My Jane Austen Summer: A Season in Mansfield Park

by Cindy Jones

  "Feminism, I love it!" Charlotte, the former actress-turned-single-mother spoke rapidly, as if her babysitter might expire before she articulated her thoughts. "I can live without the incest and slavery, however."

  "I always wanted to live in Mansfield Park," I said, remembering how Willis said he once wanted to live in a book called The Pirate's Cove.

  Avery the psychiatrist, who sometimes missed meetings due to emergencies, spoke directly at me, his highlighter paused mid-flip. "What do you mean, Lily?"

  "Aren't some characters so real you feel as if you could slip into their lives?" I asked before turning to the group. "Hasn't anyone ever wanted to live in a novel?"

  Julia shook her prenuptial curls and adjusted her engagement ring. "I wouldn't want to trade my life."

  "You would always know what was going to happen next." Charlotte smiled at me apologetically.

  If Omar were present he'd speak up to sharpen the point he'd made giving me the book about English manor houses. I could hear him. You don't want to live in a novel, he would say. You want to hide in a novel. You say you want to experience the passion of life, but you camouflage yourself in ink and paper. Connect yourself, Lily.

  I wanted to warn Avery that his brow, furrowed so deeply, might freeze like that.

  Charlotte looked at her watch.

  "Actually, I don't think it would be much fun to live in a novel, either," I said. "Inasmuch as I can get into Jane Austen's mind—at least my interpretation of her mind—I can never get anyone else in there with me. And that is the problem. Life in a novel is a lonely proposition."

  * * *

  When I finally ran into Willis, it was midnight and I was lying in bed with a publisher's catalogue. Almost a year in Dallas, I'd settled into my job, books no longer filled my apartment or obstructed the paths of the store. But spending so much energy arranging old books, we hadn't taken time to order new books. Vera, still in England, suggested I investigate the catalogues clogging my in-box and place some orders. But these days, I was more concerned with the Amazon in the living room and how little indies like us might avoid getting swept under the carpet.

  As I kicked off my covers, enjoying the open windows, soon to be shut for the summer, my gaze snagged a title at the top of the page. Vampire Priest. I sat up to focus the words under my reading lamp. Debut fiction by Willis Somerford: a vampire priest hides his curse from his beloved and ultimately must sacrifice either his love or her mortality. I clutched my throat and read it again. Descending to the dark office, I checked online and learned that Willis's book had been published two weeks earlier. Looking the other way, I clicked the one-day delivery option.

  * * *

  When the slim brown box arrived, I left Chutney in charge of Vera's empire and locked my apartment door. Once the phones were silenced and Vera's floral quilt dragged to the sofa, I sat shivering beneath the warm glow of the reading lamp, nervous, as if I might meet Willis in the flesh after all this time. I tore open the box and removed the brand-new hardback. The perfectly smooth dust jacket featured two people dressed in black: a man whose head is cropped just above his priest collar and a woman playing a cello. Vampire Priest by Willis M. Somerford. The stiff binding and crisp title page offered subtle resistance as I turned to the dedication:

  To Lily, who dreams of living in a novel

  I heard the words in his voice. The essence of Willis emerged from the blurry distance, recalling his powerful attraction, the joy I'd found in my own life through him. Pressure started in my chest and pushed like a hot wave into my head, leaving my eyes wet and my throat aching. As I turned pages, Willis spoke to me through the story of two people who sounded much more like Lily and Willis than they had when I'd read the pages on his screen last summer. Luna plays Bach in F Minor for Father Kitt, the same music I'd played on the old record player for Willis that day in the music room. She seeks Father Kitt after every concert, oblivious to the fact she's fallen for a vampire. On a backstage tour of the dark music hall after closing, she lures him to the undercroft and asks, "How long must we know each other before our relationship can move forward?"

