Читать онлайн «An Assembly Such as This: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman»

Автор Памела Айдан

Many female readers love Jane Austen because of her witty, strong female characters. Why do you think your readers respond to Austen’s (and your) male characters so well?

Austen’s females don’t compromise their characters or their sense of what is right in the face of pressure or to attract a man and are admired for it by her male characters. Austen’s heroes actively pursue this kind of woman, women who are worthy of their respect, and they win them at the price of changing and growing. Although there might be some initial resistance or blindness to this necessity, they eventually do it and gladly in a way that affirms both their own self-worth as well as the supreme worth of their object. There’s a hunger among modern women — and it seems to be international — to be seen as such a treasure worth winning at any price.

Jane Austen is often celebrated as one of the original “women’s fiction” writers. Which Austen novel is your favorite, and why?

Pride and Prejudice is my favorite because the characters’ strengths and flaws are so well-matched.

The manner of discovery and resolution of those flaws leads the reader to know that Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage will be one of equals not only in wit and intelligence, but in humility, grace, and love. They will do very well!

We hear that you owe your marital happiness to Jane Austen. How did you meet your husband?

What can readers expect to see from you next?

Many readers have begged for more about Darcy and Elizabeth, of course, but they have demanded more about the characters which I have created as well. It is my intent to explore Lord Dyfed Brougham’s mysterious life and his intentions toward Georgiana Darcy in the midst of the changes brought by the end of the Napoleonic Wars and its effect on the entire Darcy family.