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For Jane Austen-Based Creative Writing
Re: Colonel Fitzwilliam's fortune - 6 years ago
Where is the 30 thousand pound figure? I remember this conversation about a maximum between the colonel and Elizabeth but don't recall a minimum mentioned. Quotefrom chapter 33 of Pride and Prejudice "Our habits of expence make us too dependant, and there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to money." "Is this," thought Elizabeth, "meant for me?" and shby Adelaide - Tea Room
Re: Until I Hear It From You, Jane-One Shot - 6 years ago
As an E/D purist, I say Aghhhhhhhhhhh! Yes, I know it all turns out well, and IRL, this would be an excellent outcome. People do sometimes grow apart, and the best thing that can happen is finding someone to pick up the pieces with. Someone good. So, thx for that. But still-- Aghhhhhhhhhhh!by Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Infatuation vs love? (Crawfords, Churchill and more) - 6 years ago
As Austen's "villains" or "bad boys" go, the one whose intentions we know most directly from his own mouth is Henry Crawford. Comparatively, George Wickham and John Willoughby (and Captain Tilney with Isabella Thorpe) behave worse than Crawford. Their actions are more directly damaging to their targets. In the case of Crawford, a reader's concern is what he would do to Fanny if she were ever fooliby Adelaide - Tea Room
Re: Infatuation vs love? (Crawfords, Churchill and more) - 6 years ago
Cat H. Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes I think Austen ve > ry sly with her novels; read in isolation they are > all excellent books, but read as a group, and the > resonances that cut across them to challenge assum > ptions, illuminate characters and add layers of su > btext raise the group to superlative. So true!by Adelaide - Tea Room
Re: Colonel Fitzwilliam's fortune - 6 years ago
Sarah Waldock Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I agree with the estimates for Rosings and Pemberl > ey, though I would suggest that a lot of Darcy's w > ealth is tied up in land, and the 10k is his dispo > sable income. > Colonel Fitzwilliam did lament that he could not a > fford to marry, and as the second son, what he get > s is what his fatheby Adelaide - Tea Room
Re: wild, wild plot idea - 6 years ago
Wow, fascinating idea. I would like to toss a couple more carrots into your stew. The politically correct thing to say at this cultural moment is that we are born with a sexual orientation. But suppose it is not as black and white as that? Here is an article that discusses that very possibility. Here also is my own little take on how your plot might play out. I am pretty sure you would notby Adelaide - Tea Room
Re: Mr. Rushworth’s Coming Soon - 6 years ago
I like that you are doing Mansfield Park. Big props!! However, I do question that Maria was perceptive enough to realize how Fanny felt about Edmund. Maria is oblivious to everything except her own selfish needs, and she is arrogant enough to believe that marrying a man she calls "no shining character" will end well. She walked into a pit that she dug herself.by Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: A Jane Austen Price List - 7 years ago
Mansfield Park would return a greater living than Thornton Living, the latter returning just on its own 700 pounds before any contribution by a wife to a couple's income. When Sir Thomas scolds his elder son Tom for his debts (chapter 3), he says Tom has robbed Edmund of more than half the income which ought to be his with the selling of the Mansfield living to someone else. A living that wouldby Adelaide - Tea Room
Edmund's expected living from Thornton Lacey - 7 years ago
In chapter 23 of Mansfield Park (or chapter 5 of volume 2), Edmund's expected living from Thornton Lacey is discussed by Mary and Henry, as they observe Edmund talking to Dr. Grant. The Thornton Lacey living is less than half of what could be gotten from the Mansfield living currently held by Dr. Grant. "... Dr. Grant is giving Bertram instructions about the living he is to step into so sooby Adelaide - Tea Room
I agree, I would love to see more! Great short story - 9 years ago
n/tby Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: The Beginning of a Life-long Friendship (One-shot) - 9 years ago
Shannon K Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > "Hopefully Fitzwilliam understood that, though > young George Wickham could make him laugh like no > other, it was only his son who could make him > almost weep." No, sir, your son almost certainly > doesn't know that instinctively. He is seven > years old. Grr. > > I like this characterization oby Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
I enjoy this story so much, and this chapter... - 9 years ago
...is especially good. Are we building to a major conflict? I would love to see you post more often, but I like what you do whenever you do. So, no pressure and no guilt. This was also so clear that I did not even need to read the back chapters (despite it having been awhile) to recall that Rebecca is a sort of Caroline clone to whom Will once had the misfortune to be married. Dulcie was herby Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Walk With Me - Chapters 20-21 - 9 years ago
I liked Lydia's adventure, though I don't think she liked it. All together quite entertaining--I liked moving this most important event to a public dance. It expands it and makes it more lively.by Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: The Education of a Chaperon - 9 years ago
Wait. No! You cannot mean, The End? (FYI, this is hilarious. That is why it would be a crime for you to stop. Yes, I do understand why this is a convenient stopping place. But there are so many ways that you could go on.)by Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Fitzwilliam Darcy Elopes - Chapter 13 - 9 years ago
