Guest Post
Thank you so much for hosting me here as I explore the underlying themes which drive The Avenger: Thomas Bennet and a Father's Lament.There are many avenues down which #Austenesque authors drive to bring their stories to life.
Most seek to alter the original circumstances of the core story — the complicated relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. The elements they change do not alter the essentials of the off-then-on love that we are privileged to observe. The characters, however, retain their essentials: Darcy is taciturn to the point of being downright uncivil; Elizabeth is impertinent and quick to (mis)judge; Jane is sweet; Bingley resembles nothing less than a yearling colt galloping around the meadow. Certainly, the others also are cast in roles that hew tightly to the original character sketches provided by Austen.
Lest you think that I am criticising authors who work in this lane: nothing could be further from the truth!
On the contrary, even after 200 years, writers are still finding ways to allow beloved characters to move through alternate plot lines without losing their underlying natures. There is, of course, the risk of becoming derivative, but that problem tends to arise from repetitive and redundant plot devices. The fresher the story, the more the characters flower (see Abigail Reynolds' Mr. Darcy's Enchantment).
A more complicated path to take is to consider stories that exists only in the reflected glow of the Darcy/Lizzy binary. Storylines that focus on Caroline Bingley, Mary, Kitty, Lydia and others demand the author to flesh out characters who, in the Canon, exist only to serve as reference points to ODC. We famously throw out the bit of trivia that Mary has but seven lines in the entire novel. Kitty complains and coughs. Lydia flounces. The elder Bennets are relegated to physical locations that serve to define their respective personalities: Mrs. Bennet to the parlour and her husband to the bookroom. This leaves us little to work with if we choose to project them into fully-realised personalities.
T'is up to the author to attempt to understand the essentials of human nature and explain why certain characters acted as they did. Only then, not by subtracting the traits but rather by altering the catalytic drivers.
Early on the The Keeper: Mary Bennet's Extraordinary Journey (Volume 1 of The Bennet Wardrobe series), I have Mary observing her mother on the post-wedding afternoon where the good lady is walking throughout Longbourn (not confined to the parlour) calmly supervising staff as they clean up after the wedding breakfast. Already her famous nerves have calmed with the departure of Jane and Lizzy into their new lives. True, Mr. Bennet is to be found in the library, but he has left the door open. We see the kernels of change.
Now in the sixth book (Volume three... I know, but there was Henry Fitzwilliam's War, the two-part Exile and Lizzy Bennet Meets the Countess), The Avenger: Thomas Bennet and a Father's Lament, I spend most of Book Two exploring the nature of the two adult personalities... the Why... that serve as the contextual underpinning of the novel. All fans of #Austenesque literature know that the entail terrified Mrs. Bennet. I needed to understand Why.
That began with a core question... driven by the fact that Jane Austen left us with a portrait of Mrs. Bennet that was barely more than two-dimensional. Why was Mrs. Bennet so terrifically fearful of the entail? After all, we know that she would have her £5,000 upon Bennet's death. She would not starve. To my mind, there had to be something more.
One of the circumstances which I addressed as being part of the shaping of Kitty's personality in The Exile: Kitty Bennet and the Belle Époque was that the six-year-old fourth daughter came upon her mother immediately after the woman had suffered a miscarriage in 1800. Mr. Bennet withdrew into his own shell, and Mrs. Bennet became monomaniacally focused upon the entail. Why?
I have the good lady offer her own explanation in Chapter XXX of The Avenger.
Excerpt
"But, their view was utterly incorrect because they were taking me out of context,"Yes, they heard Mrs. Bennet of Longbourn fretting about losing her home.
"And, yes, they saw me plotting to pair my daughters with rich men.
"But, that was only half the story — if even that much. These hearers of my lamentations never considered me to be anything but a greedy middle-aged woman who somehow managed to survive birthing five children.
"All of Meryton — and especially you, sir — missed my point entirely. They saw only the adult sitting with the other chin-waggers. They did not consider me as the sixth woman in a squad of females. They ignored the fact that I would be driven by anything but my own self-interest."
Then she drew in a deep breath and raced into her conclusion, "That impertinent Miss Austen who wrote of our family certainly did not help my cause in any manner: showing me in just one light, and the worst one, at that. Of course, she never met me and only drew her portrait based upon second-hand information, probably supplied by jealous mamas of the ton."
"Know this, Thomas Michael Bennet: I was acting as a brood mama protecting her chicks from the headsman's axe or the sly fox lurking around the coop. My maternal instinct would not permit me to act otherwise."
"So, a final yes to my earlier stream! I spoke of being thrown into the hedgerows because a mother's worst nightmare was that her babes would suffer any privation."
This explained to me the maternal figure that caused Elizabeth nothing but embarrassment. At other points in the narrative, her nervousness and brittle nature are discussed any of a number of ways... again circling back to her disappointment in the Year Zero which resulted in not only her distraction, but also her husband's withdrawal into his own grief-driven cocoon.
See Chapter XVII of The Avenger for one of many examples where Tom Bennet reveals his true feelings in response to Fanny's recriminations about her culpability in denying him an heir.
