Welcome, Amy Patterson, co-owner of Jane Austen Books!

I’m so grateful to Meredith for inviting me to participate in the Jane Austen Christmas Celebration. I have written about our store for other sites, but this time I’m going to take the opportunity to tell a sweet Austen-related Christmas story starring my very own Mr. Darcy.

This story starts as all good fairy-tales start – once upon a time I was a spendthrift college student living over 2,000 miles from home. I was trying to make my way through an engineering degree which I would later abandon – I like to joke that I had my mid-life crisis early – and I was also trying to carve out a grown-up identity, starting with my very first apartment.

On a beautiful September day I moved into #7, all by myself. Well, not entirely by myself. I was accompanied by all my textbooks, cheap dishes, unwashed clothes, and some second-hand furniture. In the midst of my moving day, I happened to cross paths with a very serious young man who lived in #6. He worked at an astronomy facility out in the desert. He was fascinating, and he had Ohio plates on his car just like me. But I was dating someone at the time, so I managed to whistle right through Fate’s knock on the head. The rest of my move went smoothly, and I was happy to know that I had a neighbor I could talk to when I got homesick.

A year passed during which life as I knew it fell apart. Pretty typical early 20’s stuff, culminating in a terribly messy breakup. I retreated to my apartment to spend an entire week watching Pride and Prejudice, crying, and eating Oreos. Then one night that neighbor guy knocked on the door and asked if I wanted to “hang out.” This was really only our second time talking to each other – our second chance to start a friendship. I had been too wrapped up in petty distractions to notice his merits during our first meeting, and he, like any hero worth his salt, had spent the previous year worshiping me from afar, waiting for the perfect chance to tell me how ardently he admired and loved me, even if what actually came out was more like “so do you want wings with the pizza?”

First date – on top of amountain in Albuquerque.

The trip to #6 was hardly a carriage ride to Derbyshire, and the apartment itself, identical to mine, wasn’t exactly Pemberley. But the neighbor was every bit the Austenian hero I needed. We talked for hours, and before long we were hiking desert trails and watching romantic comedies. I’m sure I mentioned somewhere in there that I was a fan of Jane Austen, but she didn’t really come up much in conversation. However, my love of Austen planted a seed in my young beau’s subconscious mind, where it would eventually grow into a Christmas gift so amazing that I’d have no choice but to marry him.

That Christmas was a first for both of us, being 2,000 miles from our families. I bought him a Beatles book and maybe a car book… I can’t remember exactly. My gifts were doomed to be left in the dust of The Best Christmas Present Ever. I remember sitting in Greg’s small bachelor apartment on Christmas Eve, laughing a bit at the idea that we were exchanging presents in his little apartment while our families were practicing the traditional Ohio snow-bound Christmas feasts without us. We decided to go ahead and exchange presents, to have a little bit of Ohio there in the desert, lit by the crazy miniature spinning tree we found at the discount store.

He handed me a small box to open. I had an idea that it was a book, but I assumed it would be a novel or something light and entertaining. However, when I opened the box I found a smaller package wrapped carefully in brown paper. Suddenly I realized the thing I was opening might be worth more than the $20 or so I’d spent on him.

My hands began trembling as I carefully peeled back a corner of the paper to see the words Sense and Sensibility stamped in gilt on a dark leather spine. My heart leapt into my throat. This was clearly not a new book. I thought perhaps it was 50 or 100 years old, but as I continued to gingerly tug at the brown paper wrapping, I saw this wasn’t the case.

“What? What is this? How did you get this?”

“I found it online, some bookstore in Ireland.”

I opened the front cover.

1837. Bently. Dublin.

“How did you…? But…? Why…?”

“Well I remembered you saying you like Jane Austen, and I know you like old books. Why, don’t you like it?”

This book was already a gift of love, to anE. Rice “from her husband” on May 27, 1840.

I can’t remember what I said, but like Elizabeth’s burst of tearful gratitude for Mr. Darcy’s ongoing affection, my thanks were effusive, though my voice was quiet with awe. Of course I liked it. I still like it. It’s just about the most wonderful gift my husband ever gave me, although it has some stiff competition from those two darling boys we’ve had for a few years now. My mother, though never one to push me into any relationship, immediately labelled him a “keeper,” and admonished me over the phone not to “mess this one up!”

The book itself holds pride of place on my mother’s special Austen shelf, which holds critical and literary treasures separate from the 10-12,000 or so in the basement – they are the Austen-related books we had before we became the new owners of Jane Austen Books. I grew up seeing names like Deirdre LeFaye, Fay Weldon and Brian Southam on side tables or poking out of the top of my mother’s purse – and now I sell their books! I’ve even managed to meet a few of my Austen-geek idols, including the amazing Juliet McMaster and the incredibly knowledgeable Maggie Lane. And they now share a spot with this amazing treasure.

Ten years later, my Christmas hero andour boys. These two gifts aren’t bad either. (Photo from the Brooklyn AGM)

Ten years ago when Greg gave me The Best Christmas Present Ever, we had no idea that it would be such a pleasant portent of things to come. He certainly made quite the first impression with my cherished antique, and he, like Darcy, has proven to be worth that second chance.

***

I’d like to offer my own special gift to the readers, although it won’t be as awesome as my antique book!

Dec. 14th – Dec. 22nd

Use the code “AUSTENESQUE” at checkout at receive 10% off any purchase at Jane Austen Books.