Jane Austen Made Me Do It Read online

  These stories are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Original

  Copyright © 2011 by Laurel Ann Nattress

  Reading group guide copyright © 2011 by Random House, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  BALLANTINE BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. RANDOM HOUSE READER’S CIRCLE & Design is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

  Story credits can be found on this page.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Jane Austen made me do it: original stories inspired by literature’s most astute observer of the human heart/edited by Laurel Ann Nattress.

  p. cm.

  eISBN: 978-0-345-52497-3

  1. Love stories, American. 2. Love stories, English. 3. Man-woman relationships—Fiction. 4. Austen, Jane, 1775–1817—Fiction.

  I. Nattress, Laurel Ann.

  PS648.L6J36 2011

  813′.010806—dc23 2011024613

  Cover design: Thomas Beck Stvan

  Cover painting: Thomas Sully, Portrait of the McEuen Sisters (detail) (Peter Willi/Bridgeman Art Library)

  www.randomhousereaderscircle.com

  v3.1

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Introduction

  Laurel Ann Nattress

  Jane Austen’s Nightmare

  Syrie James

  Waiting: A story inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion

  Jane Odiwe

  A Night at Northanger

  Lauren Willig

  Jane and the Gentleman Rogue: Being a fragment of a Jane Austen mystery

  Stephanie Barron

  Faux Jane

  Diane Meier and Frank Delaney writing as F. J. Meier

  Nothing Less Than Fairy-land

  Monica Fairview

  Love and Best Wishes, Aunt Jane

  Adriana Trigiani

  Jane Austen and the Mistletoe Kiss

  Jo Beverley

  When Only a Darcy Will Do

  Beth Pattillo

  Heard of You

  Margaret C. Sullivan

  The Ghostwriter

  Elizabeth Aston

  Mr. Bennet Meets His Match

  Amanda Grange

  Jane Austen, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

  Janet Mullany

  Letters to Lydia

  Maya Slater

  The Mysterious Closet: A Tale

  Myretta Robens

  Jane Austen’s Cat

  Diana Birchall

  Me and Mr. Darcy, Again …

  Alexandra Potter

  What Would Austen Do?

  Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

  The Riding Habit

  Pamela Aidan

  The Love Letter

  Brenna Aubrey

  The Chase

  Carrie Bebris

  Intolerable Stupidity

  Laurie Viera Rigler

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Reader’s Guide

  Story Credits

  About the Editor

  INTRODUCTION

  That the Miss Lucases and the Miss Bennets should meet to talk over a ball was absolutely necessary.

  —Pride and Prejudice

  There are few authors whose name alone personifies wit, style, and social reproof as brilliantly as that of English novelist Jane Austen. Her six major works, published between 1811 and 1817, have been embraced as masterpieces of world literature by scholars and pleasure readers alike, evoking images of the landed gentry engaged in drawing-room comedies of manners and social machinations during the Regency era. Renowned for her perceptive characterizations, beautiful language, and engaging plots, Austen was not only the witty muse of the nineteenth-century novel, she continues to inspire writers today, fostering the flourishing Austenesque-sequel genre. For those who greatly admire Austen and the unique world she created, there are now hundreds of books continuing her stories, characters, and outlook on life and love, written by creative and talented authors. This short-story anthology contains twenty-two contributions exclusively commissioned from popular and bestselling authors who have excelled in fiction inspired by Austen or other genres and who greatly admire her talent. Each will readily admit, “Jane Austen made me do it!”

  “We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”

  —Fanny Price, Mansfield Park

  Editing this anthology has been a lifetime in the making, and I, too, freely admit that “Jane Austen made me do it!” In 1980, I was a young college student studying landscape design at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, secretly taking elective units in British history and literature to fuel my interest for all things English. I was a closet Anglophile in a sea of agriculture and engineering students when the PBS television series Masterpiece Theatre aired Fay Weldon’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. It was a seminal moment. A fan had been born. I was now a Janeite, though at the time I did not know the term existed, let alone that there were other acolytes out there as passionate as I was. Inspired by the miniseries, I read all of Austen’s novels and worshiped in silence.

  If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.

  —Northanger Abbey

  I was familiar with Jane Austen and the story of Pride and Prejudice in a peripheral way through an early introduction by my mother to the 1940 MGM movie starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. However, that creative Hollywoodization of one of literature’s glistening jewels did not ignite an iota of interest beyond a quick perusal of an edition of The Complete Novels of Jane Austen in the family library. It did, however, plant a seed. By the time I saw actors Elizabeth Garvie’s and David Rintoul’s captivating portrayals of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in the 1980 adaptation, I was primed for a revelation. Five hours of visual splendor—including plenty of footage of English drawing rooms filled with period frocks and breeches—combined with Austen’s beautiful nineteenth-century language and an enchanting love story, hooked me like an intoxicating drug. In 2007, after years of reading, study, and online discussion, I created Austenprose.com, a blog dedicated to the brilliance of Jane Austen’s writing and the many books and movies that she has inspired. To the unindoctrinated, devoting an entire website to one author may seem a bit excessive. For me it was as logical as dancing being “a certain step toward falling in love,” leading me to connections and a career that I never anticipated.

