Maria Grace's Trilogy

Dear Readers, I have been away for some time, but I just read a trilogy that makes me want to come back to the blog to talk about the trilogy written by Maria Grace. Darcy's Decision, The Future Mrs. Darcy, and All the Appearance of Goodness. I was okay with the first book. Georgiana was a little more childish than I would prefer, but she is young so I could forgive. Then there was book two and I was disappointed on how Lizzie was portrayed. Gone was the strong heroine so many girls have loved and in her place a nervous ninny like character whose stomach always hurt because she was upset. I can get Lizzie being upset if her father was short with her, but I can't see her getting as defensive and sad as Ms. Grace made her. I feel she did a real injustice to the great Lizzie Bennent. Then we come to the third book, which really I just wanted to throw away. But if I did that I would also throw away my Kindle Fire and I don't want to do that. There are books I like on it. The third book had Fitzwilliam, Darcy's cousin go after Jane instead of Bingley. I get liking Fitzwilliam. Who doesn't feel a little sad for him? He deserves a good wife, but Jane? Really? Am I the only one who likes Bingley and Jane? And Lizzie originally has a thing for Mr. Collins? Really? Jane Austen made him ridiculous and someone else writes him as a Greek god? On the other hand I have always said if you're going to rewrite Pride and Prejudice then REWRITE Pride and Prejudice. So Ms. Grace did just this. Although I wonder why she let Lizzie and Darcy get together with destroying so much of the rest of the story. I did appreciate that Mary got a happy ending. I think she is overlooked and does deserve some of the shine. But really. The trilogy just made me not want to read anymore Pride and Prejudice remakes. But I did finish them because I was determined to do so. Nancy Pearl's rules of reading made me finish. But why does Elizabeth have to suffer an attack? Why must authors always move toward rape in order to show a woman in danger? Can Regency women not feel other dangers? There are many to speak of although in today's time they don't translate and rape translates as bad regardless of the time period. But I resent using it so Elizabeth can be rescued by Darcy. I think this takes a serious topic and almost trivializes it. Do you have a book that is fan fiction that totally ruins the characters for you?

The Day I Became A Regency Snob

There comes a day in every reader's life when she realizes she has become a snob when it comes to her favorite genre. Recently this happened to me! Shock of all shocks. Or perhaps not.

Now in my quest of all things Jane Austen I have read some absolutely ridiculous novels and when I say ridiculous I mean ridiculous. So ridiculous you laugh out loud and the book that was incredibly horrible becomes so stupid it's funny and one of the best things you've ever read. But I keep reading, even the really horrible stuff that makes me want to crawl back in time and just read nothing but my own work. But I have a public that cries for me to post. Okay, it's just my ego that cries for me to post. But read on I will.

I just finished a Kara Louise book. Now I loved my first Kara Louise "Pemberley's Promise". It has since been reissued with many different titles and in reality it has some issues. There are things that happen in it that would not happen in real Regency times. But I forgave her. Why? Because I had not yet become a Regency snob.
So I bought her book "Something Like Regret" and was excited to read about the niceties instead of all the hot and heavy sex people like to write about. The premise had me a little sad since Mr. Bennet dies and I always loved him. But it was needed for the story. Elizabeth was forced to become a governess, which is a little far fetched considering Elizabeth did not have the world's best education and couldn't teach things like painting and drawing or French. Skills we all know every lady must have to be truly accomplished.

But this was just the first in a long line of faults of the novel. I wanted to stop reading so many time because I wanted to scream "THIS WOULD NOT HAPPEN IN REGENCY ENGLAND!!!!" That's the problem with knowing your history. You want other people to know it as well. Especially if those people are writing about it for a living. It's so easy to do research now although easy doesn't always mean right. The internet has opened up vast quantities of knowledge, you just need to be able to separate the good from the bad. There's no excuse to make mistakes in a novel when five minutes on Google could save face. And if your plot won't work unless you break 101 Regency rules maybe you should rethink your plot or make your novel an update instead of a rewrite. Today Elizabeth could easily be a nanny and Mr. Darcy a CEO. Hmmmm.....note to self: New plot idea......

