The Beggar's Opera

Every once in a while (okay, probably every month!) I order a big box of books from the Edward R. Hamilton catalog. They have wonderful remaindered and discounted research-type books, and I've gotten some great "finds" from them. In my last shipment, one of the books was Lisa Hilton's Mistress Peachum's Pleasure: The Life of Lavinia, Duchess of Bolton about the actress Lavinia Fenton who found great fame on the stage and later was the mistress (and wife) of a duke, and then as a widow lost her fortune on a much younger husband. Quelle scandale! Her big role, the one that made her an overnight sensation on the London theater scene, was as Polly Peachum in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera.

And today just happens to be John Gay's birthday! Gay (June 30, 1685--December 4, 1732) was born in Barnstaple and was educated there at the local grammar school. On leaving school he was apprenticed to a silk mercer in London, but quickly grew bored with the business. But he did make a variety of influential literary friends, including Pope and Swift, who encouraged him in his writing endeavors. In 1715 he produced What d'ye call it? (1715), a dramatic satire that left the public so baffled by its meaning there was a Complete Key to what d'ye call it. He went on to produce a poem in 3 volumes, Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London and a comedic play, Three Hours After Marriage (which one critic called "grossly indecent without being amusing"--it was not a success). He made almost 1000 pounds on his Poems on Several Occasions, but lost it all in the South Sea Bubble.

His great success came in 1728 with The Beggar's Opera, a ballad opera in 3 acts (ballad operas were satiric musical plays that used some of the conventions of the wildly popular Italian opera, but without recitative). It had its premier at Lincoln's Inn Fields on Janaury 28, and ran for an unprecedented 62 consecutive performances. This original production was so popular it enable John Rich, the owner of the theater, to open the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (a popular saying of the day had it that Beggar's Opera made "Rich gay and Gay rich").



It satirized the Italian opera of the day, so popular among the upper classes, but instead of grand themes and music it used well-known tunes and characters that were ordinary (not to say criminal!) people. The audience could hum along with the music, even if they had never heard the words before. The story also satirized politics (especially statesmen like Robert Walpole), poverty and injustice, notorious highwaymen of the day, and corruption at all levels of society. It made Lavinia Fenton a big star (poems were written about her and prints of her image sold out, as well as "Polly" fans and firescreens and playing cards).

The plot goes something like this. Peachum is a fence and thief-catcher, and the opera opens with him justifying his actions. He and his wife then discover that their pretty daughter Polly has secretly married the highwayman Macheath. They're not happy, of course, but conclude that maybe the match makes sense if the new bridegroom can be killed for his money. They leave to carry out this errand (talk about nightmare in-laws!) while Polly hides her husband in a tavern, where he is surrounded by women of dubious virtue (who like to display their perfect drawing-room manners while singing about picking pockets and shoplifting). Too late, Macheath discovers that two of the "ladies" have contracted with Peachum to capture him, and off he goes to Newgate. There the jailor's daughter, Lucy Lockit, scolds Macheath for agreeing to marry her and then running off. She wants to torture him, but he pacifies her--until Polly arrives and declares he's her husband. Macheath tells Lucy Polly is just crazy, and Lucy helps him escape. Lucy's father is none too happy about this, either, and joins forces with Peachum to find Macheath and split up his fortune between them.



Lucy tries to poison Polly, but then they too join forces to save Macheath when he is recaptured. Then four more women show up, claiming to be his wives (his pregnant wives!). Macheath decides he's ready to be hanged. The narrator (the Beggar) says that in a properly moral tale he would be hanged, but the audience demands a happy ending, so Macheath is reprieved and all are invited to a dance to celebrate his wedding to Polly.

Gay tried to follow up this smash hit with a sequel, Polly, where Macheath has become a pirate and Polly has to escape from white-slavers. But Walpole had had enough of this satire, and leaned on the Lord Chamberlain to have it banned (it was first performed 50 years later). John Gay was buried in Westminster Abbey with an epitaph on his tomb by Pope, along with his own concluding couplet: "Life is a jest, and all things show it, I thought so once, and now I know it."

Have you ever seen a production of Beggar's Opera you really enjoyed? Or have any ideas for a book set among characters like this? (We don't see them too often in romances, of course; our characters would be more likely to be the ones satirized! But I'm working on research for an Elizabethan story set among similar theatrical people, and having lots of fun with it...)

And, on a totally unrelated note, I've posted some new author photos for Laurel McKee on my own blog! I can't decide which I like best. What do you think???

Louise Allen Winner

Congratulations, Mari!

You are the winner of Louise's signed copy of The Disgraceful Mr Ravenhurst.

Email us at riskies@yahoo.com with your mailing address!

Wellington (or Diane's Poor Excuse for a Blog)

I just returned from a weekend out of town and I'm still chasing that deadline I mentioned a few weeks ago, so I don't have time or brain-power to do a clever blog. So it will be "Picture Day" today. I'm not doing any research or checking any facts so I might not be 100% accurate in what I say here.

