Charlotte
Page 26
That night, after dinner, Jonathan would play the violin for them, with Pandora accompanying him on the piano, their instinctive twin awareness of one another leading them to make the same errors at the same moment, so that few in their audience were any the wiser. She would watch her son’s ivory fingers – he possessed the most beautiful hands she had ever seen on a man – as they steered his bow and danced on the neck of his instrument. Pandora might play the sonata with variations Charlotte requested on special occasions, and never heard without happy tears springing to her eyes. Lady Anne would preside, wearing the harem trousers and embroidered silk coat she had brought back from one of her journeys to Persia. And they would close the evening by all turning to her, Charlotte: raising their glasses in a toast to both her, and their late father, of whom they always spoke with affection. And then, as had become their habit, they would drink to the home that welcomed them all: Rosings.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
HELEN MOFFETT is a South African writer, freelance editor, activist, and award-winning poet. She has a PhD on PreRaphaelite poetry and has authored or co-authored university textbooks, short story anthologies, non-fiction books on the environment, two poetry collections, and various academic projects. Charlotte is her first novel.
She blogs at helenmoffett.com and can be found on Twitter @heckitty.
A NOTE ON THE TEXT
I have been fascinated by the character of Charlotte Lucas, and the choices she made, ever since first reading Pride and Prejudice. In my telling of her story, I have tried to remain faithful to the plot of the original, with a few significant differences: lovers of Pride and Prejudice will know that Charlotte Lucas did not accompany the Bennet family on their visit to Netherfield Park – the occasion on which Mrs Bennet so cruelly and publicly slights the ‘plain’ Lucas girls, Charlotte in particular. One of the questions that prompted the writing of my novel was: ‘What if Charlotte had overheard that conversation?’
The character of Charlotte in the original must surely have been aware of Mrs Bennet’s opinion, and indeed her own mother’s, of her looks: how did this affect her, in a world where the only collateral a single woman without a large dowry had was her beauty? I could not resist this small deviation from the plot because it seemed to me that these issues were vital in driving Charlotte’s subsequent decisions and actions, and I wanted to explore these more closely.
Those familiar with Jane Austen’s writings will notice that along with the characters, events, and locations of her best-loved work, I have threaded phrases and words not only from Pride and Prejudice, but her other works and letters throughout my own novel. I hope that readers enjoy spotting these and identifying their sources. Even more audaciously, I have woven my own words through some of Austen’s passages so as not to lift the latter wholesale. I hope that the result is entertaining rather than heretical, and that purists forgive me for embellishing such an august and beloved source.
I have taken liberties not only with the text; although Pemberley is a fictional place, Jane Austen most likely based it on Chatsworth in Derbyshire, and I have done the same, while importing into its grounds the hawk house from Chirk Castle in Wales, and installing a maze some 140 years before it was actually planted. When it came to Rosings, I abandoned historical veracity and based it very loosely on the mansion at Stourhead. These are among the perks of being a writer of fiction.
READING GROUP QUESTIONS
1. What do you think of the novel as a retelling of Pride and Prejudice? Is Charlotte Lucas how you imagine her from Austen’s original?
2. Who was your favourite character? Whose reinterpretation from the original Austen did you most enjoy?
3. Has Charlotte changed your opinion of Mr Collins? Do you think Charlotte made the right decision in marrying him?
4. Throughout the novel, Charlotte is grieving for the loss of her son. In what ways does Charlotte explore grief and parenthood?
5. In what ways are Charlotte, Elizabeth, and Anne de Bourgh confined by the position of women in the early nineteenth century?
6. What brings Anne de Bourgh and Charlotte together? Why do they become friends?
7. Do you think Charlotte loves Mr Collins, as well as Jacob? How does the book explore different kinds of love?
8. Why do you think Charlotte is attracted to Jacob?
9. In what ways is Charlotte a feminist novel? In what ways was Pride and Prejudice one?
10.What do you think Jane Austen would have made of Charlotte?
FURTHER READING
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Austen sequels, fan-fic renditions, plays, re-interpretations, films and television series to explore. Then there are the more academic works – entire libraries’ worth. It would be impossible to give a comprehensive reading list, or to provide more than a glimpse of all the resources I relied on.
However, I found the following works particularly helpful, and would recommend them to anyone interested in finding out more about Jane Austen’s world, and indeed the one in which Charlotte lived.