The reality is, I did like the Kara Louise book "Something Like Regret", but I had to get over my snobbery to like it. So read it if you like, but make sure you keep your nose in this atmosphere when you read. Because a sky high nose in the air with Regency snobbery will only make this novel fall flat.

New Digs

Hello everyone. I know it's been an awful long time since I last posted, but so much has happened.

I love doing a blog, but realized I cannot do it on my own. So I will not be posting to Jane Austen Regrets anymore.

I have started a new blog called The Fourmiddables. Please join myself (Jane Austen), Charlotte Bronte, Dorothy Parker and E. Nesbit as we discuss novels and life. In July there is a rumour that George Sand will be joining us. (How exciting)!

My day to post on The Fourmiddables is Thursday, but I do hope you stop by and check out the rest of the week's posts. George will be taking over Wednesday. Currently Charlotte posts on Mondays; Dorothy on Tuesdays; Wednesdays are open; I post on Thursdays and E. Nesbit posts on Fridays.

Our address is : www.fourmiddables.blogspot.com.

I hope you'll join me in this new venture.

A Bestseller

I was pleasantly surprised today while scrolling through Kindle's bestsellers to see that a number of my novels make the top 100. Granted the books are free although you can pay for copies as well, but with all the e-books available it amazing that my novels still resonate with people. Pride and Prejudice is the top seller of my novels, which comes as little surprise. But Northanger Abbey makes the list and Mansfield Park does not. This I find interesting because NA is a bit of a black sheep or at least not as well loved as the others. It is a mistake though since many of my favorite lines come from this particular novel and I think Henry Tilney is quite the dark horse as a hero. So if you have a Kindle or feel like downloading Kindle for your PC or Mac for free do so and revisit some classics at an incredibly affordable price. As for myself I just downloaded The Count of Monte Cristo and yes, I will be picturing a delicious Jim Cavezel as Edmund.

Longbourn's Unexpected Matchmaker

I know some people have been waiting for this post. Well wait no longer. Today I'd like to talk about Emma Hox's book "Longbourn's Unexpected Matchmaker". This book is Pride & Prejudice revisionism. Normally I have issues with P & P revisionism. I don't understand why you mess with perfect story like P & P, but there have been some exceptions and one of them is definitely Ms. Hox's novel.

I have spoken before about how everyone turns P & P into an extreme drama. There are rapes and murders and kidnappings and who knows what else. This is very un-me or un-JA. I wrote about people and about their lives. Great characters and Ms. Hox stays true to them, which I like. The story unfolds and there are some Lydia elopes moments, but love triumphs.

I bought this book for my kindle and will say one part I did not enjoy were some of the typos. Now this is not something that happens in Ms. Hox's book alone. I have read many Kindle books with typos where there were not typos in the print copy. I am not sure why this happens, but at times it took away from my enjoyment of the novel. Hopefully subsequent editions will have this fixed.

There were some surprises in Matchmaker, but I will not ruin them for you. I'll let you read the book yourself, which I highly recommend you do.

As a side note, I do hope Ms. Hox writes more. I'd like to see a few other revisionisms besides just P & P or see how she handles a sequel. I'm dying to know what fate befalls Georgiana. So far I have only read one sequel where I like what happened to Georgiana and that was "Conviction" by Skylar Hamilton-Burris.

Lost In Austen

Tonight Lost In Austen was replayed on Ovation Network.It made me wonder "Do we get lost in Austen or does Austen get lost on us?

We have paired Austen with vampires and zombies. Written sequels to Pride and PRejudce that are saccharine sweet, sultry, or just plain ridiculous (Darcy and Bingley getting it on? Lizzie in love with Charlotte?) We created a romance between Jane and Tom LeFroy because we wanted the woman who wrote great romances to have a great romance herself. But have we lost sight of the real Austen?

I once heard an English professor claim Gatsby from Fitzgerald's classic was gay because he wore a pink suit. I've always hated it when people push 21st century ideas and ideals onto people and books that were of another time. I think we might be doing this to my Regency counterpart and I'll admit that I might be part of the problem.