Exactly what I was thinking, Shannon. The entire chapter is so funny, Col. Fitzwilliam about to split a gut as he hears about Darcy and Elizabeth's adventures in, well, would you call it "courting"?by Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Mr. Darcy’s P&P POV (the abridged version) – Part 3 - 9 years ago
Actually, I think I have read some place that the charmingly picturesque was a reference to a grouping of cows that readers of the time would not have missed. I suppose one could also argue, though, that if it was obviously sarcastic, Darcy would not have so easily allowed himself to continue falling under her sway during the Netherfield stay. He did not realize he was being made fun of? Or,by Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: A couple P&P aha moments - 9 years ago
I agree, Peter. Also, a tangential point: For all the talk that Mrs. Bennet does of wishing to help her daughters make matches, the book she is ineffectual on two occasion. The smart Colonel Forster comes into the neighborhood and ends up marrying a woman who becomes a good friend to Lydia. Does this mean the new Mrs. Forster and Lydia are contemporaries, and should Mrs. Bennet have given herby Adelaide - Tea Room
Re: Raught - 9 years ago
Agnes Beatrix Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So it should have been grammatically correct (if > we overlook the style mistake of using an archaic > word form) as "I am glad I raught here in time"? Yes, but in this case, grammatically correct is off-putting. Why use archaic words that almost no modern speakers would recognize, or as JanetR mentioned inby Adelaide - Tea Room
I agree with that, Amytat. - 9 years ago
Amytat Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I wouldn’t want to discourage someone > who is simply sharing a story out of a love of > Austin’s work and isn’t looking for anything > in return. Even when just for fun, though, some aspirants might want to look for ways to improve their work. I admire that. And I would never hold someone's imperfections agaiby Adelaide - Tea Room
Thanks for playing, Peter - 9 years ago
Yes, fan is used incorrectly in that little excerpt. Good eye! But the term "raught" is also wrong. It sounds like a broad pronouciation of the word "right," doesn't it? But as the Online Etymology Dictionary can tell us, that meaning is not even close. Quotereach (v.) Old English ræcan, reccan "reach out, stretch out, extend, hold forth," also "succeed in touching, succeed in striking; adby Adelaide - Tea Room
For anyone who was in any doubt... - 9 years ago
The excerpt I put in a quote box was written by me, not taken off the Internet from some hapless victim. I wrote these lines to underline my point that some words and phrases can derail the effort to evoke a Regency sense of time and place. I don't think you have be steeped-in-the-method scholar of the era to be jarred by a phrase like social network. As to words like hi and alright--well, maybby Adelaide - Tea Room
Re: Just a thought - 9 years ago
There is also a word that is period but that is out of place. Can you tell what it is? I would advocate choosing more familiar usage because I have no desire to confuse readers on general principle. Much of what Jane Austen wrote is exactly in step with today and does not need to be changed. However, people who write long sentences in undifferentiated paragraphs are not writing like Austen; theyby Adelaide - Tea Room
Re: Just a thought - 9 years ago
Below is an excerpt from a story that will, we can thank the deities, never see further light of day. It is an example of writing Regency without thinking of period usage and writing Austen without care of how she spelled proper names. And it has other problems, too. For a parlor game, you might try picking out what's wrong here: Quote"Hi, Miss Bennet. Glad I caught up with you. May I tag aloby Adelaide - Tea Room
Re: Typos - admins please use this version - 9 years ago
Hmmm, what do I think? It's a lot of fun listening to what Darcy thinks!by Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Just a thought - 9 years ago
I wish more writers would use the Online Etymology Dictionary. As a reader, I find I am addicted to it (and for those few stories I have written, I have also dipped into it.) For example, I recently saw the word "crazy" in a Regency story, and thought that cannot be! But I was wrong: Quote1570s, "diseased, sickly," from craze + -y (2). Meaning "full of cracks or flaws" is from 1580s; that of "by Adelaide - Tea Room
Or, another suggestion - 9 years ago
I posted this comment earlier and, when I re-read it, I noted that my typos made it hard to read. So, here goes the comment again, and I hope it is helpful if you decide to expand the story. I feel you need to show how Tom Bertram's character changes as he reflects upon his former behavior. Austen writes that illness made him more thoughtful. What did he learned as he mused upon the man he hadby Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Incontrovertible Evidence - 9 years ago
A clever approach which makes the most of absurdity. I laughed when I realized what Bennet and Daughter were doing. Birds of a feather, indeed!by Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Lofty Dreams. Ch. 20-21 - 9 years ago
Good adaptation of the core P&P to a modern environment where the class divisions are economic. But it does seem this Will may feel this Elizabeth and her family are not the right fit for him, although he has reached out to help them. I am interested in seeing how this plays out.by Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: With Just a Little Guidance Chapters 3 and 4 - 9 years ago
Agreed. Whenever a story offers a snobby, mean Caroline, I love to see her get comeuppance. Though, it can also be a nice twist when the mean Caroline learns to be better--and that does not happen as often. Perhaps the lovely widows in this story, who have been chastened and matured by their experiences, can open up a new world for the narrow-minded Caroline. Or, not. I guess we will see!by Adelaide - Derbyshire Writers' Guild