As a certified Wellington Groupie (Kristine Hughes is the founding member) and in continuing honor of the Waterloo Anniversary, I thought I would simply share some of my Wellington-related photos and thoughts.

When I first fell in raptures about Wellington (or dear Artie, as Kristine calls him), it was at Stratfield Saye, Wellington's country house. Of all the houses we saw on that 2003 trip to England, Stratfield Saye seemed the most like it was a home. It was a home. The present duke's son and his family live there, but you could feel the first Duke there in every room. In an outer building there house was the funeral carriage that carried the Duke's body through London. A recording played of all his honors, as had been read out during his funeral. I realized that this had been a truly great man.


On that trip we also got to go up to the top of the Wellington Arch in London, and of course we toured Apsley House, also known as Number One London. Apsley House felt more like a museum than a house and well it should. It was filled with wonderful art and artifacts.

Also in London we visited Lock and Co, a Hatters shop that has been in Mayfair since 1676. On display there are Wellington's and Nelson's hats, instantly recognizable.

I don't claim to be an expert on Wellington. I've just read one biography (and can't remember which one it was), but I think of him as a man with great integrity, courage and honor. As a boy he didn't show much promise, but his mother sent him to a military academy in Europe (near Waterloo, I think) and he found his strength. As a military man he understood how to use his resources, he was clever, and he was brave. He rode the battlefield during Waterloo, was everywhere he could be and ignored the danger to himself. He cared about his men. One of my favorite Wellington quotes is: "Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won."

He was not a good husband, although he felt honor-bound to marry his wife, because she thought they were betrothed and had waited for him while he served in India. He had many dalliances throughout their marriage and one has to wonder how his wife felt as this man grew in greatness and increasingly left her behind. His sons could not match his success. Who could? I like this quote from his son after the Duke's death, "Imagine what it will be when the Duke of Wellington is announced, and only I walk in the room."

The Duke was a man who was very sure of himself and his opinions. I suspect he had a big ego, but he also had a sense of humor. In the display at Lock and Co. was a little caricature of Wellington, making fun of the term Wellington boot for the style of boot he favored. At Stratfield Saye there was a room papered with hundreds of caricatures of the Duke, which I thought was akin to a writer papering a bathroom with rejection letters. The boot one was was there, too.

What is your opinion of the Duke of Wellington? Pro and Con. Any favorite quotes or vignettes of his life?


My website has been updated and my contest is still running...I'm just saying.

Guest Interview with Harlequin Historical's Louise Allen

Today, welcome back Louise Allen, who has visited the Riskies before with other UK authors. We're delighted we have her all to ourselves to talk about her latest book, The Disgraceful Mr Ravenhurst , her latest Harlequin Historical (July, 2009). Louise is giving away one copy of The Disgraceful Mr Ravenhurst to one lucky commenter. Welcome, Louise!

First of all - thank you for the invitation to Risky Regencies - I’m thrilled to be here!

We're thrilled to have you. Tell us about your book!
The Disgraceful Mr Ravenhurst (Harlequin July 2009) is set in my favourite region of France - Burgundy. The hero is the black sheep of the Ravenhurst clan, Theophilus, son of a bishop, and in dangerous trouble - as usual. The heroine is Elinor Ravenhurst his bookish spinster cousin touring French cathedrals with her formidable scholarly mother. Theo needs some respectable cover, Elinor needs adventure and between them they end up in the midst of a lethal hunt for a scandalous art treasure, discovering each other and their real feelings in the process.

This is book 4 in your Those Scandalous Ravenhurst series. Tell us about books 1-3
The series features seven cousins in six books. They stand alone, but characters from each occur - and interfere - in the others. The Dangerous Mr Ryder has the mysterious Lord Sebastian Ravenhurst sent to rescue Grand Duchess Eva during Napoleon’s return to France in 1815. The second, The Outrageous Lady Felsham, stars Sebastian’s sister Bel in her search for an exciting lover and includes a polar bear called Horace and a bathing machine at Margate. The third, The Shocking Lord Standon, has a most respectable hero forced by circumstances and the women in his life (including a naked governess in distress, Bel, Eva and Lady Maude, the heroine of the fifth book) to become positively improper. A linked e-book, Disrobed & Dishonored in the Historical Undone series has a number of the Ravenhursts assisting their friend Sarah when she becomes entangled with a very obliging highwayman.