  “One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.”

  —Admiral Croft, Persuasion

  Thirty years after I first discovered Austen, “my Jane” is everywhere. In the last two hundred years, there have been many novels that qualify as masterpieces of world literature, but none have inspired the creative output that Austen’s have. From books to movies to websites—not even the eminent Charles Dickens or the venerable William Shakespeare can touch our Incomparable Jane. Why do her stories so entrance and delight us? What is it about her haughty Mr. Darcy that makes him an iconic romantic hero? How does she cleverly play with our emotions, making us laugh out loud while reading Emma for the tenth time? And why has she inspired a whole new book genre?

  Perhaps the most curious question is: How did an English author of only
six major novels written anonymously “by a lady” close to two centuries ago become an international sensation, media darling, and pop culture icon?

  I am very much flattered by your commendation of my last letter, for I write only for fame, and without any view to pecuniary emolument.

  —Jane Austen, in a letter to her sister Cassandra,

  16 January 1796

  Austen’s rise to fame has been steady since her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh’s biography, A Memoir of Jane Austen, introduced “dear Aunt Jane” to broader readership in 1869, but recently, two elements have been her strongest catalyst: the Internet and a wet shirt. In 1995 a new five-hour mini-series of Pride and Prejudice adapted by British screenwriter Andrew Davies would expose Austen to a wider audience with his new, more energized interpretation, including a provocative plunge into the Pemberley pond by Austen’s hero Mr. Darcy, who emerged not only dripping wet, but a romantic icon of Nonpareil. Moreover, add to that the notion that both Regency-era and twentieth-century ladies thought it absolutely necessary that they “should meet to talk over a ball,” and Jane Austen on the Internet was born at Pemberley.com. With the further production of movie adaptations of each of her novels in the mid 1990s and into the 2000s, Austen’s celebrity had reached far beyond its author’s ironic boast of “writing only for fame” to megastar status.

  “But, Lizzy, you look as if you did not enjoy it. You are not going to be missish, I hope, and pretend to be affronted at an idle report. For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”

  —Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

  Prior to the landmark airing of Pride and Prejudice in 1995, only a few dozen Austen-inspired sequels had been published, and even fewer still remained in print. Jane Austen’s own nieces were the first to take up the banner. In the 1830s, Anna Lefroy, daughter of her eldest brother, James, was the first to attempt completing Sanditon, Austen’s last unfinished work, written in 1817 while she was in failing health. Ironically, Lefroy did not complete Austen’s story either. I can’t say I blame her. Aunt Jane was a hard act to follow, and the pressure must have been overwhelming. Two decades later the novel The Younger Sister by Catherine-Anne Hubback, daughter of Austen’s brother Frank, was published in 1850. Freely incorporating characters and plot from Austen’s unfinished and unpublished fragment The Watsons, it can now be classified as a completion of Austen’s story, though at the time of publication, the only credit given to her Aunt Jane was Hubback’s dedication to her in the book. Fifty years later the first Austen sequel to be published would be Sybil G. Brinton’s 1913 Old Friends and New Fancies, a clever amalgamation of characters from each of Austen’s novels worked into Brinton’s own unique plot. One could say that it was the first Austen “mash-up,” published close to a century before Pride and Prejudice and Zombies would make the bestseller lists in 2009. Each of these novels, though vastly different in style and concept, share their success through their unique creativity and connection to Austen fans who crave more of the world and characters that Jane Austen created.

  “Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.”

  —Emma Woodhouse, Emma

  Since 1995, the Jane Austen sequel industry has evolved into its own niche-genre in publishing. As a professional bookseller, I do not remember a month in the last ten years that an Austenesque novel or two has not been featured on the new-release table. With so many titles readily available from your local bookstore or online retailer, there are prequels, sequels, retellings, and continuations to suit every reading style. We all have our favorites, and one of the joys of editing this anthology was composing a list of my “dream authors” who write in the genre, and others whom I greatly admire who have been influenced by Austen’s style, and asking them to contribute a short story. My only request was that they stay within the theme of exploring Austen’s philosophies of life and love by reacquainting readers with characters from her novels or introducing original stories inspired by her ideals. From historical to contemporary to young-adult fiction to paranormal, five of the six major novels and Austen’s life are featured in this anthology, covering “every possible flight which the subject will afford.” I hope you will be as pleased and delighted as I am by the variety of amusing and poignant stories created for this collection.

  “Oh! It is only a novel … or in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed.”