  Father Kitt is dangerously tempted by the hope of sharing his immortal doom..."She has no idea how I burn to be with her, how close I am to marking her as my own forever." Tortured by the guilt of his deception, he tells her, "I'm not strong enough to resist you." But when she tells him she loves him, he remains silent. In anger, she announces she won't wait for him, but will leave to tour with the orchestra at the end of the symphony season. Desperately torn, he watches from his seat in the audience, seeing her for the last time, knowing he cannot allow Luna to forfeit her soul, to make the irrevocable decision to become something she could not possibly anticipate. Afraid of losing his resolve, he leaves the concert hall before the performance ends and returns to lonely despair.

  He never meets her again. But even so, he never stops feeling her presence.

  Long after her life reached its mortal end, she still comes to find me at the musicians' entrance. Wisps of brown hair blow across her eyes, her smile beckons me inside—a timeless, sparkling memory, swirling in my subconscious, folded into my existence. And every time I find her at the stage door, I tell her I love her.

  Willis Somerford lives in London. Vampire Priest is his first novel.

  After a long while, faint sounds of life rose from the bookstore below.

  Selected Bibliography

  Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. Claudia L. Johnson, ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1998.

  Fleishman, Avrom. A Reading of Mansfield Park: An Essay in Critical Synthesis. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970.

  Le Faye, Deirdre, ed. Jane Austen's Letters. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

  Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal, no. 28. Susan Allen Ford, ed. Jane Austen Society of North America, www.jasna.org.

  Tomalin, Claire. Jane Austen: A Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.

  Wiltshire, John. Jane Austen: Introductions and Interventions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

  Wiltshire, John. Recreating Jane Austen. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

  A+ Author Insights, Extras & More...

  From Cindy Jones And William Morrow

  Your Private Austen: Six Steps to a Closer Walk with Jane

  Prerequisite to friendship. You must read all six novels. The films are beautiful adaptations but they lack the sparkling narrative that is the essence of Jane Austen. Choose your edition and start reading—or rereading.

  Step 1: Getting to know Jane Austen. Not easy since her relatives enforced a posthumous rebranding, establishing Aunt Jane as a saint. Contemporary biographies do a good job of bringing her to life, conveying an awareness of her poverty and dependence, and describing the struggle of her homeless years. Imagine Jane Austen hand-carrying hard copies of her unpublished manuscripts each time she moved. The story of how she nearly married a man she didn't love in order to have food and shelter will establish instant sympathy.

  Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin.

  Jane Austen: A Life by David Nokes.

  Step 2: Trade confidences. Consider your favorite Austen novel and listen to what she has been saying to you between the lines of her text. For instance, my favorite is Mansfield Park: Jane Austen and I totally agree that it is hard to be Fanny Price in a Mary Crawford world. And we both believe that men should fall deeply in love with intelligent wallflowers.

  Which Jane Austen heroine are you?

  Which novel would you choose to live in?

  Step 3: Do things together. Become a Janeite. Join the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and get involved in the activities of your local chapter. Or visit Jane in England. Gaze upon her writing desk, walk where she walked, find her grave in the floor of Winchester Cathedral, and knock on her door in Bath. Dress in period attire and celebrate at one of the many Jane Austen festivals around the world:

  Jane Aus
ten Society of North America: www.jasna.org

  Jane Austen Festival in Bath: www.janeausten.co.uk

  Jane Austen's House Museum: www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk

  Jane Austen Festival in Louisville, Kentucky: www.jasnalouisville.com

  Old Mandeville Jane Austen Festival in Louisiana: www.janeaustenfestival.org

  Jane Austen Festival in Pittsburgh: www.janeaustenpgh.org

  Jane Fest in Fresno, California: www.jasnacenvalcal.com

  Jane Austen Festival in Australia: www.janeaustenfestival.com.au

  Step 4: Get obsessed. To get even closer, find out what Jane Austen really thought; read her correspondence. Discover what she really meant when she wrote the novels; read the criticism. Find out what other people are saying about their Jane Austens; lurk online and listen to discussion groups. Surf the Web, subscribe to blogs, friend her on Facebook. She's everywhere!

