Hi readers! I’m so excited to welcome another author from the fabulous Holidays with Jane series to Austenesque Reviews today – Jennifer Becton! In addition to the Holidays with Jane series, Jennifer Becton has published many wonderful stories about the minor characters of Pride and Prejudice in her Personages of Pride and Prejudice series. Today Jennifer shares a little about a minor character from Emma!
Harriet Smith: A True Heroine
Thank you, Meredith, for inviting me to be here on behalf of Holidays with Jane, a series of six holiday-inspired, Jane Austen-themed story collections, and its writers. I’m Jennifer Becton, and I wrote the story based on Emma in the Thanksgiving collection titled Thankful Hearts.
Confession time: I love Harriet Smith.
I like her more than I like Emma.
That’s actually pretty standard for me. I’ve always thought Jane Austen’s minor characters deserved more credit. And I love to tell their stories.
So let’s talk about Harriet.
In Jane Austen’s Emma, Harriet Smith wanders onto the scene at the moment when a bored, lonely, spoiled Emma needs a friend project.
At first blush, Harriet seems like a stereotypical ditz. She’s sweet, pretty, and innocent to the point of naiveté. She’s not accomplished or clever, and she’s certainly not the person you want on your Trivial Pursuit team.
But Harriet’s most serious flaw is her overeagerness to please Emma. Harriet allows herself to become so swept up in Emma’s vision for her own life that she momentarily forgets who she is and what she wants for herself. Once Harriet begins allowing Emma to make decisions on her behalf, she loses herself completely. She falls in and out of “love” with alarming regularity and ends up suffering the stings of rejection. As a result, she nearly loses the man she truly loves and comes close to forfeiting the life she dreamed of having.
None of that sounds very heroic.
However, it’s completely understandable. After all, Emma tells Harriet that she deserves nothing but the best. And who doesn’t like being told that they deserve great things? The best house? The best husband? The best friends? Everyone wants the best. Harriet’s mistake wasn’t wanting the best possible life. It was allowing someone else to define what her best possible life should be.
Despite her obvious flaws, Harriet Smith is a remarkably strong character given the social climate of the day. In all Jane Austen’s books, connections are vital. Who you marry, who you befriend, who your parents are: connections determine a person’s place in the world and, to a large degree, her future happiness.
Except for the period of time when she allows Emma to do her thinking for her, Harriet Smith doesn’t define herself by her connections. She is pleased by her friendship with the Martins, a mere farming family. She enjoys living at Mrs. Goddard’s school. Even with Emma’s insistence that she must be a gentleman’s daughter, Harriet never seemed tempted to search out her true parentage. In fact, she never lamented her orphan status. Harriet Smith was happy to be Harriet Smith, the daughter of no one in particular.
That’s what’s remarkable about Harriet Smith.
Harriet Smith manages to be happy in a world that told her she should be despondent.
Until Emma meddles in her life, Harriet was always grateful, always pleased, always happy.
It’s easy to get swept up in comparing ourselves to others. It’s difficult to be at peace with who we are. Harriet Smith, the ditz, was actually wiser than Emma in the end.
Harriet Smith is the main character in my story “Thanksgiving on Hartfield Street” in Holidays with Jane: Thankful Hearts. You can buy it here.
Oh yay! Books that highlight Harriet Smith are few and far between! I cannot wait to see what happens when you shine your light on her, Jennifer! 🙂 So excited for this new Holidays with Jane release!
Connect with Jennifer
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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!
Today, Jennifer brings with her ONE ebook copy of her newly released novel, Holidays with Jane: Thankful Hearts, for me to giveaway to ONE lucky winner!
To enter this giveaway leave a comment, question, or some love for Jennifer!
- This giveaway is open worldwide. Thank you, Jennifer!
- This giveaway ends November 25th!
Jennifer always does an amazing job with Austen’s minor characters. Her book, Charlotte Collins: A Continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is actually what inspired me to publish in the first place! So really, Holidays with Jane is all her “fault.” 😉 I love her version of Harriet Smith in Thankful Hearts and I know everyone else will too!
I’m honored to have played a role in inspiring you to publish! I love your fairy tale books, and I’m eager for the next one! Get to work! Also, I can’t take credit for Holidays with Jane. It is all Jess! I just came along for the ride.
I also love Jennifer’s version of Charlotte in CHARLOTTE COLLINS. <3 Shining the light on the minor characters is such a fun twist on Austenesque literature! 🙂
Charlotte will always have a special place in my heart. She deserves a better man than Mr. Collins. Ick!