JA worship runs high, fast and strong, which is part of the problem. People like me not only blog about JA we buy books that relate to her and since have made JA a cash cow. So publishers will print any sort of muckity muck because it will inevitably sell.

Part of this means that we don't read JA anymore. Not the original. Instead we read her with ultraviolent zombie action or read about her characters who have actually lost a bit of themselves. Joan Aiken writes that Lizzie once knew Charlotte in the book Lady Catherine's Necklace. She suggests that they were mere acquaintances and not the close friends that JA had made them in her original book. Another author said Darcy would never friend anyone who was in trade or even slightly removed. Well JA hints that Bingley's wealth comes from trade.

So I think Austen has been lost on us. I think we watch the movies instead of read the books and while I thoroughly enjoy some of the movies it's a shame because Austen was a great writer. She created characters one loves and while there was drama in her novels it is not like the drama people create now. Drama is not rape and murder. It's your sister ruining your family name by eloping. It's the loss of a father and as such the loss of a promised life (entails etc). It is losing the love of your life because he's secretly engaged. In today's standard not drama at all. That's what I love best about JA. They're stories about people....real people and not this jacked up idea of drama and fiction we have today.

So while I wish the world truly was lost in Austen, I fear Austen has been lost on us.

Jane Austen as Eminem

I just read this great article about JA fan fiction in Salon:
http://www.salon.com/books/jane_austen/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2010/01/20/jane_austen

And this is my response:
I have read the Jane Austen fan fiction or at least 150 of them. Recently I spent a week trying to discover all the fan fiction that was out there and came up with a list of about 254 books although I'm sure it's not a complete list. Some of the sequels, revisionisms or updates I like. (I'll admit to liking the updates the best especially Melissa Nathan's). I do wonder about the revisionisms. In almost all of them Darcy and Elizabeth still end up together. So why bother to rewrite it in the first place? I have a blog where I pretend to be Austen and write about how she would feel about the fan fiction and sometimes it's a little more about me. (Vain I will admit, but it was an assignment for grad school while getting an MLIS). The updates don't bother me as much because people take Austen's plot and update it, but they at least have to add some new items. I'll admit that I am doing an update of Northanger Abbey, but it's just for kicks. I am a JA fan and one thing I have to admit is I'm tired of the hooplah and people reading the fan fiction and not reading the original JA. Now JA has just become a cash cow and that makes me sad.

Perhaps by writing this blog I am adding to the hooplah. I don't pretend that I am as witting or talented as JA, but I do like her and her books mean a lot to me. So this is my tribute sad or wonderful as it may be.

Burning Secrets

So I now know why my Regency counterpart asked her sister to burn her letters and I can understand why Cassandra did it. I will admit that I have been going through what one may call personal turmoil, but it has made me realize that there are memories and people that one would like to forget and not want anyone else to know about....especially in the area of someone we once loved. Although I can't help but wonder did Jane have some idea that she would become famous? Or did she not want other people in her family circle to know her secrets. I cannot burn or have my sister burn my letters. I can however throw away pictures, gifts, cards and mementos. Although it might actually be more fulfilling to burn them. I could be like Hedda Gabler.....burn little baby, burn. Okay perhaps that's a little drastic and a little scary. But I understand my Regency counterpart better.

