Pemberley Manor: Darcy and Elizabeth, for better or for worse

What a world of Austen entertainment you’ve amassed for August, Meredith. Thanks for welcoming all of us onto your site and into the fun. I’ve decided to talk about the writing of Pemberley Manor, as the path I took was a pretty crazy one, as all my friends would attest. I include some of the questions people have asked me along the way.

Of course, the language felt impossible at first. Thank heavens for MS Word so I could at least spell-check in British English. Once I came to think of it as a book, I had to get really serious about searching for the right word and meaning.

Sex was never mentioned by Jane Austen. She only vaguely hinted at “ruin” when her sister ran away with a man. What her thoughts or experiences were, we can only guess. In letters she voiced her concern for women too often pregnant, as death in childbirth was common.

Q: What was your writing process to develop the witty repartee?

I had family training to start with – a huge battle of wits went on in my home – and the rest sprang up from reading and re-reading Jane’s novels. She is unsurpassed, in my opinion. I was shameless in imitating her. Who could resist trying to match the dialogue during Darcy’s first marriage proposal:

“And this is all the reply which I am to have the honour of expecting! I might, perhaps, wish to be informed why, with so little endeavour at civility, I am thus rejected….

“

I might as well enquire,” replied she, “why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character? Was not this some excuse for incivility, if I was uncivil?”

Or how about Miss Bingley, queen of snark:

I believe we must turn to Mr Collins to properly state the case for careful use of language:

“These are the kind of little things which please her ladyship, and it is a sort of attention which I conceive myself peculiarly bound to pay.”

Q: 

How did you decide what to keep from Jane Austen’s book and what did you consciously try to do differently?

I dearly wished to do credit to her style, especially her use of language, and to be faithful to her portrayal of the characters she created, but it felt that the question she left at the end of each of her books just begged to be answered: how did “Happily Ever After” really work? My experience told me that the wedding would not be the end of the story for two such feisty characters. There are now more than 150 sequels, many of which deal with that question, so I assume it is Jane herself stirring the pot.

Q: How hard or easy was it for you to enter into the English culture? For example, the concept of “being above others” is pretty foreign in America but permeates both Austen’s and your book. Or does America just have another version of the same value?

The concept of class was so very rigid in Jane’s England, but the English colonists certainly followed their upbringing when they arrived on America’s shore. Although the atmosphere here allowed for bending and breaking of tradition much more quickly, and we adopted as a nation the ideal of rags to riches, I think you’ll agree that we certainly have a “class system” in this country.

Homosexuality certainly existed in this period as in all others, and although it was illegal and punishable by death, that is not to say people didn’t know about it or talk about it. In fact, the Regency period is fascinating in that it is the end of a transition from a period of sexual freedom (or licentiousness, depending on your viewpoint) to the Victorian age of propriety. I’m not so sure that sexual practices have changed very dramatically over time, but outward expression and laws have. Very interesting subject. The internet is well endowed with information for those who would like to dig deeper into Regency reality.

Q: In what ways did the premise of the extension of Austen’s novel constrain you? If you had the opportunity to reinvent the story into a different time period, which one would you chose and how would the story be different?

Q: Did you complete your manuscript and then find a publisher or did you sell her book concept first?

By the time Egerton House died on the vine a year later, Sourcebooks had decided to do an Austen Fans page and amass as many sequel authors as they could. Total luck from beginning to end. Ten years earlier it would have been nearly impossible to sell anyone on the idea. Today there are literally hundreds on the market, including not just sequels, but adaptations, modernizations, spin-offs and the every-popular mash-up. It looks like there is a nearly insatiable appetite for Austenesque prose.

Q: And so, to the inevitable question, how about your next book? Pemberley Manor leaves us with some unanswered questions.

As my story ends, Darcy is left holding a red leather journal that was written by his father. He too has some unanswered questions about his parents. I haven’t read the journal yet, but hopefully one of these days I’ll get around to it. If it contains enough interesting material, who knows? A sequel to a sequel is not without precedence.

Readers:  I’d love to hear from you if you have any other questions or comments on the subject of writing, and particularly on doing sequels to other people’s work. Thanks again, Meredith, for a monumental effort.