Letters

In the first place I hope you will live twenty-three years longer. Mr. Tom LeFroy's birthday was yesterday, so that you are very near of an age.

After this necessary preamble I shall proceed to inform you that we had an exceedingly good ball last night, and that I was very much disappointed at not seeing Charles Fowle of the party, as I had previously heard of his being invited. In addition to our set at the Harwood's ball, we had the Grants, St. Johns, Lady Rivers, her three daughters and a son, Mr. and Miss Heathcote, Mrs. Lefevre, Two Miss Ledgers, and a tall clergyman who came with them, whose name Mary would never have guessed.

We were so terrible good as to take James in our carriage, though there were three of us before, but indeed he deserves encouragement for the very great improvement which has lately taken place in his dancing.

This is the beginning of a letter from me to my sister Cassandra. The book Cassandra and Jane makes me think about the letters Cassandra destroyed after I died. Wouldn't people like to know what was in those letters? What would they see? What would they read? What would they interpret?

Would they know more about Tom LeFroy? Would they know the story that starred Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy? Is that really what was between Tom and I? Would they know more about my brief engagement that I broke less than 24 hours after accepting? Would they understand my reasons? Would they mock me? Or even worse, would they pity me? Pity I don't think I could take.

Would my gentle readers (as I steal a line from Bronte) know me better if they had those missing letters? Would they love my characters more or would they see them in a different light? I am very curious, but as I did not want them read by anyone but Cassandra I will keep quiet on the subject.

But gentle reader, I would like to know what you think was in those letters? If you could go back in time and stop Cassandra from burning them, would you? Do you think the world today would want to know what Cassandra and I knew then?

Sisterly Bonds

I'm reading a new book: Cassandra and Jane by Jill Pitkeathley. I loved the prologue. It struck me right off. I will be blogging about this book several times in the next week.

I have two sisters and I am not as close to them as Cassandra was to Jane and I often wonder if we were born to a different time if we would be better friends. If we were Regency girls would we have been better companions because all we would have was each other? It's tough to tell.

My one sister would totally be Lady Caroline Lamb. Not that she'd trail after Byron, but she would be very shocking. I was reading a book about a female spy during World War II and the spy, Betty Pack, left her family and slept with men to get secrets to help the British. I don't think I could do this. I could not sleep around even if it meant I could save thousands of lives and Pack did save thousands of lives. I asked my sister if she could and she said yes without a doubt. She would not be the submissive miss that so many men wanted in a convenient marriage.

My other sister would probably be Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She would be a great political hostess, but would get involved as well. I also think her marriage and love affairs would be quite tragic. She would, however, have her pet causes that would keep her going.

As for me, well it's a tough call. Obviously I am Jane Austen, but is that who I would be if I were born in Regency times? I think I'd be more likely to be Mary Nisbet. I would do something like save the Elgin Marbles and then I would ruin my marriage by writing letters to a close male friend. I would however rue the day by divorcing my husband and leaving him nothing, but I would lose my children. I would have left a great and controversial legacy though in the Marbles.

So there are my sisters and I if we were born in Regency times. Would we be any closer? Probably not. We'd have our own circles....our own scandals....our own heartaches. But each one of us will have left her mark on the time regardless of whether it was positive or negative. As it stands now we are not on any scandals sheets. One of us is a marketing manager for a whitewater rafting company. One of us is a project manager for an environmental company. One of us is a librarian/event coordinator hoping to start a Ph. D. in library science soon. As different now as we were then.....