I’m a fan of Jennifer Becton’s minor character books. I have always had a soft spot for Jane’s minors and she does them well. I haven’t bought this version of holidays with Jane so I am thankful for the opportunity.
Hi Stephanie! Thank you so much for reading my books! I’m glad I’m not the only one who loves Austen’s minor characters. There’s one from every book that steals my heart.
I hear about these books every year and bad me have yet to read one! Love Jane Austen!
Hi Shauna! We hope you decide to give one a try…or win one. 😀
It has been a couple of years since I read Jennifer’s books on Charlotte, Caroline and Maria. I do so enjoy them as I love many secondary characters in Pride & Prejudice. I bought in July the Christmas themed book which I hope to read sometime in December! Thank you for shining such a lovely light on Harriet. She may be ditzy but she is genuine! Now I would love to see a story on Kitty and/or Mary????
Hi Carole! Thank you for reading my books and stories! I actually have a novella based on Mary Bennet: http://amzn.to/2eOuu8y. And I have my eye on Kitty…. 😀
You’ve actually made me view Harriet in a whole new light. It always annoyed me the way she allowed Emma to dictate everything to her even though she was quite happy. Will enjoy reading her story.
Hi Teresa, I hope you enjoy Holidays with Jane: Thankful Hearts. I truly enjoyed getting to know Harriet better and writing her story.
“Emma” is not my favorite of Jane Austen’s books, but I have enjoyed the short stories in this series, about peripheral characters. I actually just read the Spring Fever book. Your “Lydia Reimagined” was a good take on her, and nice to see her ‘all grown up’.
Hi Ginna! Thank you for reading the series. Emma is not my favorite JA book either, which is why I was surprised to enjoy writing the story for Thankful Hearts. I’m thrilled that you liked Lydia Reimagined. I wanted to write something based on each of the Bennet sisters, and Lydia seemed to fit the modern setting best.
I’ve listened to some of Jennifer’s minor character books on audio and really enjoyed them. I also have a couple of the Holidays with Jane collections on my Kindle which have also been great. Thanks for the opportunity to win another one. I think I’ve only read one other tale featuring Harriet Smith.
Hi Anji! I am so excited to hear that you have listened to the audiobooks! I love, love, love Anne Day Jones, who narrated those. She is so talented and really brought the characters to life.
I agree Jennifer, she was very good. A bad narrator can spoil even a very good book and I’ve heard a few horrors in my time!
I like that take on Harriet. It’s true. I read a neat little short story from Maria Grace last year that made me value Harriet more.
Oh neat! Another Holidays With Jane release. I’m terribly behind on these delightful anthos, but I can’t wait to get to a Thanksgiving themed one.
Hi Sophia Rose, I hope you enjoy the anthology! We had fun writing it.
Congrats on another release! Loved the Halloween edition.
Thanks, Colleen! We hope you enjoy Thankful Hearts as much as Trick or Sweet! 😀
Hi Jennifer: first of all, don’t put me for the giveaway because I won the Halloween Holidays with Jane and I want the other readers to have the pleasure of winning this new novel 🙂
But I stopped by your post because I wanted to say that I never thought about Harriet in the way you do and you’re very right!. Thanks for your point of view; )
Hi Teresa, thank you for stopping by to comment, even without the inducement of prizes. I appreciate it, and I’m glad to share my enthusiasm for Jane Austen’s minor characters. She wrote them with surprising depth, even though they don’t often get center stage.
Great to see ms Smith feature in your story Jennifer! I have always found her a most intriguing character (I like her more than Emma too) and I can’t wait to see how she’ll fare in your story!
Hi Debbie! I’m glad I’m not the only person who found Harriet interesting. I hope you enjoy the story.
Harriet always makes me smile! She is so naive but at the same time so sweet that even when you wish her to be stronger you can’t help but loving her! Can’t wait to read her story!
Hi Maria, I totally agree. Harriet is always good for a smile. I would like a friend like her. I hope you enjoy the story. 😀
I’m putting all 5 of these books on my Goodreads TBR right now!
Hi Amanda! Thank you for adding Holidays with Jane to your TBR list. We hope you enjoy them all!
Harriet Smith as a main character, I love the idea. I agree, that Jenifer does a wonderful job writing about minor characters, and I’m sure this story is great as well. Thanks for the giveaway.
Happy Thanksgiving. 🙂
Hi Kate! I’m so happy that you enjoy stories about minor characters too. I loved writing a modern-day Harriet. I hope everyone enjoys her story.