Emma, Surely Not

Recently while roaming the blogashpere I stumbled upon a site which asked what would I be like and what question would you ask me if you met me. I was saddened to learn that many of my fans hoped I was just like Emma. Now I love Emma, truly I do, I created her after all, but I do not think I would want to be like Emma. I do not think I would enjoy meddling in everyone's lives so much that some important things had completely passed me by...such as being in love with a man who has been my neighbor for my entire life. Only to realize that I loved him when I thought he loved someone else. Also I am not sure I would be so conscious of class considering that I am not rich. I am a parson's daughter which means Robert Martin would make a wonderful husband for my friend. It is true that it was hard to not be aware of class during the Regency time, but I would not be in the upper echelons like Emma who had a rich father. I am quite sure though that I could be as thoughtless as Emma is at times. That I could and do say things that hurt my friends whether I do it consciously or unconsciously. I will admit that I have let a man or woman who I would like to be in good favour with mold bits of me and make me act in ways that I normally wouldn't. Although I would like to meet the person who has not done that, but perhaps not everyone is as weak as I am occasionally. I could completely see myself not liking Jane Fairfax and referring to her as "elegant" when I am pressed. I will willingly admit that I know many a Jane Fairfax or many a elegant Jane Fairfaxes if you press me. I would and have hidden behind a parasol from people although I believe today we call them umbrellas. I have meddled in people's lives much to their chagrin I am sure. But to not know that I am in love with what some would consider my best friend? That fault, which I feel is Emma's biggest is not one I possess. Yes, Emma is fun. She is spirited and good hearted and many a people would not mind to be like her, but I am not.

So who am I then? Well I would have to say I am most like Anne. I think I hold things together and perhaps I don't really, but I feel like I do. And I feel like I am the middle child who has yet to accomplish much in her life. That does not mean that I never will; it means that for now I am not where I wish to be even though I have done some very worthwhile things. And because of that I often think of Wentworth and his "Tell me not that I am too late." Words I live by. Tell me not that I am too late. Tell me not that this is it. Tell me not that I have lived. Tell me not that there is not more to be had. Tell me not that I have left my mark. Tell me not....tell me not....tell me not. For I will not believe you. I will hunt and I will fight and I will claw my way to what I want because I rarely take the easy path.

Tell me not.....Tell me not....Tell me not.....Tell me not.....

In Love With A Story

Can you actually be in love with a story? Can you love the story of how you and someone met so much that you forget all the horrible stuff because you want the story to be your story? Is it possible to love a story so much, like Pride & Prejudice, that if you met a Darcy in the same way Lizzy met her Darcy and things progressed like the novel would you want that to be your story even if in the end your Darcy wasn't really as great as Lizzy's Darcy? Does any of this make sense or have I truly lost my touch with reality? Do I want a Wentworth so badly that I would take any Wentworth no matter how badly he treats me?

Two Hundred Thirty-Four

I was born. Two hundred thirty-four years ago I entered this world and although I have physically left it I have never really left it. I didn't become popular until my nephew penned a memoir of me and I wasn't a scholarly pursuit until the 1940s and now I am an international superstar. Even though many a college men have not heard of me. So instead of blogging today I am simply going to say: Happy birthday to me.

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?

Recently I saw a book entitled "Willoughby's Return", which is obviously about Willoughby returning to Marianne's life three years after she marries Colonel Brandon. While I think there are a few mistakes in the plot line (I'm not positive because I have not read the book just the back cover) I think it has some interesting points. What happened to Willoughby? He loses Marianne...does that make him broken hearted? The Emma Thompson version of the movie would have us think that.

What about the others in Austen books that have loved and lost? Does Elizabeth Elliot ever recover from losing Mr. Elliot to her sister Anne and then to Mrs. Clay? Does Henry Crawford recover from losing Fanny? What about his sister, Mary, does she recover from losing Edmund?

There are a great many books that continue the happily ever after that I created, but rarely do we see the other side. There are books that show how Lydia Bennet and Charlotte Lucas fair after their choices, but rarely is the one left behind spoken about.

One could argue that Mary, Henry, Willoughby, and Elizabeth are perhaps not good characters. Perhaps they don't deserve a happy ending, but then we must ask ourselves what about the one who does? I have always loved Colonel Fitzwilliam and while she was at Rosings I thought that he and Elizabeth could make a good match. He is jovial and kind although he might have spoken out of turn. I like him. It is Fitzwilliam that I am interested in. I have read some sequels where he and Georgiana make a match of it, which I like. I have read a sequel where he marries Ann de Bourgh, which I wasn't crazy about. What ending would you give Fitzwilliam? What ending would you give any of the broken hearted in my novels? Who deserves to find love and who doesn't?

