Mr Darcy

I wrote Mr Darcy under the name of Alex Field to differentiate between Sophia Whitfield, the publisher, and Alex Field, the author. The pseudonym simply uses the beginning of my middle name and the end of my surname. It is also a genderless name, which was important to me – women authors today are still less likely to be reviewed than their male counterparts.

There are often many reasons for writing a book. Mr Darcy came about in the most unusual of circumstances. I have always been passionate about Jane Austen. I read every one of her novels as a teenager and continued to re-read them throughout my 20s and 30s. As a teenager I adored the gothic
Northanger Abbey and fell totally for Mr Knightley whilst studying Emma for English A level.

Pride and Prejudice is without a doubt Austen’s most popular novel and one that garnered even more of a following after the dashing Colin Firth played the proud Mr Darcy in the 1995 BBC adaptation. Who can forget the scene where Mr Darcy strides out of the lake to meet a surprised Lizzy? Clearly no one. Colin Firth went on to embody Mr Darcy in the film based on Helen Fielding’s book Bridget Jones Diary. Once again Mr Darcy is the rich, broodingly handsome star of book and screen.

So why Mr Darcy the duck? Two reasons, firstly I adore Jane Austen’s novels, but it had never occurred to me to rewrite her story for children. That is, not until my eldest daughter returned from babysitting a friends four young children. As my daughter raced through my door she was distraught, the family she was babysitting had a duck called Mr Darcy and he had gone missing. He was never found. The four young children were devastated.

It was only then that I thought about Mr Darcy as a character in a book. I could write his story and he would live on as a duck for these four children. They were the first children to receive a signed copy of my book.

An unusual story, but often they are! That day when four children lost their beloved duck I decided to bring him back to life. As I created the story my love of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice guided the characters and the setting.

It was a fabulous project to work on and I was lucky enough to team up with the outstanding illustrator Peter Carnavas.

I look forward to sharing this book and some of the original artwork with you on Saturday.

New Frontier Publishing | Sophia Whitfield | Publisher |  www.newfrontier.com.au
Ph: 02 9453 1525 | Suite 3, Level 2, 18 Aquatic Drive, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 Australia

www.newfrontierpublishing.blogspot.com

www.sophiawhitfield.blogspot.com

Death Comes To Pemberley

P.D. James is well known for her detective fiction. In her latest novel she combines her passion for Jane Austen with her aptitude for writing detective fiction.

Death Comes To Pemberley is set six years after the marriage of Elizabeth Bennet to Mr Darcy. Initially it feels as if the reader is being taken on a forbidden journey. Do we really need to delve past the courtship of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy and trespass on the murky waters of their marriage?

P.D. James has kept all the characters true to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The qualities and flaws in Austen's characters we fell in love with in Pride and Prejudice all remain in this book. The Gardiners are familiar to us with their affable nature. Jane and Mr Bingley are similarly kind. Even Mr Bennet makes a suitable appearance, in Mr Darcy’s library. P.D. James has cleverly retained the essence of Pride and Prejudice relieving the reader of any unease as the book ventures into new territory.

There are a few new characters in this book, but many of the ‘originals’ remain to satisfy the die-hard Jane Austen fan. P. D. James gives a great deal of background using language similar to Jane Austen. The fear of Pemberley being ‘polluted’ is mentioned several times. A murder at Pemberley is certainly grounds for a scandal and a great deal of pollution.

As a self confessed Jane Austen fan P.D. James has even managed to include several references to characters from Austen’s Emma. She writes with elegance bringing to life the era (1803) and her credible characters.

At the age of 91 P.D. James has written a compelling detective story based on her love of Jane Austen's work.

She begins her book with a touching note, paying tribute to Jane Austen:

I owe an apology to the shade of Jane Austen for involving her beloved Elizabeth in the trauma of a murder investigation, especially as in the final chapter of Mansfield Park Miss Austen made her views plain:
‘Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fault themselves to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest.’ 
No doubt she would have replied to my apology by saying that, had she wished to dwell on such odious subjects, she would have written the story herself, and done it better.

What do you think Jane Austen’s views would have been? Would she have written it better or not at all?

