There is no enjoyment like reading for £12

Hello,
We continue to celebrate de bicentenary - in fact, i'll be celebrating 'till next July with more books and stuff - but here's one of the big stars: the new 10!

It's already a must have to all Janeites and it's only coming out next Semptember... Just like the stamps, this note will be something to be proud of having but refusing to display so it doesn't fade its colors... Only it's money, right?

Here in Brazil it's worth 4x more... No one said Austen didn't have extraordinary value! haha

The note itself is lovely, has so many cool features like the oh-so-lovely 'JA' hologram... 

Here it is in close up (in case you aren't already fed up with it)

And the official release video - I loved it!

Let me say that Ms Bingley's words DO NOT upset me in the least! It come out of Austen's pen after all and the irony is priceless! The queen of refined irony got a quote about the enjoyement of reading by a character who dispises reading... It's genius!

Miss Bingley's attention was quite as much engaged in watching Mr. Darcy's progress through his book, as in reading her own; and she was perpetually either making some inquiry, or looking at his page. She could not win him, however, to any conversation; he merely answered her question, and read on. At length, quite exhausted by the attempt to be amused with her own book, which she had only chosen because it was the second volume of his, she gave a great yawn and said, ``How pleasant it is to spend an evening in this way! I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.''

P&P chap 11 read it here if you miss these lovely people

Janeites will get the joke. 

I loved it!

Wondering why the £12 above? Here she is!...

A coin! *sigh*

I NEED these two very valuable tokens to put in a neat cute box... 

NEED IT NOW!

Thank you, Jane Austen!

Today we celebrate the Bicentenary! Yay!
Somehow this post feels like a deja vu... Anyway, 200 years of death seems like a sad thing to celebrate but like Austen said herself:

'Let other pens dwell on pain and misery.'

I've already said countless times here and everywhere that I met her through S&S and the Dashwood's sweet disposition killed me. Maybe because I don't have a good relation with my sister, I could never understand them - neither how they interact between them nor with their half brother. 
But then, when I read Lizzy Bennet it was love at first line! I loved the character so much that it was possible for me to appreciate Austen's witt and irony.
I do think we - women - all have a touch of Emma in us that we let come to life at one point in our lives and frequently are embarassed to admit. Same as Lady Susan, ha! Love that woman. 
And there is Tilney and Wentworth, Churchill and Bertram, so many people we consider relatives already...
I can only say,

Thank you, Jane Austen, 

for the inspiration that comes with the adoration and admiration.

200 years are nothing, you're here!

Sitting with Jane

Hi there,
we're in full speed here preparing our Bicentenary celebrations, meanwhile we enjoy the lovely benches on 'Sitting with Jane' trail...
Oh, how I wish we could import some... Rio de Janeiro sure need a healthy dose of love...
Here are some of my faves so far:

We do miss you, Jane Austen!...

Bruce Wayne, Fitzwilliam Darcy

Hello, hello!

This week we celebrate my little brat's 4th birthday and I'm swamped in Batman. 

I mean, everywhere!

 Last year, if you can well remember, it was Spiderman. I must say that in my opinion, Batman is way cooler. Batman is enigmatic, has a hidden personality as well as identity and almost always he is a hunk!

Spidey is fun and all but Batman has Christian Bale and George Clooney. Need I say more?

Anyway, I have a tradition to keep, therefore I present you:

Fitzwilliam Wayne Darcy

Cool or what?
Darcy has a lot in common with Batman... he is enigmatic and taciturn, rich, orphan... and a hunk!

And, when baby's party preps and architecture allow me, I work on my next book...

'45 days in Europe with Mr Darcy'. 

It's going to be  a linear retelling following events, dates and character's ages. My first!... 

Lizzy is a Brazilian 20 years old who lives in Rio while her family lives in Petrópolis (a cute city almost an hour from Rio), the Bennetts grow flowers for a living. Darcy is a British 25 years old who is enjoying a sabatical before taking over the family business.

Lizzy has a popular blog to talk about her passion for travelling.

Darcy travels the world and couldn't care less about anyone's travel plans or tips.

They meet in Amsterdam and we follow Lizzy's 3 trips to Europe during an year when she (un)fortunately meets Darcy everytime she sets foot in the Old World.

How hard can it be to give Lizzy enough restraint not to jump Darcy's bones two minutes after they meet? 

Even though it's not my first story, let me tell you, it has not been easy for me...  

You cannot imagine my ordeal!

Let me go! I want to write a smoking love scene! Free my hands!

Curious? Here's a tiny excerpt:

- Earlier draft, Chapter one: Amsterdam -
...

