I am exceedingly delighted to welcome, Amanda Grange, author of the newly released Dear Mr. Darcy and Pride and Pyramids, to Austenesque Reviews. Amanda, it is such a pleasure and honor to be interviewing you here, once again, on Austenesque Reviews. I greatly enjoyed our last interview, which was in April of 2011, celebrating your release of Wickham’s Diary! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and answer some more of my questions!

Although the books came out in quick succession, they weren’t written in such quick succession. I finished writing Henry Tilney’s Diary in the early months of 2010. I sent it to my UK publishers, Robert Hale Ltd, and their UK hardback version came out in May 2011. (It can often take a year for a book to come out once I’ve submitted it to the publishers.)

The fact that Pride and Pyramidsand Dear Mr Darcy came out within a month of each other is down to publishers’ schedules. But it’s certainly made this summer very exciting!

I can only imagine!  I loved your idea for writing a Pride and Prejudice retelling through letters. In your Author’s Note for Dear Mr. Darcy you mentioned that you were inspired to write this epistolary novel because you felt Jane Austen’s first draft of Pride and Prejudice, titled First Impressions, might have been written in epistolary format just like Jane Austen’s first draft of Sense and Sensibility, Elinor and Marianne, correct? I never thought of it before, but that does make perfect sense because Lady Susan (which is also in epistolary form) was most likely written just before Elinor and Marianne. If Jane Austen did write First Impressionsin epistolary form, why do you think she eventually chose to abandon that style and rework it in novel form?

That’s a very interesting question. I think she probably reworked it because she found a publisher for Sense and Sensibility and so she decided to adapt Pride and Prejudice in the same way in the hope of selling that as well.

Speaking of First Impressions, what do you think Jane Austen’s first draft was like? Other than possibly being written in epistolary form, what other differences do you think readers would find?

I’ve often thought that the most important character in Pride and Prejudice is not any of the characters we know and love, but a character whose existence we can deduce, ie the owner of Netherfield Park. If the owner hadn’t needed a tenant then Mr Bingley would never have moved into the area and Mr Darcy would never have met Elizabeth. I decided to call him Mr Sotherton and give him a large family, who would be friends of the Bennet family.

Philip Darcy came about because I wanted Mr Darcy to have someone of his own social standing and temperament to confide in. I wanted to delve deeper into his thoughts and feelings and I felt that, if he had an equal to write to, I would be able to do that.

I would love to live near a town that had the same name as a Jane Austen character or place!   While there are several new characters in this Dear Mr. Darcy, I believe some of these characters aren’t entirely new to you. I think I recognized both Belle Younge and Matthew Parker from Wickham’s Diary. Do any of your other original characters make a second appearance in Dear Mr. Darcy? How do Belle Younge and Matthew Parker serve you in this novel?

Yes, this is a second appearance for Susan Sotherton (Mr. Darcy, Vampyre), too, as she makes an appearance in Dear Mr Darcy,in fact she has a major role to play as Elizabeth’s confidante.

As for Belle and Matthew, I wanted to include them because I felt they added variety in the letters. Also, I felt it would be helpful for them to appear as it would be useful for the plot. In an epistolary novel, it can be difficult to make sure all the plot is included because there is no narrative to help the author. Absolutely everything has to be told by the letters. By including Belle and Matthew, I gave Wickham someone to write to, so that we would know what he was plotting.

Now, this may surprise you and my readers when I say this but, one of my favorite exchanges of letters to witness in Dear Mr. Darcy were those written to and from Mary Bennet! Between Mary’s tireless quest to become a Learned Women, her justifications for her new tastes in literature, and oblivious comprehension of Mr. Shackleton’s intentions, I, for once, found Mary very entertaining! What prompted you to develop her character and give her more attention?

Well, I definitely found your Mary definitely made me laugh!  With so many detailed letters from the pens of so many characters in Dear Mr. Darcy, I’m sure you had many decisions to make about what events and correspondences to include in your retelling. How did you decide which details or plot events to include and which to omit? How did you decide when each character would write a letter? And to whom the letter would be addressed? What were the challenges you found retelling Pride and Prejudice in epistolary form?

I knew I had to include all the major events, I also knew I would have to include any minor event which impacted on the story or which gave important insight into a character.

Beyond that, I wanted to delve deeper into some of the relationships, so I included quite a lot of letters between Anne de Bourgh and Georgiana. There is a large age gap, but they are both isolated by their status and I felt they would both benefit from a friendship. Georgiana went through a traumatic time with Wickham and I felt it would be a relief to her to be able to confide in Anne.

I think one of the biggest challenges was deciding what to put in and what to leave out. The pacing was very important and sometimes I had to cut out a series of letters because I felt they were slowing down the narrative too much. A lot of letters were left on the cutting room floor!

Oooooo!  Too bad readers can’t buy a “Special Deluxe Edition” of Dear Mr. Darcy and see all these “deleted scenes!” Since I loved and found much to admire in your new Pride and Prejudice retelling, Dear Mr. Darcy, you must forgive me for asking/hoping-with-fingers-crossed that this is the start of another series for you? Perhaps to follow the same path of your Jane Austen men retellings series? If you can share it with us, what is the next project you are working on? *please let it be Dear Miss Dashwood or Sincerely Yours, Frederick Wentworth* (Please excuse my impertinence!)

Oh, goodness, I hadn’t thought of that! It was exhausting to write Dear Mr Darcy and I don’t have any plans for another similar marathon in the future. But never say never.

As for my next project, I’m currently working on a contemporary novel with Jacqueline Webb, about a group of Austen fans in the twenty-first century.

Austen fans in the twenty-first century?  That sounds fantastic, Amanda!  Perhaps Jane Austen also found it to be exhausting and that is why she didn’t continue writing in epistolary form.  Well, I’m going to have to keep my fingers crossed because I truly loved seeing a Pride and Prejudice retelling in this format!  

Thanks for answering my questions, Amanda! It has been such a pleasure to have you back on Austenesque Reviews. I look forward to seeing you again during Austenesque Extravaganza this September! Best of luck on your new release(s)!