The scheduling of the release of these books was very interesting: July, August and September of 2008, and now July, August and Sept of 2009. Tell us something about the planning for this six book series?
When I was planning I began with Sebastian who had walked, unannounced, into No Place For a Lady in his persona of Jack Ryder, private investigator. I had been expecting an elderly Bow Street Runner, so Jack was a shock and I knew he needed his own book. Looking at the series as a whole I wanted to experiment with different scenarios - a Gothic dungeon, a London drawing room, a pirate ship, a London theatre, the English seaside - and as soon as I began thinking about those settings, Sebastian’s cousins appeared to inhabit their own stories. Before I knew where I was there were six books and a complex family tree.
My editor had originally asked me to think about a brothers and sisters trilogy, so she was startled to be confronted with seven cousins, but she gave me a lot of encouragement and suggested the Undone e-book as well. This was the first series I have written so I didn’t know what to expect with scheduling, but I like the split - it has kept the Ravenhursts in my life for much longer.

What is risky about The Disgraceful Mr. Ravenhurst?
Theo himself thrives on risk and has done since he was expelled from school for gambling. As a bishop’s son he should be in England doing something respectable, not making a very good living on the continent as an antiquities dealer - often on the shady side of the law. Now he has got himself into deep - almost lethal - trouble. It was fun pairing him with a heroine who had never done a risky thing in her life before and watching Elinor rise to the occasion. And Theo is a redhead - I have always been told that readers don’t like redheaded heroes, so that was a risk, but he refused to change colour. Luckily, UK readers who have already met him tell me he’s just fine as he is.

What has been risky about the whole series?
I had never tried a series before, so starting with a six-part one was probably a risk to begin with. Then I wanted to experiment with different types of Regency stories within the series. I thought that might be difficult, but I found it kept the series fresh for me and readers have responded well to that so far.
Juggling the characters, managing their continuing stories and deciding who to bring back, or to introduce, in other books was perhaps the riskiest part of the series as a whole. The Ravenhurst babies were all behaving well and arriving on time - until my editor asked me to review the timescale of The Notorious Mr Hurst. Two weeks, several very overdue babies and much calculation later I managed to sort out the problem!

And tell us about Books 5 and 6: The Notorious Mr. Hurst and The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst.
The Notorious Mr Hurst (Harlequin August 2009) is set in one of London’s smaller theatres. Lady Maude Templeton saw theatre owner Eden Hurst in The Shocking Lord Standon and fell in love at first sight. He has secrets and strong reasons of his own for avoiding an entanglement with a well-bred, wealthy young lady and he doesn’t believe in love - of any kind. But Maude is determined to prove to him that he needs love, and he needs her.
The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst (Harlequin September 2009) is the youngest of the cousins. A Jamaican heiress, Clemence runs from her avaricious guardian uncle straight into the clutches of one of the Caribbean’s nastiest pirates, Red Mathew McTiernan. Her only hope is the ship’s navigator, a renegade naval officer, Nathan Stanier. But just as cabin boy Clem is not what he seems, neither is Mr Stanier. It is a long way home to England, the Ravenhurst clan and true love for Clemence.

Thank you so much for hanging out with the Riskies, Louise. Remember, Louise is giving away a copy to one commenter, chosen at random, so now is your time to ask about her exciting series....or anything else. (Louise is in the UK and may not answer questions while she is sleeping)

Don't forget to visit Louise's website! www.louiseallenregency.co.uk And her blog, Historical Romance UK! http://www.historicalromanceuk.blogspot.com/

Solemn Friday

What a weird week. Globally, of course, the world is reeling from the unexpected death of pop icon Michael Jackson. I remember having a discussion with someone about who was the most well-known person around the world, and we settled on MJ. How bizarre that someone with that much notoriety, that much at his disposal, seemed to have had such an unhappy life, and definitely had an abrupt ending.

One of my first records ever was the Jackson 5's Greatest Hits. I was so young I scrawled my name--only my first name, mind you, since I couldn't yet spell "McLaughlin"--across the front cover. I listened to that record a whole lot, and bought Jackson 5 45s later on with my allowance.

I remember when Elvis Presley died; I was about to be 13, and I just didn't get the whole deal, why people were so upset and all (I grew up in a musical household, but we were more likely to be listening to Arthur Crudup, from whom Elvis lifted a lot of his songs).

I get it now, though.

The death of an icon makes us reflect, perhaps selfishly, on our own mortality. Which of my childhood touchstones will be next?

And next month is my son's tenth birthday, although we are having his birthday party this Saturday (pray for me . . . ). That reminds me just how much has happened, and how he's not my little boy anymore. Thankfully, he still likes getting hugs from his mom. But who knows when that will change? And who will his childhood touchstones be?

Maybe, to bring it back around to the books we love to read, that is why we love to read romance: It depicts a crystallized moment in time where the main characters are young, interesting and, we presume, destined to have a long, happy life together.

What are you thinking about today?

You'll ruin your eyes!

There's a lot of discussion around the web on the issue of e-publishing and its role in the romance industry. I feel a little overwhelmed by it all, and if you have not become overwhelmed yet and are interested in future trends of the publishing business and literacy, start here.

