Inspired by Austen, Enabled by Covid

Original art displaying connections between Jane Austen's characters

What did you do when the Coronavirus besieged the entire world and left you housebound and restless?  Did you start baking sourdough bread?  Were you inclined to take up knitting or to embrace the challenges of 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles?  Perhaps you binge watched Jane Austen film adaptations or re-read her novels for the umpteenth time.  I did something I never had contemplated doing.  I wrote a 27-chapter Jane Austen adaptation in two months.  For years I lived in my own private world of fandom reading and rereading her books and assorted biographies and imagining future outcomes for many of the characters.  What possessed me to undertake such a project was an idea so compelling that I felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland looking down the rabbit hole. 

The genesis of the idea I must attribute to the BBC series, Dickensian which was produced in 2015, although I only caught up with it late in 2019.  The series was based on the concept of a police inspector investigating the death of Jacob Marley, from A Christmas Carol.  During the investigation the inspector meets up with various characters from Dicken’s novels such a Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Pickwick Papers, and others revealing the back stories of many of these well-known characters. 

Enter the pandemic of 2020 with time on my hands, when the intriguing idea occurred to me that it would be wonderful to read a book that brought together characters from Jane Austen’s various novels.  I had taken multiple business trips to Great Britain which allowed me to visit a British friend who had attended the same school that Austen had attended in Reading two centuries earlier.  These visits presented an opportunity to take weekend driving tours to Bath, Chawton, and Winchester with my dear friend acting as tour guide.  The experience increased my devotion to all things Jane and was a factor in pulling me into the rabbit hole. 

I was possessed by thoughts about what might have happened to certain characters after the novels ended.  Like so many Jane Austen fan fiction writers, I had my own ideas that I’d been carrying in my head for years but never shared with anyone.  I realized my head was hanging deep into the rabbit hole. 

The major question was the main storyline to which the other stories could be appended.  I had no police investigator to meet the assorted characters and provide continuity to their backstories, so I turned to Jane for guidance.  Her novels were basically stories of courtship and coming of age told from the perspective of the heroine and her journey overcoming obstacles, internal and external, until finally marrying for affection. What of the location?  The characters from the novels were scattered throughout the south of England so what would be the device to bring them together and where?  The heroines from the novels had already found felicitous matches so where was the romance to be found? What conflicts could be devised that needed to be overcome?  What longings to be fulfilled?  That’s when I started slipping fully down into the rabbit hole. 

I decided to experiment with connections by identifying characters from each of the six novels who could provide introductions to others.  For instance, a colonel from one story could introduce a colonel from another story because perhaps they knew each other from the past. 

I created a matrix with names from each novel who could potentially make an introduction to another character. I would focus on creating a cohesive plot rather than aspiring to include as many characters from each book as possible.  I chose Elizabeth Bennet Darcy as the lead and took her to Bath because it had plot connections to Persuasion, Emma, and Northanger Abby.  I had specific plot lines in mind for some characters such as Georgiana Darcy, Elizabeth Elliot, and Marianne Dashwood Brandon.   I felt the characters from Northanger Abby weren’t posh enough to fit in with plot lines for the upper-class and titled people, so their representation was incidental.  My publisher asked me about the light appearance from Northanger and agreed with my assessment. 

The next step was to construct a basic outline for the story including the reason for Elizabeth and her companions to travel to Bath and how they would be introduced into local society.  The order in which each character could be introduced was based on specific plot dependencies and timing to carry the story forward and create tension, with 14 basic transitions that evolved into the final 27 chapters. 

Since Jane’s novels are ultimately about courtship, I was prepared with the two fantasy matches that I had already conjured requiring creation of new male love interests for existing characters, and another match was planned between existing characters who I felt ultimately deserved each other.   

During the writing process unexpected relationships emerged and one of my new male romantic leads ended up with an entire family from which an additional match occurred.  It was most unexpected but greatly enhanced the story once I recognized the opportunity, even though re-writes were required.  Having an outline for a story and seeing new story lines emerge was the unexpected delight of the creative process, as was amplifying lesser personalities that we had come to know in the original novels.   Now I was officially living in the rabbit hole.

