Monthly Archives: August 2013

What is it about Jane?

Updated on August 8, 2013 by Elena Greene

Although I’m deep in the final editing for Fly with a Rogue, Jane Austen’s been on my mind this week, for various reasons.
A dear friend just gave me the cutest gift: the Cozy Classics version of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, by Jack and Holman Wang. It’s part of a series presenting classics using “twelve child friendly words and twelve needle felted illustrations.” It’s cleverly done. Here’s an example, from the famous “She is tolerable” scene.

Now I am wondering if I scooped Amanda on this one. It almost makes up for the sad fact that no one has ever given me a Jane Austen action figure.

That same action figure is featured, along with the delightful Republic of Pemberley, in this recent piece on “10 Signs of Jane Austen Addiction.” It’s good for a few laughs. My own score was middling. I own only one copy of each book and do not have a Jane Austen action figure. Sigh…

This lighthearted piece also attracted a surprising number of comments angrily dissing Jane “Austin” and her books. I broke my usual rule of not reading comments—maybe I was procrastinating on the editing—and as always, I wondered why some people do so much online ranting. If you don’t like Jane Austen books or film adaptations, why not just read or watch something else?

Maybe it’s because Jane Austen wrote about relationships, and not just romantic ones. Maybe people who are challenged in the area of human relationships need to disparage such books the same way children who struggle with math call it “stupid.”

But it gets worse. Recently, the Bank of England announced plans to put Jane Austen on the 10 pound note. Read what happened here.

It is depressing that misogyny is alive and well in our world. But that’s all the more reason for women to keep reading and writing what we enjoy, to keep voting, to keep speaking out as we see fit, and to keep reaching for success, however we’d like to define it.

So I will continue my editing–vowing to avoid all distractions! Once the book is out there, I’m going to treat myself and my daughters to a Pride & Prejudice movie marathon.

Why do you think Jane Austen provokes such strong reactions? How do you cope with trolls?

Elena

www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Jane Austen | 5 Replies

Let’s talk about eels!

Updated on August 8, 2013 by Janet Mullany

Greetings from San Francisco!

Yes, we’re talking about eels today. One of the stranger foodstuffs of history and one of the most odd life cycles of any critter, eels are an English delicacy, possibly not so popular now as in former times. I can’t imagine why not.

Say Wide Sargasso Sea to me and it makes me think of eels, not Jane Eyre or the first Mrs. Rochester. That’s where both European and American eels spawn in the beginning of an extremely odd life cycle of metamorposes. Eggs hatch into leaf-shaped larvae, drift to the coast, and become elvers or glass eels, and take to a fresh water habitat, swimming upstream and even traveling overland before settling into a river, growing and becoming yellow eels. They can live there for several decades before returning to the Sargasso Sea as silver eels where they embrace a salt water environment again, reproduce and die.

Like so many European species, eel populations are in decline. So the harvesting of elvers, in a season that lasts only a few days (the larvae will only enter waters at the right temperature), is now rigorously controlled. Once a local delicacy, most of them are exported to the Asian market. The Severn, England’s longest river, is one of the major elver rivers. (No, this is NOT dirty spaghetti).

As for mature eels, they’re mostly eaten now in a jellied form (the eel is naturally gelatinous, or slimy. Yum).

There are still establishments in London where you can sample the classic Victorian triad of eel, pie, and mash. For an unbiased account of what jellied eels taste like at this pie shop, still around today, you can visit the Desperately Seeking Root Beer blog, written by an expatriate Californian.