  —Northanger Abbey

  In an era when women had few opportunities beyond marriage and motherhood, Jane Austen chose another path—she became a writer. In keeping with Austen’s passion for her craft, it seemed only fitting to encourage new writers to do the same. The Jane Austen Made Me Do It Short Story Contest was held online this past winter at Pemberley.com. One new voice in the Austenesque genre would be chosen from the entrants. Eighty-eight previously unpublished writers submitted their Austen-inspired short stories. The variety and talent exhibited was amazing. Selecting only one was quite a challenge, but I’m elated to include “The Love Letter” by Brenna Aubrey, a story that embraced both the spirit of the contest and Austen’s enduring legacy, in this anthology.

  “It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;—it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.”

  —Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility

  As 2011 marks the bicentenary of Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen’s first published novel, please join me and the twenty-four contributing authors of Jane Austen Made Me Do It in applauding literature’s wittiest muse and astute observer of the human heart with this celebratory collection of short stories, created to honor and to entertain.

  Laurel Ann Nattress

  Austenprose.com

  Chawton, Wednesday 2 August 1815

  An extraordinary adventure which I only just experienced proved to be so vivid and distressing—and yet ultimately so illuminating—that I feel I must record it in its entirety.

  It was a gloomy, grey, frigid afternoon, and I found myself traversing a strangely quiet and deserted street in Bath. (Bath! It is indeed the most tiresome place in the world, a visit there surely akin to a descent into Hades.) A low fog hung in the air, dampening the pavements and obscuring the heights of the long rows of limestone townhouses on either side of me.

  I wondered how I had come to be there, and why I was alone. Should I not be snug at home at Chawton Cottage? Where were all the residents of Bath—a city generally so filled with crowds, noise, and confusion? Where did I get the (very smart) pale blue muslin gown in which I was attired, and the grey wool cloak with its beautiful lace collar, both too handsome to be seen much less worn? As I shivered and wrapped my cloak more tightly about me, I observed a pretty young woman of about seventeen years of age emerge from the fog and venture in my direction. I could not prevent a little start of surprise, for the newcomer looked exactly like Marianne Dashwood—at least the Marianne that I had envisioned while writing Sense and Sensibility.

  How wonderful it was, I thought, that a real-life woman and a complete stranger should so closely resemble the character whom I had created entirely in my mind! I was about to politely avert my gaze when, of a sudden, the young woman’s eyes widened and she marched determinedly up to me.

  “Miss Jane Austen, is it not?” exclaimed she, stopping directly before me.

  “Yes,” replied I, uncertain how it was possible that this young woman should be acquainted with me.

  “Surely you recognise me!” persisted she in an impassioned tone.

  “Should I? I am very sorry. I do not believe we have ever met.”

  “Of course we have! You created me. I am Marianne.”

  I was at a loss for words. Had I imbibed too much wine at dinner? Was this exchange simply another one of my imaginative flights of fancy? Or could it be that, by some remarkable twi
st of fate, it was truly occurring? Whatever the cause, I did not wish to appear rude. “Of course,” said I, smiling as I extended my hand to her, “I did think you looked familiar. How lovely to make your acquaintance in person at last. How have you been?”

  “Not well. Not well at all!” cried she with a vigorous shake of her curls as she ignored my proffered hand. “I have wanted to converse with you for such a long time, I am grateful to at last have the opportunity.” Her eyes flashed as she demanded, “What could you have been thinking, Jane—I may call you Jane, may I not?—when you wrote all that about me?”

  “When I wrote what?” responded I uncertainly.

  “In every scene throughout that entire, horrid novel,” answered Marianne, “you presented me as the most selfish and self-involved creature on the face of the earth. I was always waxing rhapsodic about poetry or dead leaves, harshly critiquing somebody or something, or crying my eyes out in the depths of despair! Could not you have given me even one scene where I might have behaved with equanimity?”

  This verbal assault, so entirely unexpected and delivered with such depth of emotion, took me utterly aback. “I—I was simply attempting to make you different from your sister,” explained I, my voice faltering, “to portray two opposite temperaments.”

  “By my example then, do you mean to imply that having passionate feelings is a great evil?” cried Marianne.

  “No—not at all. My aim was to illustrate the injurious nature of wallowing in excessive emotion and the importance of self-restraint.”

  “If that is so, was it truly necessary to enforce such suffering upon me to get across your point? You made me look ridiculous and pathetic! You humiliated me at a party! You nearly had me die—literally die! And the most cruel offence of all, Jane: you broke my heart. You had me fall madly, passionately in love with a man who was akin to my second self, and then you deliberately and remorselessly snatched him away!” Marianne choked back a sob as she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief from her reticule. “All the other heroines in every one of your novels end up with the man they love, except me. You married me off to a man nearly twice my age! How could you do it?”