, eminent practitioners in physic (doctors), considerable merchants, manufacturers upon a large scale, and bankers of the first order with their families (12,200/61,000)
Fourth Class: Persons holding inferior situations in Church and State, respectable clergymen of different persuasions, practitioners in law and physic, teachers of youth of the superior order, respectable freeholders, ship owners, merchants, and manufactures of the second class, warehousemen and respectable shopkeepers, artists, respectable builders, mechanics, and persons living on moderate incomes with their families (233,650/1,168,250)
Fifth Class: Lesser freeholders, shopkeepers of the second order, innkeepers, publicans, and persons engaged in miscellaneous occupations or living on moderate income with their families (564,799/2,798,475)
Sixth Class: Working mechanics, artisans, handicrafts, agricultural laborers, and others who subsist by labor in various employements with their families (2,126,095/8,792,800) and menial servants (1,279,923)
Seventh or lowest class: Paupers, vagrants, gypsies, rogues, vagabonds, and idle and disorderly persons supported by criminal delinquency (387,100/1,828,170)
Excluding the approximately 1,000,000 men serving in the Army and Navy, the total is 16,402,988. Of that number, only 2,880 belonged to the highest order. That rank would have included Darcy’s grandfather, an earl, and his children, Darcy’s mother, the father of Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Lady Catherine.
The next group, or second class, includes Fitzwilliam Darcy. Although not a member of the aristocracy, he belongs to an elite group of only 46,861 heads of household.
Mr. Collins, as a rector, is in the third class.
According to the annotated Jane Austen edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks (p. 47), the Bennets are in the fourth class as persons of moderate income and, I assume, property owners.
When Elizabeth tells Lady Catherine that “Mr. Darcy is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal," it is a stretch. According to the laws of the United States, all men are equal under the law, but we know that some people are more equal than others. This was the case with the Darcys and the Bennets. 
The English were extremely class conscious, and so it is understandable why Mr. Darcy thought he needed to point out to Elizabeth at the time of his proposal how inferior her connections were. In his own clumsy way, he was providing her with a demonstration of the depth of his love, i.e., he was descending to her level. I think when Elizabeth sees Pemberley, she realizes just how much Darcy was willing to put at risk by making her an offer.
What do you think?

Downton Abbey: My Take

If I could sum up Downton Abbey’s third season in one word, it would be whiplash. From week to week, one never knew which Mary Crawley would show up: the loving wife or the woman who picks Edith apart. During this season, Lord Grantham went from caring husband and concerned father to the embodiment of I’m a Little Teapot, "short and stout, when he gets all steamed up, then he shouts…" And he shouted a lot. Thomas, our bad boy, became a weepy girl lying in bed hoping to get some attention from the man he loves. Daisy,  the clueless, but sweet scullery maid, became the nasty assistant cook. And O’Brien? Good grief! She wasn’t happy just getting even with Thomas; she wanted him utterly destroyed! So much for a spiritual renewal following the “soap” incident.

Good points: 
Stellar acting. Considering the scripts they had to work with, the cast did everything they could to pull it off. Kudos to Maggie Smith (Dowager Grantham), Hugh Bonneville for making us not hate Lord Grantham, Jessica Findlay Brown (Sybil) for making the most of an undeveloped character, ditto for Allen Leech (Tom Branson). When Elizabeth McGovern was allowed to act, she was an excellent Lady Grantham.

The below-stairs cast is really fantastic, especially Carson, Mrs. Hughes, and Mrs. Patmore. Although I do not think Thomas would have behaved the way he did when James visited him in his room, the acting was first rate.

High production values, beautiful settings, and exquisite costumes.

Bad points:Weak scripts: The imprisoned Bates; Thomas, who could go to prison for being a homosexual, kisses a man who has given him no encouragement; Isobel and the reformed prostitute whose first attempt at cooking was a souffle; Edith falling for a man with a wife in an asylum. (Ugh! The crazy wife has already been done. Thank you Charlotte Bronte.) 

Dropping characters into the plot: An example from last year was the supposed Downtown heir showing up in bandages; this year we got Rose. Why should we care about her embarrassing herself and the family when we don’t even know her? It’s a lot to ask of an audience. Don’t care about her parents either. Ditto on the maid flirting with Branson.