Fanny added, "Because of that, in my mind, I thought that I had no true cause to repine. You were the man who had lost his posterity with no boy Bennet to inherit Longbourn, to carry on your name. T'was my fault."
Bennet made to demur, but his wife would have none of it.
"No, your manner after that day told me all I needed to know. How else could I explain your indifference toward me? From the moment the blood puddled around my feet, you drew away, and hid yourself behind cryptic cynical remarks, your newspapers and books. You never visited my chambers
"You are so much more intelligent than I, Tom, and I trusted your judgement. If you believed me guilty, then I must have been!" she exclaimed.
Bennet could bear no more of her self-recriminations. He pulled her close to his chest, muffling any more protestations which would have sullied the innocent lips of the only woman he had ever loved. His tears wet her locks.
"No, Fanny, no. NO! T'was not you. Never you.
"I was the fool who turned his back... putting himself first rather than seeing to your care.
"I left you to Mrs. Hill and your friends; arguing to myself that a woman would respond best to the efforts of other females, not the bumbling man who put her in the situation in the first place. And, I may have been correct in some manner.
"But, to abandon you entirely, to deny you your life partner, was unconscionable.
"I put you through years of agony, something no person should ever be condemned to by the one she most trusts.
"I am ashamed that I was the instrument of your pain.
"I may not merit it, Frances Lorinda, but will you ever be able to find space in your heart for one so undeserving? Will you ever forgive me?" Bennet gasped.
The growth of these two characters then allowed me to create a logical narrative that would allow the two parents to move forward together. Their relationship is the core around which another pairing — Eileen Nearne and the Right Reverend Richard Fitzwilliam — will revolve. Likewise, giving Mrs. Bennet agency and control of her emotional well-being makes her actions throughout the book plausible. The same holds for Tom Bennet as he moves through the Wardrobe and learns that which he must.
I look forward having a conversation with you about this and other items found the Wardrobe's universe.
Book Blurb
Once again, the amazing Bennet Wardrobe proved to be the schoolmaster. Tom Bennet's lesson? Mrs. Bennet had been formed especially for him. Yet, t'would be the good lady herself who taught him the power of the Fifth and Sixth Loves: Redemption and Forgiveness.
Fanny Bennet also would uncover deep wells of courage and inspiration as she stood by her man's side in the bleak years after World War II. Together they would lead their descendants in pursuit of the beast who had wronged every member of the Five Families.
The Bennet Wardrobe series stands alone...
Author Bio
Jacobson holds an advanced degree in History with a specialty in American Foreign Relations. As a college instructor, Don teaches United States History, World History, the History of Western Civilisation and Research Writing.
He is a member of JASNA-Puget Sound. Likewise, Don is a member of the Austen Authors collective.
He lives in the Seattle, WA area with his wife and co-author, Pam, a woman Ms. Austen would have been hard-pressed to categorise, and their rather assertive four-and-twenty pound cat, Bear. Besides thoroughly immersing himself in the JAFF world, Don also enjoys cooking; dining out, fine wine and well-aged scotch whiskey.
His other passion is cycling. Most days from April through October will find him "putting in the miles" around the Seattle area (yes there are hills). He has ridden several "centuries" (100 mile days). Don is especially proud that he successfully completed the AIDS Ride — Midwest (500 miles from Minneapolis to Chicago) and the Make-A-Wish Miracle Ride (300 miles from Traverse City, MI to Brooklyn, MI).
Giveaway
Would you like to win The Avenger: Thomas Bennet and a Father's Lament? You are fortunate as Don is donating four e-books for his loyal worldwide readers. You can either tweet or comment on each blog stop every day to increase your chances. Then you must register your entry by filling up the Rafflecopter form below.Many thanks to Janet Taylor for inviting me to participate in this online book tour. My gratitude also goes to the author for sharing his thoughts and motivation of creating two minor characters who play an important role in his universe.
Glad that finally Mrs Bennet gets to explain herself
ReplyDeleteIndeed...and so does Thomas. My goal was to find a way where we could understand why these two acted as they did in the slice of time recorded by Miss Austen. Good Luck on the give-away.
DeleteEnjoyed the excerpts and am liking this Mr. and Mrs Bennet.
ReplyDeleteI was seeking to bring them into the foreground as three-dimensional beings with plausible backstories. Looking at some of the more popular one-paragraph explanations of how these two ended up in "wedded bliss"...either he was infatuated and blinded by hormones or she was conniving and compromised him...I still find room to explore the "why" of it.
DeleteThank you for hosting me today as we explore more of "The Avenger." I look forward to interacting with all of you!
ReplyDeleteGood explanation and food for thought. I like the way you think concerning Thomas Michael Bennet and Francis Lorinda Bennet. You've fleshed them out and made them real. It was wonderful seeing them love and learn...and forgive. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYes JT....if there were two characters more deserving of redemption, t'would be the parents who brought our delightfully-shaped Jane and Lizzy into this world. I sort of took Darcy and Bingley's bemusement often expressed in the question :"How could the elder two be raised by the same parents as the youngest three (although Mary is seen as less problematic than Kitty and Lydia)?
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