Guest Post
Thank you so much for providing the exclamation point at the end of the Longbourn to London Blog Tour. You have requested my topic for this guest post be Mr Darcy, and nothing could delight me better! I've received some comments about how "chatty" my Darcys are (I refer to both Longbourn to London and The Red Chrysanthemum), so I will make a bit of effort to explain and defend how I write Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Writing Mr Darcy
Earlier in the Longbourn to London Blog Tour, the question was put to me whether I think it is a bad thing to have so many skewed and attenuated productions of Pride and Prejudice amply available on film and video, CD and Netflix. My initial response was no, not if it brings more people to reading Jane Austen's novel. But that was my native optimism talking. If one only watches Pride and Prejudice 2005, or the BBC mini-series from 1995, one does get versions of Mr Darcy that lie very far afield from the man as Jane Austen wrote him.
We must remember that Jane Austen was writing a rather satirical novel, not a screenplay. She did not have the advantage — or perhaps hindrance — of an actor interpreting her words. She was spared Matthew Macfadyen sputtering his declarations of love like an inept and particularly vulnerable 18-year old boy as Lizzy finally accepts him (2005). Does anyone else besides me see his stark resemblance to John Cusack in Say Anything?
Similarly, Jane Austen's heart never got to race as Colin Firth rakishly admits his pleasure to be watching Elizabeth Bennet's figure as she strolls about a drawing room with Caroline Bingley. In the Andrew Davies screenplay (1995), once Darcy has his second proposal accepted, he does not behave as Austen described: "...he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do." The otherwise brilliant Andrew Davies represents Darcy as a man tongue-tied by passion.
But that isn't the Fitzwilliam Darcy Jane Austen wrote, either.
If you have not read Pride and Prejudice lately, I urge you to revisit those rushed final chapters after Lizzy awkwardly says yes. Throughout them, Darcy has far more to say than does his bride-to-be. When she asks how he came to love her, he blurts everything. The affection for her and his explanation of his actions pours forth. Once he knows she loves him, Darcy tells Lizzy everything. He is not a man of few words when he is alone with his beloved.
This should come as no surprise. Darcy is praised early on as the composer of lengthy letters. The "Hunsford letter" to Lizzy goes on with great detail, so it should be no stretch of the imagination to hear him wax eloquent when alone with the woman he has pined over for nearly a year. Look carefully at what Jane Austen has written after their betrothal. Darcy has the longest, prettiest speeches. Lizzy merely taunts him gently to keep him talking!
The drama of Pride and Prejudice has already concluded when my little story begins. In Longbourn to London, the betrothal is travelled slowly. Gifts are given, letters are exchanged when Darcy is gone to London, neighbours are endured, one or two characters have hissy-fits, a rift develops in the Bingley family and Darcy begins to form a friendship with Mr Bennet. Lizzy and Darcy dream about each other. Through it all, Darcy talks, just as he does in Pride and Prejudice. Lizzy is curious about her future with him, and he seeks to inform her of — and later enflame her with — his expectations of a wife.
Once they are married, I prefer to assume Darcy would strive to allay any fears or misapprehensions Lizzy might have. He loves her confidence, and does not want her distracted by nerves. Silence would serve him very ill. Or so he and I like to think.
Thanks, Lúthien84, for offering the opportunity to explain Mr Darcy and me!
Book Blurb
...but what do we know of the official betrothal of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet? We may assume there were awkward social events to navigate, tedious wedding arrangements to negotiate, and Bingley's toplofty sisters to accommodate. How did Darcy and Elizabeth manage these travails, and each other?
Longbourn to London is not a Pride and Prejudice "what if", nor is it a sequel. Rather, it is an expansion of the betrothal of Jane Austen's favourite couple. We follow Lizzy's journey from spirited maiden scampering about the fields of Hertfordshire to nervous, blushing bride in Mayfair, where she learns the unexpected joys of marriage to a man as willing to be teased as she is to tease him.
Join us as IPPY award-winning author Linda Beutler (2013 Silver Medal, Independent Publishers Awards, for The Red Chrysanthemum) imagines the betrothal and early honeymoon of Jane Austen's greatest couple.
Author Bio
Linda lives the gardening life: she is a part-time instructor in the horticulture department at Clackamas Community College; writes and lectures about gardening topics throughout the USA; and is travelling the world through her active participation in the International Clematis Society, of which she is the current president. Then there's that dream job — which she is sure everyone else must covet but which she alone has — curator of the Rogerson Clematis Collection, located at Luscher Farm, a farm/park maintained by the city of Lake Oswego. She signed on as curator to North America's most comprehensive and publicly accessible collection of the genus clematis in July 2007, and they will no doubt not get shut of her until she can be carried out in a pine box.
In September 2011, Linda checked out a book of Jane Austen fan fiction from her local library, and was, to put it in the modern British vernacular, gobsmacked. After devouring every title she could get her hands on, she quite arrogantly decided that, in some cases, she could do better, and began writing her own expansions and variations of Pride and Prejudice. The will to publish became too tempting, and after viewing the welcoming Meryton Press website, she sent her child before the firing squad. Luckily, the discerning editors at Meryton Press saved the child from slaughter, and Linda's first work of Jane Austen-esque fiction, The Red Chrysanthemum, is ready for publication.
Linda shares a small garden in Southeast Portland with her husband and pets that function as surrogate children. Her personal collection of clematis numbers something around 230 taxa. These are also surrogate children, and just as badly behaved.
I would like to thank Leatherbound Reviews's Jakki Leatherberry for organising this blog tour and opening up slots for bloggers like me to promote Austenesque titles to readers who are unaware of this. Thank you, Linda, for accepting my request to write about the hero of Pride and Prejudice. All the best in your career and hope you will continue to pen more stories about my favourite couple in literature.
I never thought about how much Mr. Darcy talked near the end of the novel. But I have always thought that he would be very open with Elizabeth. I will have to go back and reread my well used copy of Pride and Prejudice. Thank you for your perspective. Can't wait to read your new book!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts on Mr.Darcy! I agree that Mr.Darcy cannot be a man of just a few words, especially when it comes to the woman he loves. After your post, I think I am going to re-read Pride and Prejudice to enjoy Darcy's speeches once again:)
ReplyDeleteWell said Linda, I totally agree, after all Elizabeth herself said "why a man of sense and education, and who has lived in the world, is ill qualified to recommend himself to strangers" yet he replies "I certainly have not the talent which some people possess of conversing easily with those I have never seen before." It says nothing of his skills of communication with people he is acquainted with, which I assume are excellent being a man of sense and education :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for giving us Longbourn to London. I just finished reading it last night. It's a delight in many ways. Yes... I will leave a review. :)
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