So I thought I'd talk about the issue of living in an age of rapidly-changing technology with mind-boggling choices of receiving and disseminating information and finding entertainment. I'm talking, of course, about the Regency.

Georgian England was known for its high literacy level. There was an audience for reading and paper prices dropped at the end of the eighteenth century; at a guess, it's because the amount of cotton manufacturing rose, and in an era where everything had its price, there were more rags around to convert into paper. By 1800, every town had its own printing press and there were 250 periodicals in print. Periodicals and newspapers were handed on to other readers an average of seven times per copy.

The first circulating library opened in Bath in 1725; this specifically English phenomenon for the well-heeled, with membership costing about 1 gn., had expanded by 1800 to 122 circulating libraries in London, and 268 in the provinces.Libraries accounted for 400 copies of a book's average print run of 1,000.

To give an idea of the print life of a best seller of the Georgian era, this book (probably not in the genteel circulating libraries) was first published as a pamphlet between 1710 and 1716, and was in its fourth edition by 1718. Between 1718 and 1788, it had gone through eighteen editions, with the eighth and ninth printings selling more than 12,000 copies in a few months. Each edition grew, with additional salacious material: testimonials, requests for advice, and the author's response to print rivals and attacks. The fourth edition contained 88 pages; the 15th edition (1730) had quadrupled in size.

This evolving conversation in print clearly struck a chord with the eighteenth-century reading public, an audience that both delighted in the moral instruction and refinement available in The Tatler and The Spectator and made sexy or scandalous fiction like Delarivier Manley's The New Atalantis (1709) and Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood (1719) early best-sellers--and that continued to read Onania long after popular tastes in fiction changed to favor more refined novels like Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740-1) and Haywood's The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751). The early eighteenth-century reading audience was one that seemed eager to both read and write back to the literary marketplace, to both absorb and influence the products that marketplace had to offer them. Read more here.

Of course, fiction was suspect from the beginning. It encouraged its audience, predominantly female, to lounge around and daydream, beguiled by narrative seduction. If you weren't careful, your womenfolk's experiences might end up as anonymous contributors to the next edition of the bestseller of the 1700s; in 1792, Bon Ton Magazine warned that readers of novels really couldn't distinguish between reality and fantasy: women of little experience are apt to mistake the urgency of bodily wants with the violence of a delicate passion.

Oliver Goldsmith commented in similar vein: How delusive, how destructive, are those pictures of consummate bliss. They teach the youthful mind to sigh after beauty and happiness which never existed, that despise that little good which fortune has mixed up in our cup, by expecting more than she ever gave.

In 1773, The Lady's Magazine agonized, There is scarce a young lady in the kingdom who has not read with avidity a great number of romances and novels, which tend to vitiate the taste.

A fictional mother in The Lady’s Monthly Museum complained that her daughter reads nothing in the world but novels—nothing but novels, Madam, from morning to night… The maid is generally dispatched to the library two or three times in the day, to change books. One week she will read in the following order: Excessive Sensibility, Refined Delicacy, Disinterested Love, Sentimental Beauty, etc.

It's particularly appropriate that we discuss the issues of mass literacy and mass market fiction today, because it's the birthday of George Orwell, one of my literary heroes, a passionate, clear-sighted defender of clarity and good language use. So I'm ending this long and rambling post with Orwell's six rules for good writing from his essay Politics and the English Language:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Many questions possible here--do you think, as I do, that we're a reading audience, to borrow from my quote above, that is eager to both read and write back to the literary marketplace, to both absorb and influence the products that marketplace had to offer them?

If you're a writer, what do you think of Orwell's rules?

Do you own an e-reader? How do you feel about it? Do you prefer it to tree products? What do you think of print vs. digital?

Obligatory SSP: Contest on my site. Enter now!

Celebrations

Today is June 24 and for most people it's not a big deal day. It is for me since it's the day my son was born. 14 years ago today. It's his day. He gets a party with his family, cheesecake (that's what he wanted!) and gifts. Birthdays are a lot of fun, particularly when you're young. He's having a sleepover this weekend with some of his friends and but first they're going to the fair. Now that he's older, I just drop him off and pay the money (since it's his birthday, otherwise the fair would be on his dime).

But I like to reflect on my own celebration of his day. And as I do, I find myself thinking that we don't take enough time to reflect on all the reasons we have to celebrate. Americans can be plagued by our Puritan roots. More Work! Less Play! Do Better! You got an A-? Why didn't you get an A? That sort of thing can be an affliction...

It's important to take some time to think of the positives. This happens to be a particular challenge for me since my family's Puritan roots are deep and, for whatever reason, I grew up to be the sort of person who doesn't look to the positive often enough. This, I have sworn, is something I hope to address for the rest of my life.