Several solid biographies of Austen are available, but Claire Tomalin’s Jane Austen: A Life (1997) remains a gold standard for many. I also highly recommend Carol Shields’s treatment, Jane Austen (2001), as a short but nuanced introductory biography. And although it is strictly speaking a novel, Fay Weldon’s Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen (1984) makes for a delightful read, both for its subject and the treatment. Inspired by Austen’s own letters to her niece, this book makes the case for reading Austen in contemporary times.
I believe the most impressive Pride and Prejudice sequel or ‘view from below’ so far is Jo Baker’s Longbourn (2013), and I am indebted to this work for the way it helped me to think about my own novel. As a South African and a product of colonial history, I am concerned with who gets to speak and who does not, even in fiction, and as a feminist, I am most interested in those truths ‘told slant’, to use the poet Emily Dickinson’s words. I found that Longbourn challenged and stimulated me to think about the world of Pride and Prejudice in new and subversive ways.
Although I once lived in Britain, and have made pilgrimages to every possible Austen site, it was necessary to immerse myself in works on the English countryside, garden design, and history to gain a sense of the world in which Charlotte might have walked. I read numerous books on gardens and gardening, but found Katherine Swift’s The Morville Hours: The Story of a Garden (2008) and The Morville Year (2012) invaluable for giving me a sense of the way the seasons unfold in an English rural setting. Likewise, Adam Nicolson’s Sissinghurst: An Unfinished Story (2008) helped me to imagine rural Kent as Charlotte might have experienced it.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Never has writing a book been a less lonely experience. In writing the story of Charlotte Lucas, I’ve had the support of the proverbial cast of thousands. Writing these acknowledgements has been an opportunity to remember, with fondness and great gratitude, all those who helped me get here.
Having been a Jane Austen fan for over three decades, I am indebted to those lecturers who taught me her novels, and all the students and other groups to whom I’ve in turn taught Austen. I’ve given public lectures on Austen at home and abroad, so thanks to all those who attended and asked amusing and pertinent questions, especially the lively gang at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Jeanne Heywood, who taught Pride and Prejudice at the University of Cape Town, was the first to draw my attention to Charlotte Lucas’s resourcefulness and courage, thus planting this seed. To those who helped me write my Honours thesis on ‘Feminism in the Novels of Jane Austen’ many moons ago: a few lines from it live on in these pages.
While I knew for years that I wanted to explore what happened to Charlotte after she entered a marriage that looked more like penance than romance, this novel was born on a soft night in Ireland at the prompting of my fellow authors and co-erotica writers, Sarah Lotz and Paige Nick. I was grieving at the time, and Sarah encouraged me to express myself in the
form of a novel. I immediately knew I wanted to tell Charlotte Lucas’s story, and as a knowledgeable Austen reader, Sarah jumped at the idea. We spent hours plotting, and the next day, Paige cloistered me in my room and made me write up all the notes (complete with red wine splashes) made the night before. Both subsequently badgered me for chapters, thrashed through plot wildernesses, accompanied me on research trips, loaned me their homes in which to write, and more. Sarah made me cups of tea and offered tissues as I wrote the most painful scenes. My first readers, they were always brutally (often hilariously) honest, and mercilessly insistent that I finish the book.
My day job involves editing the fiction of others, and the authors I’ve worked with over decades have all taught me not only how to write, but how to live with imaginary people in one’s head. I wish there was space to list all of them. I am particularly indebted to Ben Williams and the rest of the BookSA/BooksLive tribe for ongoing encouragement and witty online company. I learned a great deal about writing historical fiction and the courage it takes to approach a great classic from working on Tom Eaton’s exquisite ‘Night’s Candles’, a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. I owe Lauren Beukes for her understanding of those ‘my gold shoes pinch’ days. Thanks to Karina Szczurek Brink and Joanne Hichens (fellow members of the Two and a Half Widows’ Club) for insights on writing as survival. Rachel Zadok, Nick Mulgrew, and Colleen Higgs provided vital cheerleading, as did Diane Awerbuck. Elinor Sisulu, with whom I bonded over Austen (also a penchant for Colin Firth), began urging me to write this book fifteen years ago, and has been a stalwart source of encouragement and support.
Beta readers included the writers Fiona Snyckers (also my birth scene coach) and Petina Gappah, whose excitement was fuel to my writing fire, and psychologist Sally Swartz, who insisted that I stop hiding in the margins of other authors’ books. I am very, very thankful.
I was greatly inspired by Jo Baker’s Longbourn, and have hidden several Easter eggs from it within the pages of Charlotte. I am grateful to Jo for her permission to do so.