New Frontier Publishing | Sophia Whitfield | Publisher |  www.newfrontier.com.au
Ph: 02 9453 1525 | Suite 3, Level 2, 18 Aquatic Drive, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 Australia

www.newfrontierpublishing.blogspot.com

www.sophiawhitfield.blogspot.com

The Marriage Plot

On Saturday April 14 Sophia Whitfield will be holding a workshop at the Jane Austen Festival. She will be discussing the relevance of Jane Austen’s novels in contemporary society.

In the last few years we have seen a number of mash-up versions of Jane Austen’s novels. Novelists have used Jane Austen’s much loved characters to create their own modern storyline. For the purposes of this workshop I will be discussing two recent novels, The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides and Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James and one picture book, Mr Darcy by Alex Field.

For those of you who have not read The Marriage Plot, here is a preview.

It has been nine years since Jeffrey Eugenides released his Pulitzer Prize winner, Middlesex.

His much anticipated novel, The Marriage Plot could be seen to be, in part, a memoir. The book opens in 1982 as three bright young students attend their graduation at Brown University -Eugenides graduated from Brown in 1981. The storyline goes back in time to give the reader background to the three central characters and then moves on to their year out or gap year.

Madeleine Hanna, the central female, comes from an affluent middle class family. She is an English major studying the suitably romantic Victorian novels. Her two love interests, Leonard Bankhead and Mitchell Grammaticus are both from humble beginnings and study science and religion.

Eugenides shows the discordance in Madeleine’s study of literature, most notably romantic literature, and love in the real world. Her study of Jane Austen and George Eliot has ill prepared her for life outside the university gates.

As Madeleine falls in love with the much admired Leonard Bankhead she discovers it is not quite the romance she has read about and aspired to in 19^th century novels.

So begins the central theme of the book - to discover whether or not marriage (in the Austen sense) is still viable. Eugenides attempts to violate the very premise of the marriage plot with the introduction of Leonard’s daily read A Lover’s Discourse by Roland Barthes which challenges the social constructs of love. A definitive contrast to the romantic novels Madeleine has been studying.

Eugenides tongue in cheek attitude to the pretentious intellectual graduates resonates throughout the novel. Early on he draws attention to the cracks beginning to appear in Madeleine’s perceptions:

“Madeleine’s love troubles began at a time when the French theory she was reading deconstructed the very notion of love.”

After university Leonard and Madeleine move together to Cape Cod, Madeleine stays at home to read whilst Leonard goes out to work in a lab. Mitchell sets off on his travels to find God and forget Madeleine. He travels from Monaco to Calcutta volunteering for Mother Teresa, a trip Eugenides also did after university.

There are parts of this novel which are horribly dark, Leonard’s battle with bipolar, his volatility and state of mania in the idyllically named Cape Cod. Mitchell fights his own demons as he witnesses deformity and squalor in India, desperate to help, but realising there is little that can be done. Madeleine, in contrast, pales into insignificance as a saintly goddess, supporting Leonard during his outbursts of mania whilst remaining the high priestess to Mitchell. She seems invisible, pivotal to the plot simply by being, but she appears to do nothing. Her one triumph is her thesis which is eventually published: “I Thought You’d Never Ask: Some Thoughts on the Marriage Plot.”

Throughout the story there is a feeling that Madeleine needs rescuing and indeed she is, first by her mother and then by Mitchell. Madeleine has the demeanour of a pathetic heroine, privileged and undeserving.

 Eugenides batters down the marriage plot theory by introducing impossible challenges - Leonard’s mental illness and Madeleine’s twee upbringing. He shows a gaping chasm between Austen’s world and the real world, a world where the prenuptial agreement is standard and women are no longer dependent on men for a living.

Ultimately though, The Marriage Plot is about the morbidly dark years of youth. The three central characters are trying to work out life, desperately searching for meaning. This is a coming of age novel that looks at the way our perceptions of marriage and love have changed over the years.  

Eugenides has written a fascinating book. I look forward to discussing the themes of Eugenides’ book and to hear your thoughts on the relevance of the marriage plot today.

New Frontier Publishing | Sophia Whitfield | Publisher |  www.newfrontier.com.au

Ph: 02 9453 1525 | Suite 3, Level 2, 18 Aquatic Drive, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 Australia
www.newfrontierpublishing.blogspot.com
www.sophiawhitfield.blogspot.com