  www.austenauthors.com (cooperative blog for Austen-inspired authors)

  www.pemberley.com (good starting place, see the links page)

  Austen-L Discussion Group/Archives at McGill University

  Janeites Discussion Group/Yahoo

  Step 5: Bear the inevitable disappointment. If some of Jane's letters seem mean-spirited, if the criticism contradicts beliefs you hold dear about your favorite novels as well as their author's intent, and if it appears that Other People's Jane Austens are completely unrelated to yours, it may be time to pull back. If you have begun to fear Your Jane Austen is laughing at you for wanting to be her best friend, you should probably give the relationship a break. Reconsider the Brontes. Or read something from a current best-seller list.

  Step 6: Establish boundaries. Don't give up. Reconcile the person who traded secrets with you in Step 2 with the Irritable Supernova reconciled in Step 5 and remind yourself that Jane Austen is dead, therefore unknowable. What is knowable is the sparkling narrative, the wit and irony, and the joy that comes with every reading of The Six. Allow distance for the real Jane Austen, whoever she was, to rest in peace. The novels live forever.

  Questions and Answers

  Where did this story come from?

  My Jane Austen Summer started when I read a review of Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club in the New York Times Book Review years ago. The review inspired me to reread all six Austen novels, saving Fowler's book for dessert. But when I came to the end of the last Austen novel and realized Jane Austen was dead and would never write another word, I went into withdrawal. I tried to wean myself with Austen's novel fragments and juvenilia, read Austen's contemporaries, picked at the sequels and fan fiction, but nothing satisfied. I wandered the Internet and found many lost readers like myself, struggling with the void.

  Thank goodness for Fowler's book. She led me to realize that I could bring Jane Austen back to life through my writing. I imagined the book I wanted to read: The Jane Austen Book Club, relocated to Howard's End, narrated by an American Bridget Jones. I envisioned Gothic elements and characters immersed in enactments and discussion so immediate it would seem Jane Austen were present. I found myself inventing a literary festival where Jane Austen's novels assume relevance in the life of a troubled young woman. Spending five years writing My Jane Austen Summer thoroughly satisfied my Austen craving.

  Where did you get the idea for Lily's imaginary Jane Austen?

  The first line of the prologue in The Jane Austen Book Club, "Each of us has a private Austen," as well as an essay where John Wiltshire, quoting Katherine Mansfield, suggests that readers imagine Jane Austen speaking to them between the lines of her text, intrigued me, especially since I was certain Jane Austen was my new best friend. I read biographies and criticism, getting to know her really well. But I was surprised when her human side was eventually revealed: irritable and prickly. And shocked by what seems to be a secret: her father's trusteeship of a slave-owning plantation. With the heated debate over the meaning of Mansfield Park and no one to define the truth for me, I had to wonder: Who is this person? Finally, the explanation that our heroine functions for us as a blank slate, upon which we can project our hopes and dreams, allowed me to understand the underlying dynamics of her relationship with fans, put it to rest, and simply enjoy reading her books.

  However, the best friend experience demonstrated that a person could carry on a complete relationship, from initial infatuation, to blow-up, to establishing boundaries, with someone who has been dead two hundred years! Thus Lily's relationship with the imaginary Jane Austen embodies my idea of the dynamics of a contemporary woman's relationship with Jane Austen, taken to its end.

  Why did you choose to shadow Mansfield Park ?

  Mansfield Park is my favorite Austen novel. A later work, it seems darker and more mature to me and I like the Romantic elements. However, my favorite aspect is that Jane Austen favors the quiet, reserved Fanny Price over the witty, gregarious Mary Crawford. I like to think of Jane Austen as a Champion of Introspective Women.

  Where do you stand in the Fanny Wars?