Second Chances

It seems that second chances are a main theme of my novels or at least most of my novels offer a second chance to their heroes and heroines. Darcy and Elizabeth are given a second chance once they realize that their first impressions were wrong. Knightly gives Emma a second chance after she was so rude to Miss Bates. Although really I'm sure Knightly gave Emma many chances. Henry Tilney gives Catherine a second chance after she says his father murdered his mother and Catherine is sent home in the middle of the night. Edward and Elinor are given a second chance once Lucy Steele changes her alliance.Colonel Brandon gets a second chance after Marianne realizes that Willoughby is lost and perhaps not the best man to have faith in. Fanny gets a second chance with Edmund even though I think he's a lame hero. More importantly Anne and Wentworth are given a second chance at happiness after seven years apart.

I was trying to figure out if I deliberately gave my characters second chances or if second chances are just part of life. Surely we've all been given second chances and perhaps not all those second chances worked out. Perhaps instead of winning the hero we lost him, but we may be given a second chance at love, just not with the same hero.

Maybe the important part here is to learn about forgiveness. Because forgiveness is needed in all second chances. We need to forgive the biting comment that we are tolerable. We need to forgive a foolish mistake made seven years ago. We need to forgive a falsehood that hurt us greatly. We need to forgive an overactive imagination. We need to forgive to find happiness and perhaps during this season this means more to us than we realize.

What about you? Have you been given a second chance? Do you desire a second chance with someone or something?

Ccccccchanges......

In a few weeks David Bowie will be turning 62. Yes, yes, I know, why is Jane Austen listening to David Bowie? It seems quite odd, does it not? But I'm struck by Bowie's lyrics:
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
Do you think this is how Darcy felt after Elizabeth turned him down the first time? Did he feel like he needed to be a different man?
Or on the flipside (haha a little LP humour)can people really change? What causes us to change? Did Lizzie and Darcy really change by the end of the story or had they simply realized their first impressions were wrong? Or is the simple fact that we can admit we are wrong actually be the thing that changes us?
There's this really dopey radio station near where I live and it has these incredibly sexist fun facts like "A woman marries a man hoping he'll change and he never does. A man marries a woman hoping she'll stay the same and she changes." I have since stopped listening to this station because really I'm not one for sexist radio. What does it take to change? Does it take time? Does it take a matter of the heart? Does it take a tragedy? Or do we simply evolve as people and every moment we are actually changing?
I feel like I have gone through many changes throughout the years. The person I am now is not the person I was seven years ago and maybe not even the person I was yesterday. But I'm not sure if my day to day changes are an evolution or do I think that I've changed, but in reality come back and see me in six months and I'm basically the same?
I do know this:
Pretty soon I'm gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time

A Sneak Peak

The Sneak Peak has been taken down because I'm concerned about it being stolen.

Agreeing to Disagree

Recently on the Risky Regencies blog Amanda Grange, who I have spoken about here, talked about her upcoming novel Mr Darcy, Vampyre. I voiced my opinion that while I loved Grange's work I would not read her book. I feel that Mr. Darcy should not be a vampire. Ms. Grange was very polite about it and said I did not offend, which is great because I do love Ms. Grange's works. The site carried an excerpt from the new novel and I have to say although I am heartily sick of vampires Ms. Grange's work sounded beautiful. She has a wonderful gift for writing. I was also excited to learn that she is working on an Edward Ferris' Diary, which I really want to read. Although Wentworth is my favorite I feel that Edward has quite a story to tell. His feelings for Elinor mixing and over-riding his feelings for Lucy Steele can you imagine the turmoil? I'd love to know what he was thinking.

So although I will probably not read Mr. Darcy, Vampyre I wanted to give it a plug here since Ms. Grange was so nice about my criticisms. Vampyres maybe not be for everyone, but you might enjoy it.

A Compromising Position

I have been compromised. Well not recently unless you count the number of times I'm alone in a room with a man. Normally all that's going on is talking and me giving orders since most of these men are in my employ, but nonetheless with all the Regencies I've been reading lately and all the girls I've seen running around camps in clothes that are more scandalous than Lady Caroline Lamb's wetting of her skirts I've been thinking about how many times women today would have been compromised and at what age. My first kiss occurred when I was thirteen and if I was forced to marry him because let's face it, there were witnesses, we were at the May Dance, I would be married to a professional wrestler. Ha! The mistakes we made when we were younger.