When I finish writing a book, for example, all I can see is everything there isn't time to fix. I look at my revision letters and think, oh my gosh, I suck so bad. I should have seen all these problems and fixed them! And then there's reviews. My June 2009 release from Grand Central Publishing, My Forbidden Desire got 4 1/2 stars and a top pick from Romantic Times. On the other hand, AAR gave the book a D and called my hero foul-mouthed and some other stuff I have elected not to refresh my memory on. (The reviewer was right, too, the hero of that book does drop the F-bomb a lot.) People's opinions differ. One reviewer's top pick is another's D. The diversity is to be celebrated.

And I do embrace that diversity. It's a good thing in the grander scheme of things. My own life, however, has a somewhat narrower scope and, naturally, I spend far too much time thinking about what I could have done to avoid a D instead of celebrating the success of a Top Pick from RT.

My goal is to celebrate a bit more. I'm not saying ignore the bad -- it behooves a writer to pay attention to revisions and the internal editor and learn from those things. (My God, do you see what I'm up against here?) But we needn't and shouldn't forget to celebrate the good, too.

Who's with me on that one? It's my son's birthday, and he is the joy of my life. And I do celebrate that. Every day. Even when he's rolling his eyes, embarrassed that his mom is such a doof. My Forbidden Desire has gotten some wonderful reviews and you know what, it came out pretty darn good!

What will you celebrate today?

Happy Birthday, Josephine Bonaparte!

Empress Josephine Bonaparte was born on this day, June 23, in 1763 as Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie on the island of Martinique! Over at my own blog I had a short general bio on Saturday, so I thought here I would concentrate on one aspect of her very complex life--that of Style Icon. And she was very stylish indeed--what else could we expect from a French/Caribbean empress? :) Even though her appearance was mostly said to be sort of average (average height, brown hair, hazel eyes--though some said brown and some said green, a good nose, and bad teeth) she knew how to dress to emphasize her good points and detract from her bad, and how to make herself seem graceful and elegant.

To help me out, I pulled books down off my shelves and looked up anything I could find that talked about Josephine's clothes or fashion sense or use of cosmetics. Here's just a few of the quotes I discovered:

In her youth as a young, aristocratic French bride in Paris:
"The forces of fashion conspired in Rose's favor. The panniered dresses and terrifying hairstyles that had prevailed on her arrival in France were now somewhat demode. In their place came a style that suited Rose much better. The new look was captured in Vigee-Lebrun's painting of Marie Antoinette which had caused such a sensation in the salon of 1783. It featured the Queen in a straw hat and simple white gown, reminiscent of the plain muslin dresses favored by Creole women on Martinique. Rose looked charming and felt comfortable in this new style. At last her native style was seen as an asset; at last she could feel confident in her femininity and in her burgeoning sexuality." (Stuart, 78)

"Describing her during this time one old acquaintance wrote 'That lady, without being precisely pretty, nevertheless was attractive because of her style, her gaiety and her good heart'." (Stuart, 93)

"She perfected a style of her own, of notable graceful movements and gestures and a seductive walk to match her native langurous manner. With a will that would be of iron, she effected a physical transformation, too, schooling herself into a new slender body. Her arresting voice, with its slight Creole accent filleted of r's would always be her greatest asset, low and silvery, 'like a caress' Napoleon would say of it" (Bruce, 27)

"(Lady-in-waiting Madame de Remusant) was struck by Rose's charms. 'Her figure,' she later recalled, 'was perfect, her limbs were supple and delicate, all her movements were easy and elegant...full of grace rather than beautiful and with an expression of indescribable beauty'." (Bruce, 56)

The scandalous Directoire years as one of the notorious beauties known as 'Merveiluses':
"She had metamorphosed into a glittering butterfly who flitted with ease through this illustrious company. Both sexes found her seductive and gracious. Men admired her amber eyes, her flawless skin, the perfection of her arms, the sensual aura that radiated from her person. Women enjoyed the sweetness of her manner." (Stuart, 199)

In Milan with her new husband Napoleon:
"Initially Josephine's friends were a shock to Milan. Journals complained of their 'immodest behavior ; arms, bosom, shoulders, all are uncovered. The arrangement of their hair is a scandal--sown with flowers and feathers, and the whole crowned with little military helmets from which locks of untidy hair escape. They even have the effrontery to dress in tunics revealing legs and thighs barely hidden by flesh-colored tights. Their manners match their clothes: arrogant talk, provocative looks, and meat eaten on Fridays." (Bruce, 183)

As First Consul's wife:
"He (Napoleon) was particularly keen to encourage the use of French silks and velvets, rather than the popular muslin, which was imported via England. The vogue for shawls was another example of the Consulate push for female propriety. Popularized by Josephine, the shawl replaced the fan as the must-have accessory of the period. It was usually handmade from cashmere, and it became an essential luxury item that could cost a fortune. One beautiful shawl that the First Consul presented to Josephine cost over 10,000 francs." (Bruce, 269)