Another surprise was the emergence of two themes that I had not considered at the outset, anti-slavery and women’s rights.  The first came about as a plot device to introduce Sir Thomas Bertram to the story as revealed in a letter from Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth.

…“I will be forever grateful for the insights and clarity of your thinking that allows me to unburden my family’s reputation by disengaging from a most shameful enterprise.   Had we not discussed my family’s heritage and one of the means by which we accumulated our substantial wealth, I might have long overlooked this stain.  My great grandfather’s investment in property in Antigua helped to advance our family fortune, but it was built on a vile practice of debasing our fellow human beings for profit.  When I inherited the estate from my father, I became aware of the investment but chose to overlook it.  If not for your good and wise counsel, I might have continued on that path even though it ran contrary to my own conscience. ……..

Tomorrow I will meet with the buyer, Sir Thomas Bertram, a widower from Northhampton, who already has holdings in Antigua and is predisposed to expand his investment there.”

I didn’t intend to introduce a feminist theme, but I’ve always felt Jane Austen had a feminist point of view based on her descriptions of the entailment of family estates and the pressure on single women to marry so as not to be a burden on their families.  I was indirectly influenced by a good friend, Jess Wells, a published author of many historical fiction novels that focus on the struggles of educated women during the Middle Ages for whom the pursuit of knowledge could be a very dangerous choice.  I am grateful to Jess for her early guidance and ongoing advice. 

Jess often focused stories on how difficult it would be to have a brilliant intellect and be relegated to a life dictated by social proprieties and pressures.  I selected the honorable Miss Carteret from Persuasion as my feminist icon and provided a means to explain her persona.  There are few references to her in the novel except that she was “plain and awkward”.  Perhaps she felt distain for a society that left her little choice in life.  In a discussion with Colonel Fitzwilliam she says, “There is no role for an educated woman in the world; we must follow our own pursuits as we may, or society will condemn us to ignorance.”  In another passage she says, “I judge marriage as a happy event for any husband because his wife becomes his possession with no rights of her own.  A wife is subjugated entirely to her husband’s will, a state to which I cannot imagine submitting.” 

Miss Carteret, much like Emma Woodhouse, had little inducement to marry.  To quote Emma, “Fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; consequence I do not want”.  Their attitude towards marriage may differ but they both have the freedom to choose.

When I started the project, I had no timeline in mind for completing the work, but once I was in the rabbit hole, I became obsessed.  The idea had seized my imagination and would not release me until I completed it.  I was eager for morning to come so I could continue the writing process.  In the evening, I would have lines of dialog pop in my head and grab my iPhone to capture the lines in Notes for use the next day before I forgot them, 

I have several collections of the novels, but my bible was a beat-up paperback, The Complete Novels of Jane Austen, that I picked up at a bookstore in Winchester and then read cover to cover.  It is full of post-it notes as bookmarks and the cover is scuffed and torn. To some degree my book wrote itself because I was able to have characters reveal storylines to one another that Jane had already created.  In Pride and Prejudice, Darcy’s proposal is met with astonishment, anger, and recriminations.  In my novel, when Elizabeth shares the story of Darcy’s proposal to her now intimate acquaintance, Mrs. Smith, they both burst into peals of laughter over the poorly expressed offer of marriage and her response.

“That was his proposal?” laughed Mrs. Smith.  “I’ve never heard such an impolitic offer of marriage in all my life. And did you accept him anyway?”

“Oh no, I told him he was the last man on earth that I would ever consider marrying.”

Developing my original ideas to add to the narrative was the most enticing aspect of the project.  I was particularly drawn to creating dialog for the least likeable characters.  Miss Elizabeth Elliot has a deliciously egotistical role in keeping with her personality and the words flowed easily.  Her introduction comes when she returns from a visit to Ireland as a guest of the dowager Viscountess Dalrymple following the death of Sir Walter and makes the following ungracious comment regarding Miss Carteret. 