The Shrimpy and Susan Show. Why make Susan so evil? At any minute, I expected her to turn into the evil queen from Snow White.

The finale: Yes, Dan Stevens wanted out, and so he had to go. But blood running down his cheek! Did we really need to see that? Was it necessary to couple that scene with the blessed arrival of his son?
In my opinion, there are too many story lines. Julian Fellowes thinks he must have something for everyone to do, and so he writes ridiculous tangents. For example, must Edith’s happiness depend on a man? She is quite capable of turning into a stellar newspaperwoman. Let her do that. But, no, she’s in love with a man who cannot, by law, divorce his insane wife. Another was Branson's shenanigans in Ireland. One week of the rebel firebrand, and then he's off to running Downton.

I know that if I lived in England at that time, I would have been a maid, trudging up the stairs to bring the married women their breakfasts. Although the ladies of the house had little to do, and I would have had a great deal of work and a long day ahead of me, it was the way things were. However, I would have loved to see Lady Grantham and Mary actually get up out of bed and have breakfast with their husbands! That would have been something.

Valentine's Day Book Sale - One Day Only

Today is Valentine’s Day. To celebrate a day of romance, Sally Smith O’Rourke, Abigail Reynolds, and I have reduced the price on one of our titles for Nook and Kindle to .99. This is a one-day only sale. Enjoy!
Yours Affectionately – SallyPemberley Medley – AbigailDarcy on the Hudson – Mary

Keepsake P&P Calendar by Janet B. Taylor

Welcome, Janet B. Taylor, a talented artist who has turned her love of Pride and Prejudice into a keepsake calendar.
Thank you, Mary, for having me as a guest today to help me get the word out about my calendars and drawings.  A special thanks to you for the lovely review of my calendar.  
Now where to begin? I hardly know. Like many fans of Jane Austen and Austenesque novels, I have been quite literally obsessed for the past 18 months, at least. I wanted to read anything I could get my hands on.  I relied on all you wonderful authors to supply my Darcy and Lizzy fix. When I couldn’t get a new book, I would re-read one I already had. I repeatedly watched the 1995 BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.
A Walk in the WoodsThe first thought of drawing Darcy and Lizzy came from a suggestion of my friend and author, Jan Hahn. She wanted me to try a drawing that might be used for a book cover. I felt unsure of this idea since, unlike many artists, I cannot just start drawing. I must have a picture to look at while I draw. I gave the idea some serious thought and finally decided to give it a try. My first attempt at Darcy was put aside rather quickly. He looked like Billy Bob Thornton—definitely not my idea of Mr. Darcy. My second attempt was more successful; then I moved on to Lizzy. Lastly, using a photograph I had taken of the woods at Belton House, i.e, Rosings Park in the miniseries, I made a computerized drawing. That became the background for ‘A Walk in the Woods’.  I have hand drawn the other eleven backgrounds myself. 
Now my desire to read about Darcy and Lizzy had a new dimension. I wanted to draw them too. I knew I had to try Darcy and Lizzy in the music room, i.e., ‘The Look’.  My fourth drawing and most popular according to comments received is ‘The Kiss’. Being my favorite too, it was, without a doubt, one scene I had to do, and it seemed to flow onto the paper.