Coronation, December 2, 1804:
"At six o'clock Isabey had arrived to paint Josephine's face and to oversee her robing. Her hair was transformed by her coiffeurs into a mass of shining chestnut ringlets, and a diadem of pearls interlaced with diamond leaves was perched atop. Then her ladies helped her into a long-sleeved gown of white satin, embroidered with gold and silver. Its bodice was cut in a low square on the bosom, with a small collar of lace rising from the shoulders and encircling the neck, and its full skirt and long train were embroidered with golden bees. Her necklace and earrings were carved gems set in diamonds and on her finger she wore a ring with a ruby, the symbol of joy." (Stuart, 323)

As Empress:
(when she made her first official appearance as Empress): "That day she was particularly radiant, noted one observer. 'She appeared in bright sunshine attired in a robe of rose-colored tulle, spangled with silver stars and cut very low according to the fashion of the day. Her headdress consisted of a great number of diamond wheat-ears, and this brilliant attire, the elegance of her bearing, the charm of her smile, the sweetness of her countenance, produced such an effect that the Empress outshone all the ladies of her suite'." (Stuart, 316)

Her influence on Imperial style: "The result was a melange of Greek purity and European sumptuousness, mingling the neoclassical aesthetic with the revival of interest in the Middle Ages, known as the 'troubador style.' Hence the preference for embroidery and the raised lace collar that had become part of court dress. The grace with which Josephine wore these grand costumes belied just how uncomfortable they were; stiff and heavy." (Stuart, 336)

(An inventory of her wardrobe in 1809 listed 49 grand court dresses, 676 dresses, 60 cashmere shawls, 496 other shawls and scarves, 413 pairs of gloves, and 200 silk stockings)

In conclusion, "As one of history's great style icons, Josephine's influence on the way an entire generation wanted to look, dress, and behave cannot be overstated. Her every action and nuance of appearance were followed eagerly by newspapers and journals in France and abroad. She was the high priestess of style, and fashion-conscious women the world over idolized her." (Stuart, 335)

Today, she even has a Barbie in her image!

What do you think of Josephine's style? (I could do without the immense gold-embroidered dresses and velvet trains, but I do love cashmere shawls!). Who would be a comparable style icon today (Princess Diana, maybe? But I can't think of anyone more recent...)

(A few of the sources I enjoy on the life of Josephine are: Andrea Stuart's Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon's Josephine; Evangeline Bruce's Napoleon and Josephine: An Improbable Marriage; Frances Mossiker, Napoleon and Josephine: The Biography of a Marriage; and Carrolly Erickson's Josephine: A Life of the Empress)

Everybody Loves to Dance

I've been watching Ovation TV this past week, shows about the Phantom of the Opera (the play not Gerard Butler, alas!), West Side Story, Annie, and A Chorus Line. So I've been steeped in music, song and dance.

I'd love to write a Regency Historical about a dancer. The theater performances during the Regency had "ballet dancers" performing and I'd love to make one my heroine. Mostly Regency ballet dancers are mentioned as easy company for gentlemen, but I wonder if any of them had the love of movement and music that I associate with dancers today.

Consider this clip from West Side Story (my favorite sequence). Don't you think the dancers loved performing this?


Love of dance transcends even ego. Watch mega star Mikail Barishnikov dance the finale of A Chorus Line.


Certainly Regency characters loved dancing and singing as part of their entertainment. This little clip recreates what I imagine might have been the after dinner entertainment at a country house party.


A part of me always wants to break out in a song or dance the way they do in the movies. Unfortunately, I don't have the talent to pull it off, except in my imagination, but this clip shows it can be done! And romantically, too.


My very favorite is the Liverpool Train Station video. It always makes me smile.


On July 15, after the Literacy Signing, at the Marriot Wardman Park in Washington DC the Beau Monde will be hosting its annual Soiree. We'll have a chance to dance the Regency dances there! And at the Harlequin party on July 17, I'll get a chance to dance like they did in Liverpool.

What's your favorite dance performance, movies or theater? If it is on YouTube, share the url!

P.S. This has nothing to do with dance or song or music, but it is Regency and it made me laugh. I couldn't resist.

Hooray For Libraries!

This week, my local library system announced that the city's budget will allow for libraries to remain open six days a week. Whew!

One indicator of the current economy has been the massive upswing in library use; people who've been laid off are heading to the library for internet and computer access, people aren't buying books as much, kids need a place to go if their parents' jobs have changed or their caregiver has had to go to work again.

And, of course, library budgets have been threatened because of the economy.

So when the Brooklyn Public Library asked for donations to help keep the library's doors opened, I ponied up what I could and crossed my fingers. Where else can I get a steady stream of new books, DVDs and books for my son? Judging by the amount of traffic I see going into my local branch, and by how many people wanted The Reader ahead of me (hurry up, all 327 of you!), I would say the library's usage is thriving. So I was hoping the membership would also hear the call. And the city's mayor, not a stupid guy, made sure the library was taken care of in the budget. Again, whew.

