By Karin Wiberg
I had the very great pleasure of speaking with author Nancy Martin-Young about her new book, Wit and Prattles, at an event August 29 at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. With about two dozen folks in attendance, including several JASNA-NC members, we had a lot of fun talking Austen, craft, and fan fiction. Here are some of the highlights of our conversation in Q&A form.
QUESTION: You have written a contemporary romance trilogy called “Something in the Dark” that includes Seeing Things, Hearing Things, and Sensing Things. After writing original contemporary fiction, what inspired you to try Austen fan fiction?
ANSWER: Even my contemporary books have atypical characters and plots. I like to write from different characters’ points of view and choose unusual plots in familiar settings, like Raleigh. After three books in the same genre, I was ready for something completely different. So I thought of an Austen spin-off that no one else would ever consider—the Palmers.
Among my favorite tropes is odd couples who somehow make a life together. Mr. and Mrs. Palmer strike me as fascinating. It’s as if each is playing some kind of twisted relationship game, yet when a crisis looms, the real bond between them is exposed. So I started to write their backstory in Austen’s style—and for a few chapters, I did exactly that. It was great fun writing new words in Austen’s voice, and I think that sustaining that arch, balanced prose and indirect discourse without speaker tags let me grow as a writer. Later I tossed the early chapters to blend with a more modern style.
QUESTION: How did you find the process of using someone else’s characters?
ANSWER: The Palmers are really more caricatures than rounded characters in Sense and Sensibility. We know little of their history or their motivations, so I had free rein to invent them. I had a blast adding psychology, showing why Thomas is so antisocial and why Charlotte laughs inappropriately. And here’s the thing—even though the major characters in Sense and Sensibility are fully formed, in Wit and Prattles you see them through Charlotte’s eyes. From that perspective, the Dashwoods border on being “mean girls.” Sustaining a tense plot line for the Palmers when all the drama centers around Marianne was probably the hardest part to write. Every author dreads a sagging middle.
QUESTION: How did you manage the research? It felt like impressive detail about a period two centuries ago.
ANSWER: The real danger was getting so immersed in the research that I didn’t write. I scoured primary sources, whiling away hours looking at fashion plates in Ackermann’s Repository or costumes in museums, blueprints for Regency townhouses, debates in Parliament, obituaries, menus, articles in the Gentleman’s Magazine, online tours of country houses, dance steps, the history of the Napoleonic wars, poaching, how St. George’s and the Argyl Room were decorated, bribing potwallopers, songs in Austen’s collection, funeral and birth customs, even whether or not gentlewomen would have worn anything like underpants. And the answer is no. Drawers were risque. Check out some of the cartoons by Rowlandson for proof.
QUESTION: Throughout the novel, you have numerous homages to Austen’s novels. For example, the discussion of dancing brings to mind the scene in Pride and Prejudice with Sir Lucas encouraging Darcy to dance. And once Charlotte and Mr. Palmer begin dancing, the first part of the conversation brings to mind Catherine and Mr. Tilney’s conversation in Northanger Abbey about being at liberty to choose. How did you take your inspiration? How much was intentional and planned? And how much just came out naturally once you were in the Austen mindset?
ANSWER: Besides the obvious parallels to Sense and Sensibility, Thomas Palmer’s list of qualifications for a wife is much like Darcy’s. Charlotte’s love of romances and the very Gothic scene in the library are like Northanger Abbey, Mrs. Sophia Palmer’s hypochondria echoes Mr. Woodhouse, Mrs. Bennet, Lady Bertram, and Mary Musgrove. I also give a nod to Wordsworth’s Old Cumberland Beggar and William Carlos Williams and Beatrix Potter just for fun. And, yes, I consciously tried to put what I thought of as “easter eggs” in there for Austen fans.
QUESTION: You use the book The Mirror of the Graces several places in Wit and Prattles. Tell us a little about these “conduct” books and then how you contrasted the sensibilities of the day with some more modern attitudes.
ANSWER: Those conduct books read like parodies today! There really is one called The Mirror of the Graces and I reflect it pretty accurately in Wit and Prattles. It offers very concrete instructions on dress and deportment. Mrs. Taylor’s Practical Hints to Young Females on the Duties of a Wife, Mother, and Mistress of a Family reminds women of the importance of their roles and also has a chapter on a husband’s duties.
Austen read Thomas Gisborne’s An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex and in 1805 wrote to her sister, saying, “I am glad you recommended ‘Gisborne,’ for having begun, I am pleased with it, and I had quite determined not to read it.” Gisborne does, however, worry that novels are addictive, and “the mind is secretly corrupted” by them.
I departed from Austen in many ways both in terms of subjects covered and in terms of writing style, including:
- Describing characters’ psychological baggage
- Depicting not only a kiss, but sex
- Basing Aunt Georgina’s sexual orientation (loosely) on Anne Lister
- Adding concrete descriptions of physical appearance, fashion, and architecture
- Adding the expected love declaration scene so the arc is played out for readers
- Discussing the plight of returning soldiers and related poverty
- Adding a male point of view
- Writing shorter paragraphs
QUESTION: While reading Wit and Prattles, I couldn’t help but think of Ang Lee’s 1995 film with Emma Thompson as Elinor and Kate Winslet as Marianne. The Palmers really stuck in my mind: Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton—yes, “House” and “Dolores Umbridge”! I kept seeing them in my mind as I read the book. Did you picture them as well?
ANSWER: Hugh Laurie was too old (around 35 while the character was written as 25-26), but otherwise, perfect as Mr. Palmer. I am dreadfully afraid that people will see Delores Umbridge when they read about Charlotte. Austen says Charlotte is young, plump, pretty, and smiling. Some illustrations show her as a blonde with curls and ruffles. She’s several years younger than her sister, so I think she’s about 19, and Imelda Staunton was late 30s when she played her. Hetty Baynes played her once and was probably closer in terms of casting.
One of the key takeaways from Wit and Prattles is “Happiness is a choice” and Charlotte and Thomas do make that choice. Nicely done, Nancy!
Wit and Prattles is the fan fic book selection for our November 14 Virtual Book Club meeting.