“Catherine Carteret is hardly better company than her mother and the plainest young woman I have ever set eyes on.   She has little by way of conversation and spends all her time reading or walking in the gardens.  She has no particular talents to speak of and shows little evidence of superior taste.”

I was so happy there was a connection to Bath in Emma because it gave me the opportunity to introduce the annoying Mrs. Elton who met her husband in that setting.  She is so exceptionally cloying as in this excerpt when the Darcy’s attend an event at Maple Grove.

“I hope you are pleased with Maple Grove.  Everyone who visits is struck by its beauty; the extensive grounds, the grand staircase, all is enchanting.  Mr. Darcy, I’m sure you must be pleased with all you see.  People of property always appreciate homes of a similar style, is it not true?”

Dialog for Miss Mary Bennet was a challenge because of the need to reflect her propensity for conceited moralizing and platitudes.  I made no effort to renovate her basic character but instead provided her with the perfect match.

“Thusly began the courtship of two people perfectly suited to one another in temperament, way of thinking, and resemblance of character.   Both reflected a sort of pompous self-importance matched with a false sense of modesty.   When the Rev. Mr. Wink took Mary to be his bride, she moved to the Parsonage where she immersed herself in providing musical accompaniment at all services and learned the Church of England hymnal by heart.  What the parishioners thought of her accomplishments was a subject of much speculation between Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, but they were grateful that their family worshipped at the Parsonage in Lambton.” 

My admiration for Jane Austen and the reason I re-visit her works continuously has to do with her unique writing style.  She uses dialog to set the stage, reveal the heroine’s viewpoint, and carry forward the plot.  She is not prone to elaborate descriptions of places, edifices, physical appearances, or even style of dress. Instead, much is inferred by her characters through conversation, as are her opinions of behavior which she cleverly delivers with sly humor and amusing social commentary.  I committed to do my best to model her unique phrasing.

Publishing the work never even entered my mind when I started because I was so compelled by the idea to write it.  About midway through the process I realized I should probably consider it because I became convinced other Jane Austen fans would enjoy reading it.  I started to investigate the size of her following and was astounded at the sheer volume of fan fiction novels that have been produced, let alone the legion of Jane Austen fans on Facebook and other websites.  I knew I had found my tribe. 

My next project was to get the story published online and in print.  Even though I’ve spent my career in marketing and embraced the new task, I realized it wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding or entertaining as the experience of conceiving and writing Jane Austen’s Connexions which was the working title at the outset.  My British publisher at Mirador Publishing suggested a title change that would work better for search engines and The Matchmaker of Pemberley, An Amorous Sequel to All Jane Austen’s Novels became the final title.  I even toyed with developing creative images that would depict the connections between the characters which eventually became this postcard. 

Since I embarked on my writer’s journey, I learned that another novelist in the early 1900’s had the same inspiration to combine characters from the canon in a single story entitled Old Friend and New Fancies, An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen by Sybil G. Brinton.  I haven’t read it but was happy to learn that I wasn’t only person who thought writing such an inclusive story would be a good idea so many years ago. 

The pandemic was a cruel blow to so many.  It took lives, disrupted lives, and changed our collective consciousness forever.  Who could have imagined in all that despair, that I would get to escape down a rabbit hole and emerge with a loving tribute to my favorite author in all the world, and breathe new life into stories that were written over two-hundred years ago? It was such a wonderful diversion, and I missed the rabbit hole so much that I wrote a sequel to my sequel, Pemberley to Dublin, A Matchmaker’s Journey,where we follow Colonel Fitzwilliam’s pursuit and courtship of Miss Carteret despite her commitment to never marry.  I’m still so hooked on their storyline that I’ve embarked on a third novel to complete the trilogy.

Visit www.catherinehemingway.com and read the first three chapters for free of both novels and  check out my other monthly blog posts where I examine the social dynamics of Jane Austen’s time and how it influenced her writings to reveal universal truths that are so relatable in contemporary life.