The library is a great leveller; people of all ethnicities, age and gender congregate there. And while you might think the one thing they have in common is literacy, that is not always the case; my son and I spent many hours there before he could read.

I know from our books that the library in Regency times offered some of the same services, subscribing to the papers so people didn't have to pay for an individual subscription, getting the latest 'horrid novel' so a young lady needn't spend her pin money on it.

How about you? How has the economy affected your town or city's cultural spots? Do you visit the library as often as I seem to? What is your secret library tip (mine is to get cookbooks out of the library first to test-drive the recipes; that way, if you like the book, you can buy, but cookbooks can be super-pricy, and you're not sure you'll like until you try)?

Thanks,

Megan

PS: The top pic is the main branch of my library, which is just gorgeous.

Anniversary of Waterloo

This time last year we all blogged about Waterloo for a week (I wrote about the ordinary soldiers), and so since June 18 is the exact anniversary of the battle I thought I'd find some material we didn't cover then.

In 2004 the European community made the decision to restore the battlefield, providing a visitor center and other amenities to honor the site and attract visitors. Like many battlefields, it's spread out over a large geographic area. Here's the official Waterloo site.

There's also a site for the official reenactment of the battle, which takes place every year, with some beautiful photographs, all under copyright and in a flash format, of reenactors--Napoleon and Wellington among them. And yes, this year's reenactment is going on right now!

If you happen to be going over to London, there's a celebration at Apsley House, the home of the Duke, with special events this weekend.

And if you're not planning to travel this weekend, you can play the Battle of Waterloo game (no, I haven't tried it out, and don't blame me for the timesuck this undoubtedly is).

Restoration of the battlefield continues, the most recent effort being the restoration of Hougoumont Farm, where a strategically important part of the battle took place. The current Duke of Wellington, now in his 90s, is an enthusiastic supporter of Project Hougoumont. The opening of the Farm is timed for the two-hundred anniversary in 2015.

For a modern perspective on the first Duke and his descendents, Lady Jane Wellesley wrote a book published last year, Wellington: A Journey Through My Family. There's a review here with this quote:

I reflect on the indiscriminate, humbling power of war, and its aftermath, the way it plays havoc with people's destiny.

Further proof that there are still treasures to be found hidden away in old houses, the Scotsman reported last year that Walter Scott had done some souvenir hunting at the battlefield:

Larry Furlong, custodian of the trust, said the banners – one French and three British – had been stored in a cupboard between Scott's study and his library.

It is believed only a handful of people have been aware of their existence since they were brought to Abbotsford.

Have you visited Apsley House or Waterloo, or are you saving pennies for 2015? Do you enjoy reenactment activities, as participant or spectator?

SSP in fine print: New website and contest. Check it out.

Images of The Harem- But whose Point of View?

Today's post is a bit, well, risque, so if you're offended by art depicting nude women, I suggest you click away now. Also, I am NOT an art historian. The commentary is all mine and surely lacks any professional insights that would make this more coherent and detailed. But that never stopped me from forming an opinion!

Nevertheless, I think it's quite plain that these paintings say more about the painter and the targeted observer than they do about life in a harem at any time. One can certainly extrapolate -- women sequestered from men, expected to sexually service a single man. For the European man whose religion officially limited him to one wife and, culturally, to a single mistress, the thought of having a (cough) harem of women in service to him at his very male whims, must have been quite beyond titillating. I have no doubt some men disapproved. But the paintings suggest a good many were fascinated...

These women are all youthful, I found no pictorial mention of women who had lived past the state of desirability. And the majority of men with harems did not have a whole city of woman at their beck and call -- they were perhaps a few women, but I suspect it depended upon the man's rank and wealth. The Sultan was another matter; he did have thousands of women in the Seraglio.

From all the accounts I read, Caucasian women were preferred for the harems. There seems to have been some discomfort about what was, in effect, the sexual slavery of social cohorts. Slavery is for Others, after all. Turks and Arabs routinely raided Eastern Europe and into Spain for women to sell. This "White Slavery" did stop, officially, by the very late 1700's.


You'll notice that this Ingres painting features two extremely pale women. The servant standing in the background is dark skinned and, in this image, not identifiable as female. If this is a man, he is a eunuch. And since he is in the presence of women, his penis has been removed entirely. Eunuchs who worked in the harem but outside the women's quarters had their testicles removed or damaged beyond fertility but retained, generally, the rest of the package. Note, too, that the more naked the woman, the paler the skin. What does that suggest about notions of what and who was sexually desirable? Is there some racial anxiety here?



Of course, this is not a real Odalisque. Again, note the pale, European skin. A real Odalisque would have been a servant. European notions of the harem, and anxieties, not completely unfounded, about Caucasian women in the harem, about women and their sexuality are subtly expressed here. Remember, this is not a factual depiction, but rather a depiction of the European conception of Caucasian women whose sole purpose was the sexual pleasure of a man.


