With Miss Austen's birthday this weekend, we thought we'd revisit the unfailing legacy of Austen and her literature. She's become as intriguing as her heroines! ...then enter in our giveaway of the two Austen in Austin volumes--now available in ebook BOXED SETS at 99cents each! You can certainly buy them here: (Buy separately or the set at $1.98!)
or you can play along and enter our random drawing, below!
It involves pie.
(reposted) In today’s publishing world, readers and reviewers might not
be kind to Miss Austen. Literature wants a grittier underbelly. Popular fiction
wants sweaty passion, blood and corruption. Romance needs a cute meet by page
three. After a couple of decades of
writing and finding her style, Jane Austen’s family helped her find a
publisher. Books were uncommonly expensive at the time, and although she wrote
under a pseudonym, “By a Lady”, some readers in the upper crust of society knew
of her name. Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, Pride and Prejudice
in 1813, Mansfield Park 1814, and Emma in 1815.
First issue of the Quarterly Review
Austen by her sister Cassandra (wikipedia)
During that time, a novel might merit no more than a mention--title and date of publishing—in a newspaper. Jane Austen’s writing did manage to get
a few reviews, most focusing on ‘the moral lessons’ (according to Wikipedia). I’ve
been unable to find them myself. Emma, being the later one, received the most
interest and was reviewed in 1816 in The Quarterly Review by Sir Walter Scott. He
included her ability to “give a correct and striking representation of that
which is daily taking place around him.” Later in his private journal he wrote,
“What a pity such a gifted creature died so early.”
Jane Austen put her final touch on two more novels for publication,
Northanger Abbey 1817 and Persuasion 1817 before her death (published posthumously). Afterward, the
Quarterly Review’s Richard Whately penned a glowing review of all her work. It
was around this time that her family wrote a biography, and by the 1830s, her
fame had grown along with a new appetite for her fiction. From that time on, her
books have never been out of print. Despite her nephew’s (new) biography of her
in 1870, Victorians went crazy for Dickens, Gaskell and their compatriots. Some
criticized Austen’s work as lacking what I might call ‘tooth’. Popular fiction
at the time showed all the warts of society—Dickens being the chief purveyor of it. Austen,
they claimed, played down the dark side as if unable or uninterested. Consider
my much loved Bronte sisters!
Chawton House (wikipedia)
Of course that criticism too fell away. By the late 19th
century Jane Austen was again looked on as a champion, even a feminist, for her
focus on the limited choices of women tied only to the fortune of a caretaker
or husband. Novelist Margaret Oliphant
called her “full of subtle power, keenness, finesse, and self-restraint.”
Austen became a window into women’s minds that had been left shadowed by male
authors. By the 20th century,
Austen readers considered themselves a class above the readers of cheap fiction,
and universities around the world began Austen studies. Adding
to the discussion, popular novelist Mark Twain held her work in disdain, claiming a
private library could be made better simply by excluding her books!
In 1913, Austen descendants again published a thorough family
biography including as many letters and articles as could be found. Her books
always sold, plays were created and by 1940 the first solid production of her
work came about in the visual medium.
We now have over a thousand
fan fiction books and over sixty television and theater presentations. Thank you and Happy Birthday, Miss Austen!
IT's PARTY TIME
If you already own one or both of these boxed sets, you can still enter, and we will GIFT YOUR FAVORITE AUSTEN FAN with one instead! Or just play along for fun. Because who doesn't have a favorite Austen villain? TWO RANDOM WINNERS courtesy of Anita Mae Draper and Niki Turner. 1) First, use this link and"Visit" (like, follow) INKWELL INSPIRATIONS FACEBOOK page. When twelve authors are producing books, this is the best place to keep up with us! (And allows us to contact you if you are a winner in our drawing! no need to leave emails!) 2) Answer this question in the comments: Which Austen character would you most like to be the recipient of a pie-in-the-face? And why? oh, and what kind of pie? ha ha. If you don't have a character in mind, ask us to suggest one!
The giveaway ends 12/23 . Remember, to enter, give us an answer in your comment and visit the Inkwell Facebook page, so we can contact you!
February 7, 2017, marks the 150th birthday of American author Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Born in a log cabin near Pepin, Wisconsin, Wilder traveled in a covered wagon
with her pioneering family through the Upper Midwest and Great Plains. Her
beloved “Little House” series of books describe a young girl’s coming-of-age in
a harsher, simpler time. Loosely based around Wilder’s late-1800’s childhood on
the American frontier, they have never gone out of print, and later became the basis for a long-running television series, a television miniseries, and a musical. Because of their popularity, Wilder's later years inspired two made-for-TV movies and led to the posthumous publication of her earlier articles and journals.
Now, you may have noticed that I said the books were loosely based on her life, and the books were only the basis for the TV series. Like most authors, Laura didn't hesitate to change the timeline or details to make for a better story, and the TV show writers used creative license to take the story even further from actual events. (I don't think I ever watched more than a couple episodes of the TV show. They were just so very different from the books, I didn't particularly enjoy them.) So, how much do you know about the real Laura Ingalls Wilder vs. the literary and TV ones? Some of the questions are easy, but some of the answers may surprise you.
1 1.What
were Pa’s and Ma’s first names?
(a) Carl and Charlotte
(b) Charles and Caroline
(c) Curt and Carla
(d) James and Angeline
The
correct answer is b, Charles and Caroline. Savvy readers may know that Charles
and Caroline (and also Carl, Charlotte and Carla) all derive from the Latin name Carolus. (The two US states named for England's King Charles are North and South Carolina). Which
means, Ma and Pa had the same first name, sort of. James and Angeline were the
names of Almanzo’s parents.
Ma and Pa Ingalls. Unlike television Pa, real Pa had a beard.
22. How
many children were there in the Ingalls family?
(a)3
(b)4
(c)5
(d)6
The
correct answer is c, 5. The books and TV series open when the family had only three:
Mary, Laura, and Carrie. There was a seven-year gap between Carrie and the
youngest child, Grace. Laura wrote her book series for children, which may be
why she left out any mentions of her brother Charles Frederick (Freddie) who
died at ten months of age in 1876. Freddie was the fourth child, between Carrie and
Grace, and was named for his father and for Caroline Ingalls’s stepfather,
Frederick Holbrook. Baby Freddie appeared briefly in Season 1 of the TV series. The adopted children introduced later in the TV series were pure literary license.
3 3. How
many children were there in the Wilder family? (a)3 (b)4 (c)5 (d)6
The
correct answer is d, 6. Laura wrote about Almanzo’s childhood in the book Farmer Boy, but the book only mentions the middle four children—Eliza Jane,
Royal, Alice, and Almanzo. The oldest was Laura, who was 13 years older than
Almanzo. She was left out so as not to confuse readers with another Laura
character. In the book, Almanzo complains about being the youngest – which was
true during the time the book covers. However, when Almanzo was 12, the Wilders
had one more child, Perley Day. While Perley Day wasn't mentioned in any of the
books, he did make it onto the television show.
4.Where
did Laura and Almanzo meet?
(a)Wisconsin
(b)Minnesota
(c)South Dakota
(d)Iowa
Trick
question! The correct answer is e, none of the above. If you watched the
television show but never read the books, you might have guessed Minnesota. The
producers chose to keep the series set in Walnut Grove far longer than the Ingallses actually lived there. (I suppose making them move would have meant losing all
the supporting cast members.) Of course, if you read the books, you might have chosen South Dakota...which isn't technically right either. After leaving Minnesota, the family settled
near the new town of DeSmet, which is where Laura and Almanzo met. However, at
the time, DeSmet was in the Dakota Territory. Three months after Laura and
Almanzo’s marriage, the southern portion of the Dakota Territory joined the
union as the new state of South Dakota.
5.So
then, how many years did the Ingalls family actually live in Minnesota?
(a) 4
(b) 5
(c) 6
(d) 7
The
correct answer is a, 4 years—but there’s a catch. The timeline for the books
follows the family more closely than the television series, but Laura left out
the year the family spent in Iowa. The Ingallses moved to Minnesota in 1874. About
a year after Freddie’s death, they moved to Burr Oak, Iowa, where Grace
was born. They stayed about a year, then returned briefly to Walnut
Grove, Minnesota before traveling west to the Dakota Territory. Altogether, they
were in Minnesota about four years. 6. Who was Laura's nemesis at school? (a) Nellie Oleson (b) Stella Gilbert (c) Genevieve Masters (d) Nellie Owens Oh, dear, it's another trick question. The correct answers are b, c, and d, so give yourself a point if you picked any of them. However, if you guessed Nellie Oleson, too bad—there was no girl named Nellie Oleson in Laura's childhood. The character, which appears in three of the novels and seven seasons of the television show, was a composite of several girls Laura knew in Walnut Grove and DeSmet, probably Nellie Owens, Genevieve Masters, and Stella Gilbert. Nellie Owens was the daughter of a Walnut Grove shopkeeper and had a young brother Willie. Originally from New York, Genevieve Masters wore beautiful clothes and was fond of telling everyone how things were done back in the east. Stella Gilbert lived on a claim near DeSmet and apparently had a more than a friendly interest in bachelor Almanzo Wilder.
7.Which musical instrument did Mary Ingalls play? (a)piano (b)fiddle (c)organ (d)drum
The
correct answer is c, organ. Pa played his fiddle in each of the “Little House”
books (except Farmer Boy, the one about
Almanzo’s childhood), but nowhere is there a mention of any of the girls
learning to play it. Mary went blind at 14 shortly before the family left Walnut Grove,
Minnesota. (Those must have been some very difficult years, what with Freddie’s
death followed so closely by Mary’s blindness.) During the 1880’s, Mary attended
the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School, where she learned to play the organ. Ma
and Pa then bought one for their home in DeSmet, so Mary could play there.
8.How
old was Laura when Almanzo began to court her? (a)15 (b)16 (c)17 (d)18
The
correct answer is a, 15. In the book Little
Town on the Prairie, Almanzo asked Laura if he could see her home after a
revival service at church. She walked into the house to hear Ma saying, “But
she’s only fifteen!”
Laura around the time she married Almanzo Wilder
9.Almanzo
was how many years older than Laura? (a)4 (b)6 (c)8 (d)10
The
correct answer is d, 10. In the books, Laura took liberties with the timeline in order to make
the age difference smaller, perhaps in deference to modern sensibilities. In
real life, Almanzo was ten years her senior. No wonder Ma expressed dismay. He
did have honorable intentions, but I wouldn’t recommend this situation to any
modern romance writers. Interestingly, the TV show portrayed them as having a sizable difference in their ages. Dean Butler, who played Almanzo, is eight years older than Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura. However, the producers of the show changed the dynamics of their relationship by having Laura pursue Almanzo rather than the other way around, perhaps another nod to modern notations of courtship. In her unpublished autobiography, Laura suggests that her teenage crush was actually schoolmate Cap Garland.
Almanzo, around the time he married Laura
10.How
many children did Laura and Almanzo have? (a)1 (b)2 (c)3 (d)4
The
correct answer is b, 2. Rose was their first, and she became a well-known
writer before Laura started writing novels. Like Laura’s parents, the Wilders
also lost a son at a very young age. Baby Boy Wilder had not even been named yet when he died at less than two weeks old. In the last season of the TV show, Almanzo got custody his niece Jenny after his brother Royal's death. The real life Royal lived to be 78 years old. And he never had a daughter named Jenny.
11.How many grandchildren did Ma and Pa Ingalls have? (a)2 (b)4 (c)6 (d)10
I'm feeling generous, so count either a or b as the correct answer. Laura had
Rose and the son who died as an infant. Unlike TV-show Mary, the real Mary
Ingalls never married. Grace was 24 when she married Nathan Dow, but they had
no children. Carrie married later in life (age 41) to widower David Swanzey. He
had two young children (8 and 5) from his first marriage, whom Carrie raised as
her own. Final total: two grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. 12.Who was the first member of the family to be a published author? (a)Mary Ingalls (b)Laura Ingalls Wilder (c)Carrie Ingalls Swanzey (d)Rose Wilder Lane The correct answer is c, Carrie. After high school, Carrie taught school for a short time (like Laura) and worked as a typesetter. She learned all facets of the newspaper business (including writing and editing) and eventually landed a job as manager for some of businessman E. L. Senn's newspapers. The job led her to Keystone, South Dakota, where she met David Swanzey. Laura sometimes consulted with Carrie about events from their childhood when she was writing the "Little House" books.
Carrie Ingalls
13.How
many grandchildren did Laura and Almanzo have? (a)0 (b)1 (c)2 (d)3
Sadly,
the correct answer is a, 0, although I suppose an argument could be made for b, 1. Rose Wilder Lane’s only child was stillborn, after
which she was unable to have children. She and her husband later divorced. Rose
went on to become an successful writer in her own right (and worthy of her own post...perhaps someday), being counted one of the
highest paid female authors of her day. Unfortunately, the Great Depression
wiped out most of her and her parents’ savings. She was living in a separate
house on her parents’ farm in 1930 when Laura showed her a rough draft of a children's book later titled Little House in the Big
Woods.
Rose Wilder Lane
14.Where are Laura and Almanzo buried? (a)South
Dakota (b)Florida (c)Missouri (d)Minnesota
The
correctanswer is c, Missouri. Life
proved difficult on the Wilders’ South Dakota homestead, and they endured incredible hardship during the first four years of their marriage. Crop failures, the death of their second child, an illness that partially paralyzed Almanzo, and a house fire left the couple physically, emotionally, and financially broken. With their young daughter, they retreated to Minnesota to live with Almanzo’s parents for a time while they recovered. They tried a stint in Florida (the
humidity didn’t agree with them), returned to DeSmet briefly, and then bought a
farm in what would be their final home of Mansfield, Missouri. It was on Rocky
Ridge Farm that Laura wrote her books. She was 65 when she sold the first one, and 75 when the last in the series came out. Almanzo passed away in 1949 at the age of 92, and Laura died three days past her 90th birthday. The books' success allowed the Wilders to finally enjoy financial security during their last years.
The answer, sweet reader is the fact that on this day, January 28th, in 1813, Pride and Prejudice was published by Thomas Egerton. Jane Austen would not have had the luxury of pre-orders or Amazon statistics to check on how her new baby was doing as it wobbled its way into the world. But just as it is for authors today, the release day of her novel must have felt like a culmination.
And frankly, it was the birth of a new literary era as well. Jane's novels were imbued with a sense of realism which had been wholly lacking in the overwrought gothic romances that were popular at the time. We have much to thank Miss Austen for. (Not the least of which is the creation of the superb Mr. Darcy.)
So, to celebrate I leave you with a glimpse of why so many find Mr. Darcy so very irresistible.
We, the ladies of Inkwell Inspirations, would love to give free stuff to everybody. Since we can't, we will often have a giveaway in conjunction with a specific post. Unless otherwise stated, one winner will be drawn from comments left on that post between the date it was published and the end of the giveaway as determined in the post. Entries must be accompanied by a valid email address. This address is used only to contact the commenter in the event that he/she is the winner, and will not be sold, distributed, or used in any other fashion. The odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. NO PURCHASE, PLEDGE, OR DONATION NECESSARY TO ENTER OR TO WIN. ALL FEDERAL, STATE, LOCAL AND MUNICIPAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS APPLY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