With each drawing, my goal was to capture the emotion and sense of the scene. I hoped the viewer could feel what was happening. I spent much time studying the eyes, the nose and the mouth.  I think the eyes are the most important feature but the other two follow close behind. While on a tour of England, I visited Lacock, which was used for Meryton in the 1995 BBC miniseries. It was such a lovely little village, and I literally felt I had stepped back in time.  In one of the gift shops, I saw the work of an artist named David White. One of our guides was Hazel Jones who is a Jane Austen scholar. I decided to ask her about selling drawings and if one had to have a license. As it turned out, she knew quite a bit about it as David White is a personal friend.  On the last day of the P n P Tour, Hazel informed me that she had contacted David. Much to my delight I found that I could sell my work! When I visited The Jane Austen Centre in Bath, I was given the exact same information: the drawings were ‘my artistic interpretations’ of scenes from the miniseries.
Before I left for England in August, I had three drawings finished.  By the time I returned, I was inspired to draw again. Then there was the idea of a calendar in honor of the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice. That meant I had to do nine drawings in less than four months if I was to get a calendar out before the first of the year. Well, as you see, that did not happen.  The drawings were done, but I had to get the calendar setup. By the time the printer got them done, it was later than I would have liked, but I had a calendar that I was proud to offer.  I do hope that, as a keepsake or commemorative item, it will still be desired.  Each and every picture was drawn with love as a tribute to Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, and the miniseries.
I also use my drawings to make note cards. Each one has a short quote, pertinent to the scene, on the front, and more of the quote on the back.  The cards are printed on 100% recycled card stock and have square flap envelopes.
Future plans:  The 2005 P&P movie, as well as something from Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma.
Thanks again, Mary, for having me. I enjoyed being your guest and talking about my drawings.
To see more of Janet's work, please visit her website.

Fantastic Jane Austen App - Makes Everything Easier

Hi, Everyone!  My name is Angie Kroll.  You may have noticed me commenting on blogs, making goofy games for Austenesque Reviews, or stalking JAFF authors.  
David and Angie KrollI can still remember sending my first fan email to Abigail Reynolds via Facebook.  I just about fell over when she wrote me back. Me? Friends with a REAL author!?!  How could that ever happen to someone like me?  Then, through Austen Authors, I found, A Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy. Emboldened by my previous response, I sent Mary a fan letter. Now, three years later, I refer to Mary as my “on-line mom.”
But what does networking have to do with Jane Austen? Wikipedia defines business networking as “a socioeconomic activity by which groups of like-minded business people recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities.” Authors and bloggers provide like-minded Janeites a place to share ideas, argue Firth vs. MacFayden (and now Gordh), and discover new stories. Thanks to networking, I have almost 80 JAFF titles on my kindle app, a dozen on my shelf, and have checked out many titles from my local library.
Unfortunately, as much as I would like to keep up on the dozens of daily blog posts, I just can't carry my laptop with me everywhere. There were many times where I have been sitting in the car or at the doctor's office scrambling on my phone trying to read posts. I am not talented and disciplined enough to write, but I can stumble my way around photoshop. So I asked myself - what skills do I have to contribute to the Jane Austen Network?
Enter the idea of Austen Admirers, an RSS Smartphone app for iTunes, Google Play and Windows.  What Austen Admirers does is take feeds from all of your favorite blogs and aggregates them into one easy-to-use smartphone app. Each morning instead of waking up and going to 50 different websites, you can open one app and see all of the latest posts from your favorite blogs - right in one place! You can also find a list of authors, and with a push of a button, go directly to their Amazon page!
What does it cost to be a part of the app? Nothing. Zero. Zip. It will be free for authors and bloggers to join, and free for users to download. Most apps cost between 10K and 15K to build, butI want this to be a thank you to the community for giving me an online home these past five years. All graphic design and cost for building the apps are donated by me. Is it completely free? No - which is why I'm having a kickstarter campaign to help fund the hosting charges. If the campaign succeeds, there will be advertising opportunities for authors, but for now, I need your help getting the word out. Tweet, Share, Email - send the news by post! There are amazing gifts for different levels, including Amazon gift cards, Bingley Teas, Social Media Calling Cards, and even membership to JASNA!
Would you like to help the Jane Austen Network grow? Please check out the Kickstarter Campaign site, Like us on Facebook, facebook.com/AustenAdmirers, Follow on Twitter @AustenAdmirers or @AngieKroll, or contact me directly at adkroll95 (at) gmail(dot)com.
Thanks to Mary for allowing me free reign today on her blog. There's another Youtube video in your near future!
Click on this link for the Youtube video.

Pride and Prejudice 200 Calendar

I have never reviewed a calendar before, but Janet Taylor’s beautiful 200th Anniversary Celebration of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice certainly deserves one. Each watercolor is absolutely lovely. The calendar also provides a chronology of Jane Austen’s life, and each picture displays a quote from the novel. These are not random quotes, but reveal the story in chronological order.
If you love Pride and Prejudice, you will want this calendar. If your favorite P&P adaptation is the 1995 A&E presentation with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, then you MUST  have this calendar. It is definitely a keepsake. Check it out at Janet’s website. Here's a teaser: Janet saves the best for December!
Janet Taylor will be guest hosting a blog sometime this month. I’ll let you know when her post is up.

