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Monthly Archives: August 2005


here’s my cover! It’s really, really pretty, but… they’re too young, too scrubbed-looking, and almost certainly too well-behaved. I asked for Harrison Ford with a bigger nose and Juliet Binoche. Personally I think it’s a mistake having people on covers, period, particularly on romances and particularly particularly on historicals where they get the costumes all wrong. (A red neckcloth???!)

If I could have the same art, but without the people, and with a stocking and a book lying on the sofa, that would have been fab. The worrisome thing about this cover is that it doesn’t deliver. It looks like a really sweet regency and it isn’t.

Janet

I thought I’d mention how I’m looking forward to the upcoming PRIDE AND PREJUDICE movie! I hear it has a (tentative) release date of November 18.
Does anyone want to talk about it? (Yes, I know it’s ridiculously early to talk about it, but why not!) 🙂

What I’m excited about:

Judi Dench as Lady Catherine De Bourgh! (Okay, I’d be excited seeing Judi Dench as anyone or anything — I adore her! Did I ever mention I once saw her star in a RNT revival of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC?) And she’s perfect for Lady Catherine! (Though I’d also love to see her do Northanger Abbey’s Mrs. Allen some day too!)

Brenda Blethyn as Mrs. Bennett. Too, too perfect!!!!

Rosamund Pike as Jane. I think RP is breathtakingly beautiful and
conveys serenity so well — perfect for Jane.

Okay, those are three reasons I’m looking forward to it! Anyone else?

Cara
Cara King, MY LADY GAMESTER, Signet Regency 11/05
check out more movie info on my website! www.caraking.com

OK, as promised, here are the answers to the JA quiz I posted a few days ago. (I could only answer 6 of them):

1) Emma Woodhouse
2) Sotherton
3) Whist
4) Ward
5) Collarbone
6) Broadwood
7) Eliza
8) Catherine Morland
9) Heir at Law
10) Muslin
11) A snug farmhouse
12) Gowan’s Lotion
13) M and A
14) Meryton
15) The Laconia
16) Steward

I’d like to share why I like this period, and why it’s so rewarding to read-write about.
First, the clothes. Yeah, I know this sounds really superficial, but it was a period of about twenty years when women were not corseted and constricted, and I think that’s very significant. Stays were for support more than shaping. If you look online on costume sites, you can see that some stays were virtually like sports bras. Women could actually move–look how often Jane Austen’s heroines stride across-country. The men’s clothes are a tribute to beautiful, athletic male bodies–hideous on overweight slobs, of course, but then what fashion isn’t–and those tight pants–well, say no more…consider too that women wore no underwear. Oh, the possibilities.
There was so much happening in the early years of the 19c–terrific architecture, music, and literature, the abolitionist movement, and great political change. There were women writers, musicians, and artists, and at least one female astronomer. England was considered a sort of maverick country by the rest of Europe–its monarch, under the control of Parliament, was not a despot; there was a very high level of literacy and many regional newspapers, each issue of which was read by several people, and although a small minority (of men) could vote, the public held the effective and powerful tool of the petition.
And of course the fairy-tale world of the Ton, which I guess I do have to mention. I have to admit a few aristocrats go a long way with me, although I find the concept of great families and their politicking fascinating–one of my favorite books is “The Other Boleyn Girl” by Phillippa Gregory, which is rather like the Sopranos at the Tudor court. And generally my heroes are motivated by family honor and duty to the family name, which leads to some tremendous conflict.
So, what about everyone else?

Posted in Regency | Tagged | 9 Replies
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