It turned out that the Bennetts had family plans and would spend two days visiting the flower farms near the city. Coincidentally the British group had similar plans of spending time at the Rosier Tulips Resort and Lizzy could not avoid a group date for Tuesday at Keukenhof. Charlotte rescued Lizzy from further mortification arriving with Caroline who still had a stinky eye towards her, for whatever reason. Soon the British group left and the Brazilian girls could talk in private.

‘Aww… Char! Couldn’t you tell me these douchebags were here?’ Lizzy complained. ‘I would have taken the gala invitations whenever, wherever we met…’

‘I didn’t know myself, Elizabeth. They didn’t say anything last night. I’m almost sure we mentioned the name of this hotel…’ Charlotte answered. ‘Anyway, do you know what I found out?’

Lizzy raised both her eyebrows.

‘William, he owns the place!’

‘The douchebag? No! The hotel?’

Charlotte nodded smiling.

Lizzy whistled.

‘Loaded! The other must be too.’ Charlotte said in a serious face. ‘And it’s like they are glued to us.’

‘Exactaling!’ Lizzy said quoting the elusive Cheshire cat from Alice in the Wonderland and they both giggled. ‘Owner! This takes the glam right out of me!...’ She pouted.

‘Yeah, right.’ Charlotte snorted. ‘Give back the money they invested on your blog.’

Lizzy shook her head ‘no’ and smiled.

‘He is partially owner actually. His aunt has the majoritarian part.’ She shrugged. ‘Here Miss complaints, five invitations for the gala.’ Charlotte handed Lizzy a neat envelope made of heavy paper with a smile. ‘That was all I could manage.’

‘My mother is going to flip! Thanks so much, dear friend!’ Lizzy said and tried to hug Charlotte who took a step backwards.

‘Sweat, you were running.’ She said twisting her nose.

‘Sorry.’ Lizzy blushed lightly.

‘I know someone who would want to take your sweated hug…’ Charlotte said in a suggestive sideways smile.

Lizzy rolled her eyes. ‘Pray, tell me who. The snob girl who could not find courage to make a move on Liana or the douchebag who is perpetually licking a lemon?’

Charlotte smiled. ‘Caroline does not have an eye on you, oh irresistible Eliza.’

‘I hate that. It’s the same way Aunt Philips calls me… Urgh!’ Lizzy shuddered.

‘It is!’ Charlotte laughed. ‘I was talking about William Darcy, and you know it.’ She said. ‘Don’t!’ She raised a finger to Lizzy. ‘Don’t deny it. He is always staring at you.’

‘He is, what a douche! He is always interested in finding fault in me. I believe he is expecting to see the pet snake I must carry in my pocket since I’m such a savage. Anaconda!’ She said in an evil laugh.

Both friends laughed.

‘Mr. Ancient Douche is so stupid, if he only knew it was a lizard!’ Lizzy said smiling mischievously.

‘Lizzy, you kill me! I missed you so much these last months.’ Charlotte said but restrained from embracing Lizzy. ‘Will you come to Paris when I’ll be sent there?’

‘Hell, yes!’ Lizzy said, eyes shining with mirth. ‘I’m already saving. Last night, I let the douche pay for two of my beers!’

‘Didn’t your mother teach you anything? It’s not safe to accept a drink from a stranger.’ Charlotte mocked her. ‘Damn gorgeous and snob stranger.’

‘My mother tough me a lot of things. Not drink beer so not to get fat, was one of them!’ Lizzy said and they laughed. ‘Also, that a darn gorgeous stranger is the one to accept drinks from!’

---
***
---

How about that? 

See ya!

Disclaimer: Images from Google, new Darcy Matthew Rhys Batman mashup and texts are mine. Next book still in the oven... But looking good! ;)

Unboxing Charlotte Lucas

Good evening. Tonight our topic is a character of capital importance on Lizzy and Mr Darcy's love that we tend to underpower...

Hello, there!


Here I am, still celebrating the Bicentenary. If Pride and Prejudice had 200 years of success so far, I can celebrate it for a looong while, can't I?

So, I've been unboxing Charlotte Lucas for a while now.

By def.:

Verb

1.

unbox - remove from a box or container;   "unbox the presents" unpack, take out - remove from its packing;  "unpack the presents"

When I first read P&P some ten years ago (for me) it felt like Charlotte betrayed Lizzy when she accepted Collins. Actually she ensnared Collins behind Lizzy’s back without any fore notice. Not that Lizzy wanted anything from Collins other than distance but the guy had just proposed to her and before his shame and anger got cold Charlotte jumped on the occasion.


Lately, this episode was very well portrayed at the ‘Lizzie Bennet Diaries’ and it can be seen even more clearly as a betrayal.

Of course we all know Charlotte’s reasons, how she was already considered lost and old and without any good possibility of marriage. I’ve been reading some great discussions on her instance in life and the predicament she was in. Being the daughter of a knight (albeit a poor one), former mayor of Meryton and tradesman, Charlotte couldn’t marry just anyone. It would be a disgrace for her family status if she married a workman; the chance to marry a rich man was thin so she could only marry ‘horizontally’.