Here’s even more eely deliciousness, an authentic sixteenth century recipe for Fish and Fruit Pie and an account of cooking it here:

With that, Fish Pies: to instruct the person who will be doing this job–because not everyone is a master of it–he should get his fish, that is, good bellies of tuna, good big filets of carp, good big fresh eels–and of all that he should get the quantity that is needed for the number of pies that he is ordered to make; take all of it and cut it into good-sized pieces and set it to cook in a good clean cauldron appropriate in size for the amount you have; when it is cooked, take it out onto fine tables which are good and clean, and cull through all your fish to remove any scales or bones, then chop it up well. Get good candied figs, prunes and dates and slice these up small, to the size of small dice; get pinenuts and have them cleaned thoroughly and get candied raisins and clean them well so there are no seeds left; of all of this take an amount proper for the amount of the fish filling you are making, wash it well in white wine, then mix it in with your fish in a fine pan. Then get another pan which is good and clean in which you will clarify good fine oil; when it is clarified put enough of that oil into your filling for that amount of it, then set it on hot coals to heat up, and stir it continuously with a good spoon. Then get good spice powder and put in a reasonable amount of it, and a lot of sugar. Then order your pastry cook to make large or small pie shells for you, and they should be covered.

What’s the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten? And if you’ve eaten eels, we want to hear all about it.

Posted in Research | 7 Replies

“I Ain’t Sayin’ She’s a Gold-digger”

Updated on August 7, 2013 by megan

I discovered this series earlier this week, and I am just beside myself with how funny and how generally accurate it is in its synopses and analyses. My absolute favorite kind of humor is the high-low, where something gets put through a pop culture filter, and this is the epitome of that (also why I like Eddie Izzard’s stand-up so much).

Writing is going okay; I hope to have a proposal for my editor within a week. I’m writing a Duke for the first time, and it’s definitely fun, because everyone does what he wants. And he doesn’t always want that (should I call it The Oxymoronic Duke?)

Posted in TV and Film, Writing | Tagged Megan | 2 Replies

Winner and Shoeblacks

Updated on August 5, 2013 by diane

I am so grateful to HJ who spent a great deal of time and effort to come up with a strapline for me to send to the UK Harlequin folks for use on my author page. HJ came up with many ideas, but this one is my favorite:

Rich, ravishing, reflective – award-winning Regency romances

HJ, you definitely win the $5.00 Amazon gift card. Look for an email from me.

I looked at Chambers’ Book of Days for a blog topic for today. The Book of Days was written in 1869 and contains a “A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, Including Anecdote, Biography, & History, Curiosities of Literature and Oddities of Human Life and Character.” When stuck for a topic, I often go to the online version and search by the day’s date.

The August 5 entry tells about London Shoeblacks.

Shoeblacks or shoeshine boys appeared to go out of favor in the late Regency. Chambers talks of the last of the shoeblacks of that era, “as a short, large-headed son of Africa, rendered melancholy by impending bankruptcy, who might he seen, about the year 1820, plying his calling in one of the many courts on the north side of Fleet Street, till driven into the workhouse by the desertion of his last customer.”

During this time period, the shoeblack used a three-legged stool, and carried his tools in a large tin kettle which contained an earthen-pot filled with blacking (made of ivory black, brown sugar, vinegar, and water), a knife, two or three brushes, a stick with a piece of rag at the end, and an old wig. The wig was used to wipe the dust and dirt from the shoe before polishing.

Shoeblacks were seen on every corner of the street in London in those days. Apparently the manufacture of shoe polish by Day and Martin led to the demise of the shoeblack profession in London.

It was revived in 1851. Some philanthropists affiliated with the Ragged Schools had an idea to train boys who would otherwise be on the streets to shine shoes. They were dressed in red coats, attended a Ragged School at night and lived in dormitories.

During the Great Exhibition about twenty-five boys polished over 100,000 boots. During the first year the Shoeblack Society made £656.

Because of the Shoeblack Society hundreds of homeless boys were rescued from lives of privation or crime, but the occupation also became licensed and controlled. Unlicensed shoeblacks suffered harassment from the police.

Those boys who worked hard eventually were able to move on to other ventures, some even able to buy businesses of their own. After 30 years the Shoeblack Society earned almost a quarter million pounds. Their fame even reached the New York Times in 1881.

One might not find shoeblacks on every corner of London now, but you can still get a great shine from the stand at the Burlington Arcade

So…here’s my question for today. When was the last time you polished a pair of shoes?

