Welcome Beth Massey to Darcyholic Diversions!
Hi,
Darcyholics! I am very happy to welcome Beth to Darcyholic
Diversions
today. Beth and I met several years ago when she visited Georgia, and I have also visited with her in her home land. Hope you enjoy getting to know her
as I have, as well as know about her recent book release. 
I also want to apologize to her as I am getting her post up late due to pending surgery I am having tomorrow nothing has gone quite according to plan this week. But Beth has been most gracious in her understanding! I hope you enjoy her post as much as I do!
May 13--Matt Duffy
May 15--Erlynn K.
May 18--Rebecca T.
May 22--Candy M. (So Little Time...)
May 25--Karen Cox
May 29--Jan Ashe
June 1--Kara Louise
June 5--Sharon Lathan
June 8--Gayle Mills
June 12--Shannon Winslow
June 15--Karen Wasylowski
June 19--Krista Bagley
June 22--Stephanie Hamm
June 26--Laurel Ann Nattress
June 29--Pam Dixon
July 3--Jennifer Petkus
July 6--Karen Aminada
July 10--Marilyn Brant
July 13--Meredith Esparanza
July 17--Lori Smith
July 20--Bernadette
And Many more to come!
&*&*&*&*&*&
Comments on Beth's post will be entered into a contest to win 1 of 2 eBooks as well as 1 softcover version of 'Goodly Creatures'. Comments will also enter you in the monthly drawings here at Darcyholic Diversions. Entries will be based on comments on blog posts; but additional chances will be given for joining this site, tweeting this post, Joining this site as a member!, sharing this on Facebook or your blog, Friend me on Facebook, clicking 'like’ on Barbara Tiller Cole, Author's Facebook page, Join Darcyholic Diversions Facebook Page or following BarbTCole on Twitter.
I Am Not A
Darcyholic!
Lest those reading this accuse me of being in denial and feel
the need to organize an intervention; I must confess I have known since my
second reading of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ that Mr. Darcy and I would never suit. Among other things, his great wealth was
a major turn off for me. Instead,
I chose to marry a former military man with a strong sense of justice—a man of
little means but fierce loyalty and whom I have several times had to restrain
from fighting a metaphorical duel on my behalf. As with Colonel Brandon and Marianne in ‘Sense and
Sensibility,’ the love of my life is more than thirteen years my elder. A significant age difference also plays
a role in another of Austen’s literary pairings. My husband was my friend and mentor before he became my
spouse as was Mr. Knightley in ‘Emma.’
Like that admirable
character, Bill is a kind and compassionate man who easily puts the greater
good ahead of his own selfish needs and is willing to compromise—you know, the
sort of husband who would agree to live with his peculiar father-in-law if it
made his wife happy. I first fell in love with my Mr.
Massey’s delightful irreverent sense of humor, which is very reminiscent of Henry
Tilney’s. Then there was his penchant
for writing poetic and passionate letters to me that rivals Captain Wentworth’s
“you pierce my soul.” Truth be
told, except for an occasional need to officiously interfere, my William has
absolutely nothing in common with Mr. Darcy. Luckily for him, I have always preferred a charismatic
personality and a love of dancing to a handsome face.
Perhaps an explanation of what led me to adore Jane Austen
would help readers understand my perverse deviation from the norm in lusting
after Mr. Darcy. My first love as a
child was the theatre. Recruited
to the Chattanooga Little Theatre at age eight, I marched to a different
drummer quite early. The director
had seen me on local television playing a bossy bunny in a skit performed by my
Brownie troop. He was immediately
captured by my officious stage presence and thought I would be perfect to play
Rhoda, in the ‘The Bad Seed.’ My
performance as that creepy child serial killer managed to horrify my father,
but the Mrs. Bennet in my mother (she thought I would be thrown into the
company of rich and powerful people who would help me get me into a prestigious
university) caused her to persuade her husband to allow me to continue in the
program. From then on I diligently
spent my youth preparing for a creative life on the stage. A voracious reader, I devoured plays
and novels with an eye toward imagining how I would play certain characters.
My first impression of Jane Austen’s most famous novel left
me scratching my head. Who were
these characters and what were they all about? Though a precocious, dramatic teen filled with strong opinions,
I am certain I did not finish the book.