Space in which to write is priceless to authors. In this respect, I’m indebted not just to Paige and Sarah for providing that spell (pun intended) in Ireland, but to Eric Larsson, Jean Talbot, Katharine Larsson Laria and their families, who gave me free run of their beautiful ancestral home, Gay House, in a tiny village on Penobscot Bay in Maine, for six weeks. The productive peace of that time was invaluable, as was the warmth of that community. I went from the gloves and scarves of a New England fall to the bone-soaking heat of summer in the Little Karoo back home, where Billy Kennedy of Temenos Retreat Centre kindly offered me a refuge in which to finish an early draft.
Travelling in a hard-currency country is daunting for South Africans. Without the hospitality of Mara Singer in Oxford, Sue Mottram in Dorset, Sarah (again) in Shropshire, and Louisa Treger in London, it would have been nearly impossible to do location research. Louisa, whose journey as a historical novelist has preceded mine, has also provided essential practical advice, as has Bonnier stablemate Amy Heydenrych.
I’m grateful to the staff and volunteers at Chatsworth and numerous National Trust properties for answering my questions with such chatty expertise – especially the gentleman at Eyam Hall who was responsible for Charlotte’s bacon safe.
Anne de Bourgh’s travels around the French Riviera are largely thanks to Clifford Hall, who guided me round a variety of locations, including the Île de Saint-Honorat, on which I have roughly based the Île Sainte-Madeleine of my story (although with several outrageous liberties, such as replacing monks with nuns).
Paul Tizzard allowed me to spend several hours watching him tune and repair my century-old piano, and answered my many questions about Jacob’s profession.
Regarding the above, any errors concerning geography, history, location, musical matters, and the intricacies of piano care are mine.
I finished this novel while recovering from major, life-saving surgery. Thanks to all who cared for me during that time, and also Dr Carol Thomas for giving me my life back. I can’t believe you yourself are now gone.
South Africa was in the grip of a postal strike when contracts needed to move across oceans, and Nicky Smuts-Allsop came to the rescue, acting as my personal Pony Express. She also took me on various Austen walks and drives in the UK, and tolerantly posed in historical dress at the Bath Costume Museum – the most glamorous research assistant ever.
Now to praise the wonderful people who transformed Charlotte into a book. First, my very clever agent Oli Munson at A.M. Heath, who made the placing the manuscript look easy (also Florence Rees, who first championed my MS); and the enchanting Eleanor Dryden, who coached me from London via Skype (waving a mug with HANGOVER stencilled on it), and made the initial offer for the manuscript. Then came the rest of the Bonnier team, an entire platoon of fairy godparents. MD Kate Parkin believed in the book from the outset, Margaret Stead, my wise publisher, has been appropriately steadfast and steadying, Clare Kelly keeps a stream of fantastic publicity coming, and Katie Lumsden is unfailingly helpful with matters both great and small, as well as being another Austen Sister. Alexandra Alldren read the manuscript closely, and then produced this most beautiful and apposite cover, as well as the exquisite endpapers. Stephen Dumughn is the maestro of marketing – also responsible for the beauty of the advance proof copies. Arjumand Siddiqui, Elise Burns, Stuart Finglass, Vincent Kelleher, Ruth Logan, and Stella Giatrakou make up the rest of Team Charlotte, and I look forward to our adventures together. Copyeditor Rhian McKay took great care over these pages, and I remain impressed that she picked up my misspelling of ‘violoncello’. Neilwe Mashigo of Jonathan Ball, who handles distribution in South Africa, is always swift with action and reassurance.
They say an index of emotional maturity is the ability to be happy for the successes of others. In which case, my friends must be the most balanced people in the world. The best thing so far about publishing Charlotte has been sharing news of her progress and witnessing their joy. This is especially true of my parents, Rodney and Dinah Moffett, and my sister and niece, Kathy and Lauren Wootton.
Finally, I want to circle back to Paige and Sarah, aka Mrs P and Mrs S, aka the Porn Elves. Without you, Charlotte would not exist, and I might not either. This is as much your book as mine.
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Zaffre
This ebook edition published in 2020 by
MANILLA PRESS
80–81 Wimpole St, London, W1G 9RE
Copyright © Helen Moffett, 2020
Cover design and calligraphy by Alexandra Allden.
Cover illustration © Dan Funderburgh (Toile de Jouy)
Cover photographs © Arcangel Images / Alison Burford (plate); Shutterstock.com
The moral right of Helen Moffett to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Ebook ISBN: 978–1–78576–911–5
Hardback ISBN: 978–1–78576–910–8
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978–1–83877–075–4
This ebook was produced by IDSUK (Data Connection) Ltd
Zaffre is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk