Author: Barbara Cornthwaite
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Jane Austen and Thanksgiving
As an American who lives in Ireland, I miss Thanksgiving. It’s not a national holiday here, so the day after Halloween, the scary ghosts and witches are replaced by all things Christmas. I do love Christmas, but I long for the interlude of gratitude that Thanksgiving represents. It can be tricky for expats who want…
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So Very, Very Ill
My youngest daughter has been in the hospital for a few weeks with a serious, but not life-threatening, illness. She is improving, but slowly. I’ve been staying near the hospital with her (a massive thank you to everyone who has ever given to the Ronald McDonald House charity—what a blessing to have a room there!).…
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A Letter from Caroline Bingley
Supposing, at the end of Persuasion, Lady Russell decided to find a wife for Sir Walter Elliot, and selected for him the most desperate single woman of her acquaintance? I hinted at such a thing at the end of Much Ado About Persuasion, and this is how I imagine it might go. From Caroline Bingley…
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What Does Mr Knightley see in Emma?
Emma is possibly Jane Austen’s least-liked heroine, vying only with Fanny Price for the title. Readers who dislike her cite her arrogance and busybody tendencies, and some see her as nothing more than a spoiled young adult who hurts innocent characters like Miss Bates and Harriet Smith. Even Jane Austen said she thought no one…
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Words, Words, Words
When I was working on my mashup novel of Persuasion and Much Ado About Nothing, I learned a neat little factoid. You know the line in Persuasion where it says of Mrs. Clay that she “had returned, after an unprosperous marriage, to her father’s house, with the additional burthen of two children”? I always thought…
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If Jane Austen’s Characters Were Dogs
In reading about the personalities of pugs, it struck me that the characteristics mentioned could be applied to Mansfield Park’s Lady Bertram as well: “Not very active … lazy … if you leave them on the couch they will sleep there for hours … needs constant companionship…” Mansfield Park describes how devoted Lady Bertram is…
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Why It Takes Me Years To Write Anything
I am one of the world’s slowest writers. This is not only because I have a busy non-writing life, but also because I have a hard time thinking of what to write. I have some writer friends whose minds are always seething and burgeoning with ideas for plots and characters. They never encounter writer’s block.…
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The Genius of Jane Austen’s Characters
Jane Austen has a knack for creating sympathetic and admirable and yet very human characters. None of the heroes or heroines are too good to be true; they all have their foibles and weaknesses as well as their strengths. Captain Wentworth, for example, is brave and charming, but allowed resentment to dictate his actions and…
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A Letter from Mrs. Elton
Ah, Mrs. Elton. The perfectly-drawn portrait of a self-important female with a penchant for meddling. We know from Emma that she was in the habit of communicating regularly with her elder sister Selina, the one who, as Austen tells us, “was very well married, to a gentleman in a great way, near Bristol, who kept two carriages!” I…
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Austen for Everyday
When I was planning the George Knightley, Esquire books, I had an idea that he could be an expert at playing chess, and that he would occasionally compare his interactions with others as moves in a chess game. It seemed to me to be an eminantly Knightley thing to do. Therefore, I tried to learn…