To the youthful me, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ had a boring plot, language
that was difficult to ‘apprehend’ and humor that went completely over my
head. Dickens and Baroness Orczy
were much more to my liking. The bizarre
troupe of characters involved in the multiple mysteries of ‘Great Expectations’
competed with the intrigue and romance of ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ to grab my
attention. Elizabeth and Darcy and
their obscure repartee just didn’t cut it. Come on folks; admit it—there truly is very little in P
& P to stir the soul of a thirteen-year-old. A wayward teen is as good as it gets. There isn’t even a peck on the cheek.
My second reading of the tale of literature’s iconic couple was
as a twenty-year-old literature major and orphan. I was in the process of abandoning my theatrical career path
while attempting to come to grips with grief. My new life situation allowed me to better understand Austen’s
tale, but it was Lizzy with whom I fell in love—not Mr. Darcy. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is her
story, and Austen created a strong, though flawed, character who I greatly
admired. She mirrored my own
struggle to sort through childish prejudices and don more appropriate adult judgments
that would allow me to survive on my own.
It was the late ‘60s and marriage was not at the top of my agenda or
that of my peers. We were women,
and we wanted to roar. Besides, I
was very wary of leaving myself open to love—the pain of loss too fresh in my memory. The final piece of the puzzle was that Mr.
Darcy reminded me of my brother. With
the death of our parents, he had been required to accept responsibility beyond
his years. His rigidity in interpreting
proper behavior had provided fodder for a major tiff with his rebellious
younger sister. Youthful delusions
of grandeur led the dear man to marry a well-connected Caroline Bingley type
that resulted in the first divorce in our family. Later, he found his Elizabeth Bennet, and is now enjoying a
well deserved happy-ever-after. He
has always been a good man; he just needed to grasp what is important in
life. I used him as my prototype
for Mr. Darcy in ‘Goodly Creatures, a Pride and Prejudice Deviation.’ http://www.facebook.com/#!/GoodlyCreatures Now you know, it would be very creepy and possibly prosecutable
for me to be a Darcyholic.
That same literature professor who caused me to revisit ‘Pride
and Prejudice’ assigned me ‘Sense and Sensibility’ to read. I was much more profoundly
affected by Austen’s first published novel than with any of her others. I have heard many in the JAFF community
say they do not like the story of the Dashwood sisters. As a love story to inspire passion, it
definitely leaves much to be desired.
I have long held the opinion that Jane Austen was not a writer of
romances but was instead the mother of the modern psychological novel. In ‘Sense and Sensibility,’ the
precarious position of women is subtly showcased without beating readers about
the head and ears with the harsh reality.
Because she wraps her exposure of what the female sex had to endure
within a very deft comedy of manners, she did not come across as a crusader. However, to a 20th century
young woman the reality was abundantly clear. It left me with a burning desire to vindicate her most
unfairly treated characters—the two Elizas—toward which the honorable Colonel
Brandon feels such loyalty.
‘Goodly Creatures, a Pride and Prejudice Deviation’ is the result of that youthful aspiration. I allow there to be happy endings for both
a very young woman impregnated by a man much above her station as well as a
wealthy woman whose fortune is appropriated by a husband who treats her cruelly. And though he is not my personal choice
for a mate, I allow my heroine to win Mr. Darcy. My own life experiences shaped much of my story. I have made it clear that it was my own
experience with date rape that gave words and feelings to Elizabeth. My portrayal of Rhoda, the child with a
murderer for a father, also played a role in crafting the plot. Even as a child I felt the premise of
‘The Bad Seed’ to be specious. My
novel includes, not one but two children, who have a parent with a dubious
character. Neither Bethany nor Lewis Darcy presents any evidence that their
characters are tainted by bad blood.
My own Colonel Brandon/Mr. Knightley/Henry Tilney/Captain
Wentworth now struggles with the effects of COPD, blindness from AMD and a
severe essential tremor. Sometimes I imagine Ms Austen time-travelled to the 21st
century to observe Bill when she was writing Mr. Woodhouse. Like Emma, I lovingly tolerate his
quirky fears and phobias and rejoice that he still has Henry Tilney’s delightful
sense of humor.