  I love Fanny Price. I completely identify with a person who creates an interior world through reading, and I admire her courage in taking such a strong stand against Henry Crawford and Uncle Bertram. I do sometimes wonder if it is probable for her to endure with such determination, considering her miserable up-bringing. And it would not have bothered me if she didn't marry Edmund, as long as Edmund didn't end up with Mary Crawford. Lily Berry is my contemporary riff on Fanny Price, with Lily indulging in more failure than Fanny was allowed in her story.

  How did you research this book?

  I'm no scholar, so the task of depicting a literary conference required some work on my part. Aside from a lot of reading (my favorites are listed here in a selected bibliography), I spent years lurking on two Internet discussion lists listening to erudite conversation, learning how it sounds when Austen scholars discuss her work. One could almost get a free graduate degree in Jane Austen Studies by paying attention online. New threads of discussion arrive via e-mail daily, strong positions are constructed and defended, and further resources are regularly suggested.

  What were the fun parts to write?

  No one in the real world would hire me to develop a Jane Austen literary festival. But in my imagination, I'm in charge. From the volunteer check-in desk, to opening day enactments, I created every atom of my characters' world. And it was fun. I went house hunting on the Internet, seeking the perfect English manor, not too Palladian but big enough to house a literary festival. I have no practical interest in houses or decoration, but on a virtual level, I found it fascinating, poring over books on Georgian architecture, old house renovations, antique furnishings, and floor plans to create the perfect house—in my head. I used my experience at Squaw Valley Writers Conference as a reference for people gathered blissfully around the written word. I drew on memories of growing up in a family of educators where raised voices usually meant my grandfather was making his point. I chose scenes from Mansfield Park and Lovers' Vows to illuminate the action in My Jane Austen Summer. I enjoyed creating the flow of activities at the festival and the intellectual texture of a literary conference.

  Which part of this book is written from the heart?

  I wanted to write about a woman who breaks her cycle of unhappiness. This was the one aspect that was not negotiable in the many revisions. We all know people who repeat mistakes over and over, as if they were characters in a book, ink on a page with no second chances. But I believe people can change if they can imagine themselves differently. And the first step to imagining a difference is to see oneself truthfully. Self-knowledge is gained through observation, introspection, and examination of experiences.

  Novels are a shortcut to examined experiences. Anyone who reads has a head start because the author does all the work, producing a story where complex characters act under pressure and either succeed or fail. The truth of an accurate portrayal in a novel resonates, as if to say: This is how life is. Like a cautionary lesson, sometimes I see mys
elf reflected in the characters' situations, sometimes I see people I know. But when an author shines a light on a situation, and it resonates, and I can relate the experience to myself, I am saved a lot of time and trouble: disasters from which I learn, without having to experience them for myself. Jane Austen is expert at portraying human nature. True life resonates on every page, big scenes and small exchanges. I admire Jane Austen, agree with her judgment, and can't think of a better teacher for a young woman struggling with Lily's issues. Even though reading on the job got Lily fired, the examined experiences in Jane Austen's novels help Lily imagine a better way to confront her problems. Through learning from failures, guidance from Willis, and immersion in Austen's literature, Lily becomes a more stable person. Books are good for you.

  What about the ending?

  All of Jane Austen's novels end with a wedding. Although the ending of My Jane Austen Summer is not conventionally happy, Lily gains a sense of identity and the confidence to eventually write her own happy ending. Like the Don't give a man a fish proverb: Don't give a character a wedding; teach her to love her self and she'll find happiness for a lifetime.

  Discussion Questions

  1. After being fired for reading on the job, Lily warns that reading can be dangerous to one's mental health. But the literary festival is all about books! Discuss the theme of reading in My Jane Austen Summer. How has reading shaped Lily's hopes and dreams? What role do books play as Lily con fronts her demons?

  2. Describe Lily's relationship with her imaginary Jane Austen. How does the relationship change as the story progresses? Would this story work if Lily's imaginary friend had been Charlotte Bronte or Edith Wharton?