I have read that today the average woman kisses 75 men before she gets married. I must admit that I am far behind. I think I'm at 23. I look back at those kisses some innocent and some not and think "If I knew being seen kissing that man would mean I'd have to marry him would I have thought differently....would I have kissed him?" In most cases I'd have to say "No." There were two that I would have actually not minded marrying, but now that I look back at them I could never see myself married to them. Both of these men I knew for quite some time. I dated one for two years and the other for five. I knew them quite well. Can you imagine only knowing the man you would marry for a few weeks during the season? You couldn't really talk alone or just hang out. Everything was chaperoned. Isn't it amazing that there were love matches after all?

My parents have mentioned to me in the past that if arranged marriages between the upperclasses still existed that I would be engaged to a man that I grew up with. I was born exactly one week before he was. The kicker is that although we were friends growing up, we were more competitors and now barely talk. Although for some strange reason we are Facebook friends. Knowing who we would become I'm glad our parents didn't arrange that marriage, but it makes you think.

Teen Angst

I've been noticing a lot of teen or tween books coming out lately with a Jane Austen feel. At first I thought this a little odd, but then it struck me....most of my leading ladies were teens. So transporting my story lines to modern day teen angst do work in a way although teens are not expected to grow up and marry quite as quickly as they did in my day.

I will be posting about Rosie Rushton in the next few weeks. She has updated five of my novels. All of them except my favorite, Persuasion, which incidentally is the one novel of mine that won't fit into the teen angst genre. Even if the Anne character was on the older side of teen, 19, it would still seem odd that she would have found true love at age 12. Although I do know that happens. But would you feel the loss as much as 27-year-old Anne, who at the time was considered an old maid? Today's society doesn't really think of 19 as old maid material. So I will be interested to see what Miss Rushton does with Persuasion. Although I shouldn't talk about not feeling a lost love. I am crushing again on a guy I had a crush on 13 years ago! Ha! Who says your past doesn't come back to haunt you?

Prized Then?

I've been thinking about what people want in a woman today and what people wanted in a woman in Regency times.

Everyone loves Lizzie as a character. Girls want to be her. There are hats that say "Mrs. Darcy". I should know, I own one. The thing is, we love Lizzie now. She's what we like in a modern woman. She has wit and fine eyes. But was she prized in Regency times? We know Mr. Darcy prized her in the end, but not at the beginning. If we remember the movie at least we know Mr. Darcy didn't think her a beauty. Isn't there that line about "I'd as soon call her mother a wit." Very funny, Caroline.

So let's talk about me, Jane Austen. I was not pretty. I was pretty average at least from the one painting of me that still exists. But I do have wit and I wrote some lovely books and while I am prized now and people love me enough to dedicate blogs to me and to write fan fiction about my novels, was I prized in Regency times?

I think it must have been very hard for me. To fit into a world where I had little power as a woman. I had wit, but I was suppose to embroider and be a good housewife, which I never got to be. If my tongue hadn't been so sharp would I have had other offers? I know I turned one down.

Did Cassandra always understand me? Did I ever say sharp words that hurt her?

I wonder. I can't quite recall all of my time when I was writing my novels. I only know of what I read, but as a woman who now as wit and a pair of fine eyes, I wonder if I will be valued even though I'm not incredibly thin. On the Fourth of July I was mocked because I was the only one of my neighbors to own a bookcase. All night long I heard "Maybe we could say educated things if we bought a bookcase." Also one of my male friends just told me that a woman has to be hot in order to make the relationship last. She has to be thin and wit alone isn't going to make a relationship. His argument was I cared just as much since I wouldn't date Stephen Hawking. Joke's on him. I would date Stephen Hawking. Think of the great conversations you could have!

Maybe I haven't changed so much since Regency times and really maybe men's expectations haven't either.

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?