P.S. the painting above is totally inaccurate for this post. It is called “Shoeshine Boys,” and is an 1889 painting by Polish-American artist, Karol D. Witkowski)

Posted in Regency, Research | 10 Replies

Beach Days –in Regency England

Updated on August 5, 2013 by Gail Eastwood

Do you love the beach? I do. I’m addicted! Who could not enjoy a walk on an ocean beach, with a cooling breeze and the green thundering waves dashing down into foam and then washing gently up by your feet? You walk between the wide expanse of blue sky above and the blue reflection in the smooth wet sand beneath you. Then lured into the water, you float enveloped in its clear green invigorating coolness, coming out utterly refreshed.

I’m certain that throughout human history, people who lived near beaches enjoyed them. I am lucky enough to live in a state with plentiful ocean beaches very nearby, and at this time of year I try to juggle my work schedules to find one day a week when I can go. But did you know that it was only as recently as the 18^th century that people who didn’t live near beaches began to come to visit them as tourists? Dr Richard Russell’s 1752 publication A Dissertation: Concerning the Use of Sea Water in Diseases of the Glands, about the health benefits of sea-bathing and even drinking sea water is credited with helping create what became a thriving industry, but certainly improvements in transportation in this period and the Regency also were a big factor in the development of sea-side resorts.

Just as guides to the great houses were published for tourists, guides to the beach resorts such as John Fletham’s A Guide to all the Watering and Sea-Bathing Places (1803) also became available. Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, Sanditon, is set in a small town trying to become the next popular resort, and Jane visited Brighton, made popular by the Prince Regent, as well as Worthing in Sussex and spent time in Southhampton. Competition between resorts was fierce. Jane would have heard all about Sandown on the Isle of Wight, and Bognor, and Eastbourne. Margate was famous and by 1816 so popular they had more than 40 bathing machines, and four bathhouses where patrons could relax while awaiting their turn. For an interesting discussion about whether or not Worthing stood as Jane’s model for Sanditon, check http://austenonly.com/2010/03/19/austenprose-group-read-of-sanditon-worthing-the-model-for-mr-palmer%E2%80%99s-town/.

Whether Regency people visited the shore for pleasure or for health reasons, the activities they pursued did not differ greatly –they walked on the sand, and enjoyed watching the waves and ships offshore and each other. They “dipped” in the sea (only men actually engaged in swimming). The way they dressed at the seaside is an entire fashion topic in itself. I highly recommend that you check out (or reread if you have been following our Risky blog for a while) posts from past summers made by Elena and Myretta and others here –just type “beach” into our search box and they will come up. Myretta wrote about Brighton. Elena did a terrific post that explains about the bathing machines with attendants that made it possible to be “dipped” into the ocean while preserving modesty at all costs!!

This line about sea-bathing at Ramsgate in 1811 from Memoirs of a Highland Lady by Elizabeth Grant makes me glad I am not limited by the old system they used, for once I am in, I am always reluctant to get out of the water until I am blue with cold: “The shock of a dip was always an agony: that over, we would have ducked about much longer than the woman let us.” I found this in a great article by Andrea Richards of the Jane Austen Society of Australia (http://www.jasa.net.au/seaside/Bathing.htm).

If you can’t get to the modern-day beach, perhaps you can make a vicarious trip, and go back in time as well! Besides the above, I recommend the following: http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/category/sea-bathing-during-the-regency-era/

http://www.isabellegoddard.com/sea-bathing-regency-period.html

http://austenprose.com/2010/03/19/by-the-seaside-with-sanditon-guest-blog-with-mandy-n-on-regency-era-seaside-fashions/

Are you a beach-lover? If you had lived in the Regency, would you have traveled to one of the many resorts to try the water? Have you read any Regency stories that use this setting? Jump into the comments and share!

www.gaileastwoodauthor.com

Posted in Frivolity, Regency, Research | 7 Replies