My Pilgrimage to Chawton - Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of P&P

Our Chawton Home, how much we findAlready in it to our mind;And how convinced that when completeIt will all other houses beatThat ever have been made or mended,With rooms concise or rooms distended.
Letter from Jane to her brother James
Like thousands of pilgrims before me, last spring, I journeyed to Chawton Cottage, the residence of Jane Austen, her sister Cassandra, mother Cassandra, and friend Martha Lloyd, during the last eight years of her life. It is a lovely house where Jane went to work revising Sense and Sensibilityand Pride and Prejudice as well as writing Emma, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion.
Prior to her brother, Edward Austen Knight, providing his sisters and mother with the cottage, Jane had lived in Bath for a few years, and biographers agree that she was not happy there. Despite the pump room, assembly rooms, teas, dances, and gardens, Jane longed for the country and left Bath with “happy feelings of escape.” Her brother’s generosity of providing Jane with a house in the country is a gift to all of us. The years between Jane leaving Steventon Rectory and her arrival in Bath were fallow, but upon her arrival at Chawton, she more than made up for it.
Chawton’s setting is much more rural than it was in Jane’s time as the cottage was at the juncture of three roads, so there was hustle and bustle right outside her door. I was pleased to see just how roomy the house was. With Cassandra seeing to the running of the household, Jane would have had the time, space, and solitude she needed to write her brilliant novels. I especially liked how much the floorboards creaked. As Jane worked, the movements of her family and friend  would have served as a background to her writing.
While standing in Jane’s bedroom, I found the house meant a good deal more to me than I had expected. I have five sisters (four living), and growing up in a tiny two-bedroom apartment in North Jersey, we all shared a bedroom (two bunks, two sisters in one bed, and a folding cot in the middle). So there was nothing unusual about the idea of Cassandra and Jane sharing a bed. The room oozed sisterly affection, and it brought back good memories for me.
I had gone to Chawton expecting to examine the artifacts of a great writer, but it turned out to be so much more than that. I honestly felt Jane’s presence and her contentment at being in a place she loved, with people she loved, and doing what she loved. It was truly inspirational.
Congratulations on the 200th anniversary of the publication of Price and Prejudice. Your writing changed the world.
(This post originally appeared on the Austen Authors blog.)

A Killing in Kensington - Free Download on Kindle

On January 23 and 24, A Killing in Kensington will be available for free download on Amazon. This will be the last opportunity to get the book for free. Here is the blurb from the back jacket:
Detective Sergeant Patrick Shea of London's Metropolitan Police and his new partner, Detective Chief Inspector Tommy Boyle, have been handed a high-profile murder case. In the penthouse of Kensington Tower, playboy Clifton Trentmore lay dead with his head bashed in, and the investigation reveals a man who was loathed by both sexes. With too few clues and too many suspects, Shea and Boyle must determine who hated Trentmore enough to kill him. But as Patrick digs deeper, he finds his suspects have secrets of their own.

A Killing in Kensington is the second in the Patrick Shea mystery series. 
If you enjoy Law and Order UK, you will enjoy A Killing in Kensington.
I hope you will share with your friends. If you should download my mystery, and you enjoy it, please consider writing a review on Amazon, B&N, or Goodreads. A review can make or break a novel. Thanks.

Loving Austen by Sophia Thorsen

I would like to welcome Sophia Thorsen to my blog. Sophia is an ardent admirer of Jane Austen's works. You can learn more about this budding authoress at the end of her guest blog. 

Firstly I want to thank Mary Simonsen for allowing me to write this little blog entrée. Thank you, Mary! And brilliant work on all your works!
As you all know, 2013 is the 200th year of the publication of Miss Austen’s second book, namely, Pride and Prejudice. This year has already started off with the promised publication of Shannon Winslow’s second book, the sequel to The Darcys of Pemberley called Return to Longbourn and the next book from Abigail Reynolds. Meantime in the musical world, it is also the 200th year of Strauss and Wagner. Therefore, there is much to look forward to during the year, and then there is the annual Jane Austen Festival in September which I am personally attending. 
My year has started with writing my very first serious book, co-authored by my friend Laura Hannah Russell. My year also presents me with the beginning of half a year stay at a writing school, where I am to learn how to put a book together, with text, cover, and how to make it a real book. And now I am to write a blog for two of my favorite authoresses, this blog and the one for Mrs. Tiller Cole during the next few weeks, hopefully.
Pride and Prejudice is my favorite of all Miss Austen’s completed works. My love of Austen started funnily enough with another brilliant woman author, namely Victoria Holt, author of Daughter of Deceit and many other brilliant books. Victoria Holt’s books was the first step on my journey towards being a romantic at heart, as well as a lover of Austen’s works, and a young woman with a thing for Fitzwilliam Darcy and almost anything Pride and Prejudice.
Ever since I saw Keira and Matthew in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, I have been a true Austen lover. My favorite characters from Miss Austen are definitely the two lead characters of Darcy and Elizabeth. The first time I read P&P in 8th grade, I didn’t understand the underlying meaning in the conversation that Miss Austen used since English isn’t my native tongue, but as I got older and understood the wit and feelings of the characters, I began loving Austen’s works and read all her completed works.
In 2007/2008 I joined as a member on fanfiction.net, where I began reading “what if” fiction of Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, and many more. Here I had my first encounter with Mr. Darcy personally, where he began talking to me and gave me ideas, a lot of them! So I began writing and have done it ever since. This autumn I was asked to join a group on Facebook called “Austen Authors” and here I meet Mary Simonsen, herself, for the second time, since I wrote her a review on her book, Searching for Pemberley, which is a brilliant book! Meanwhile I have begun to know a lot of other authors, namely Abigail Reynolds, Jack Caldwell, P. O. Dixon, Sharon Lathan and many more. I just want to thank all of those amazing authors who write all these different sequels to Pride and Prejudice, and thank them for a great year!
Thank you again for hosting me, Mary! 
About Sophia: Sophia is a native of Denmark and will graduate from college in July 2013. She is currently a student at the School of Creative Arts (Journalism, Author Writing, Game Academy, Event, DIY, etc.). She is the author of several short stories on fanfiction.net, including “The Masque” (P&P), “A Little Lizzie and Darcy” (P&P), “The Love of a Young Princess” (Romeo and Juliet), and the newly written; “Harry and the Three Ghosts” (Harry Potter, a H/HR story).


She is writing a book with her good friend, Laura Hannah Russell, that they have called “Power and Love,” a Pride and Prejudice sequel. It is set in 1955, and William J. Darcy has just been elected to Prime Minister in the United Kingdom.
Sophia loves to write and read and to spend time with her friends. She is hoping to get into Copenhagen’s Writing School after Vallekilde (School of Creative Arts). 

Book News + Free Download

Free Download: On 1/8, 1/9, and 1/10, Darcy Goes to War will be available for free Ebook download on Amazon. Please tell a friend.

Free stories on The Writer's Block:

Elinor and Edward's Plans for Lucy Steele

Anne Elliot, A New Beginning

I would like to share a review that I received for Mr. Darcy's Bite on Amazon. It is particularly gratifying because the reviewer understood that this novel is a love story, something not obvious from the cover.

I was at first turned off by the idea of Darcy's being a werewolf. After all, it seemed pretty far-fetched from Jane Austen. But as I read, I was totally captivated by this love story and felt that it captured Lizzy and Darcy's love in a way that reflected the authenticity and intensity of feelings that existed between Jane Austen 's original characters. This book is a page turner you won't be able to put down - it kept me up burning the midnight oil! I adored the active, loving roles that Anne DeBourgh and Georgiana Darcy played in bringing Lizzy and Darcy together, especially Anne's standing up to her overbearing mother and Georgiana's protective love towards her brother. Darcy continues to be the thoughtful, passionate, man of integrity whom we all - if we're honest with ourselves - dream of finding. Of course, Lizzy shines - her humanity is openly revealed, along with the depth of her passion for Darcy. I highly recommend this engaging book.