Everyone knows that becoming a governess was a most undesired situation since the job was underpaid, considered ‘low help’ something between a ladies’ maid and a butler. Other than this, an unmarried woman would depend on her father for as long as he lived, once deceased the woman (along with her mother and any other unmarried sisters) would be divided among the family men.
The Lucases were a big enough family and surely Charlotte would end her life helping raise her nephews and nieces, living under the good graces of one of her brothers. Well, the first moves of Sense & Sensibility tell us just how graceful these good graces can be. Marrying was THE option.

Charlotte saw in Collins her best chance. Rothman says very eloquently that ‘Collins, you might feel, isn’t quite a real person. He’s more like a villain: so awful that he makes you wonder whether Charlotte’s sensible, intelligent plan might be a mistake. In an odd way, Collins’s awfulness and Charlotte’s pragmatism take the measure of one another: in order to make Charlotte’s pragmatism feel problematic, Austen has to make Collins really terrible; and, by the same token, in order to make marriage to Collins even remotely plausible, she has to make Charlotte almost unbelievably pragmatic.’

He says ‘plan’ and ‘pragmatism’ and that called my attention because it reinforces what I’ve been mulling over Charlotte for a while now. Later I’ll talk about ‘Charlotte’s pragmatism feeling problematic’.

The other day we had a very happy JAFF lovers’ meeting and we discussed how Lizzy lacked ‘emotional intelligence’. IN MY OPINION Lizzy was a princess who was raised as her father’s pearl, used to be referred as ‘the best’ sister.

‘…more than once during dinner did Mr. Bennet say voluntarily to Elizabeth: ‘I am glad you are come back, Lizzy.’’

When there came a party of people whose social status was obviously superior to her, it was only natural she would feel vulnerable. So, when Darcy shoves his foot inside his mouth without caring if he was overheard by anyone at the Assembly, Lizzy feels mortally wounded.

Ok, I would grit my teeth and curse all his seven previous generations but if Lizzy had more emotional intelligence she would have handled his superior bullshit with more maturity. And that probably wouldn’t have given us such a delicious story as Pride and Prejudice. I know. 

My point is that Charlotte HAS emotional intelligence. Newark has a very good essay on Charlotte’s and Fanny Price’s actions that says: ‘The essence of independence for a woman lies not in being able to say 'No,' but in being able to take positive action to affect her own life. This is where choice comes in, and it is Charlotte, not Fanny, who exercises it. I warm to Charlotte Lucas (who has never in her life received a proposal of marriage) because, instead of passively resigning herself to what fate is dishing out, as a dutiful female should, she gives fate a nudge. It is Charlotte, not Fanny, who takes responsibility for her own life. Fanny, in floods of tears, says 'No;' Charlotte, dry-eyed, says "Yes!' Not only does she make up her own mind and act on it, she then makes the best of it. Miss Austen tells us nothing to make us think that Charlotte regrets her choice. ‘

On the contrary, Ms Austen tells us how well Charlotte handled Collins. Again it makes me think of ‘plan’ and ‘pragmatism’. I would also use ‘objective’, ‘conniving’, ‘intelligent’ and ‘insightful’. Conniving not in a derogatory sense, mind you. 

Remember these sequences? They say it all.

‘Charlotte’s first letters (after her marriage to Mr. Collins) were received with a good deal of eagerness (by Elizabeth); there could not but be curiosity to know how she would speak of her new home, how she would like Lady Catherine, and how happy she would dare pronounce herself to be; though, when the letters were read, Elizabeth felt that Charlotte expressed herself on every point exactly as she might have foreseen. She wrote cheerfully, seemed surrounded with comforts, and mentioned nothing which she could not praise.’

‘Mr. Collins invited them (Mr. Lucas, Maria Lucas and Elizabeth who had just arrived from Hertfordshire) to take a stroll in the garden, which was large and well laid out, and to the cultivation of which he attended himself. To work in this garden was one of his most respectable pleasures; and Elizabeth admired the command of countenance with which Charlotte talked of the healthfulness of the exercise, and owned she encouraged it as much as possible.’… ‘While Sir William accompanied him (Mr. Collins in a stroll around his garden), Charlotte took her sister and friend over the house, extremely well pleased, probably, to have the opportunity of showing it without her husband’s help. (…). When Mr. Collins could be forgotten, there was really an air of great comfort throughout, and by Charlotte’s evident enjoyment of it, Elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten.’

Next post I keep babbling talking about my view of Charlotte and Lizzy.

See you soon,

Bj

Disclaim: Images found on google, Charlotte montage done by me, quotes from Ms Austen's masterpiece Pride and Prejudice, rambling also mine.