A very famous Ingres painting I'm sure you all recognize. Same remarks as above.


This painting shows a gentleman being entertained by the ladies in his harem. He is seated in the right corner of the divan, this was the place of honor, as it were. Servants and lower ranking individuals would not be permitted on the divan, they would sit on the floor. He is as you can see, with (presumably) his favorite at his side whilst he is entertained by other women. There are some quite lovely architectural and furniture details -- the divan, which runs the perimeter of the room, the high windows and beautiful scroll work and filigrees. The table to the right is quite authentic as well.



This sketch shows the interior of the Seraglio. They had to be efficient in order to house so many women!


Ah, one can just imagine the Sultan being entertained by his very accomplished concubines. To the right is a fountain, very much like you'd see in one of the baths.



This woman (again, note that the naked woman is very pale, the servant is not...) is in the hammam, the Turkish bath. She is wearing pattens on her feet so she doesn't fall and break her neck. European notions of rank, sexuality and desirability once again in full display.


Lest you come away thinking that all the woman painted as members of a harem were white, they weren't. Here's a woman of color. Though I feel compelled to note she is arranged in an inferior position, with the paler woman plainly the focus. After looking a dozens of such pictures the commonality was pretty obvious.

The women are typically depicted as sitting around with nothing much to do but wait for the Male (and not any old male, but The Male to have sex with her.) Again, this says more about the state of mind of the (male) painter than it does about actual life in the harem.

Unexpected Influences

I always love reading biographies of independent-minded women writers in history! (Austen, the Brontes, George Eliot, George Sand, Emily Dickinson, etc--it's very inspirational). This weekend I read Brad Gooch's new biography of Flannery O'Connor. O'Connor was one of my favorite writers in high school, but aside from a class called "The American Short Story" in college I haven't re-read her as much as Austen and the Brontes (which I re-read almost constantly!). This biography, though almost strictly about her life and with very little literary commentary, was fascinating and inspired me to take my volume of her short stories off the shelf again.

Flannery O'Connor, like almost all those other favorite authors I listed, was something of an eccentric, solitary soul, deeply devoted to her work and her own strange interior world. She had a relatively short life, dying at 39 of lupus in 1964, and the last 14 years of her life were spent mostly on the remote family farm in Georgia, but she was a writer of immense genius and originality. She wrote 2 novels, Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away, and 2 short story collections, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories and Everything That Rises Must Converge (which won a posthumous National Book Award). My college textbook says "(the) texts usually take place in the South and revolve around morally flawed characters." They could loosely be called "Southern Gothic," in the vein of her contemporaries Faulkner and Welty, but they are unique and deeply flavored with O'Connor's own devout Catholicism and struggles with illness.

For a writer of historical romance fiction like myself, O'Connor isn't such a direct influence as Austen and the Brontes. Though she declared "Hawthorne said he didn't write novels, he wrote romances; I am one of his descendants," they are 'romances' in a very different sense (more in the grotesque, fantastical way of Frankenstein). But as I re-read her most famous story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," I realized O'Connor is a great teacher of craft. Nothing could be added or subtracted from this story; the visual details and rhythm of the dialogue paint a whole world. And the sense of sustained foreboding is equaled only (maybe) in James's Turn of the Screw. It never falters. The same can be said of stories like "Good Country People" and the gorgeous "Revelation" (written partially from her deathbed. Determined to finish her Everything Rises... collection even as her body failed her, she set up a typewriter on a table by her bed, and would sleep for an hour and write for an hour until it was done. A lesson in artistic determination!).

There's a great website on O'Connor's work here, and her home at Andalusia is open to visitors, and I would love to visit there someday! (I would also love to visit Haworth Parsonage and Chawton, in hopes of soaking in some inspiration. Maybe we need to get together an international writers' tour...)

Who are some of your unexpected influences and favorite writers? Whose life story do you find intriguing?

(BTW, on my own blog yesterday's "Hottie Monday" was a Mr. Darcy edition! Be sure and stop in to vote for your favorite Darcy...)

Terri Brisbin's Winner...

...is Eva S! Congratulations! Please send your snail mail address to riskies@yahoo.com to claim your prize

Waterloo Days

In writing Book 2 of my Three Soldiers Series, I've again read Waterloo Days on Google Books. The complete title:
Waterloo Days: The Narrative of an Englishwoman Resident at Brussels June 1815 by Charlotte A. Eaton

(Waterloo Days is one of three memoirs from the Waterloo Campaign included in Ladies of Waterloo)

Charlotte Eaton traveled to Brussels with her brother and younger sister, arriving in the the city 194 years ago today. Her narrative of this trip was first printed two years later and again in 1852. It remains a vivid account and an exciting story, with such immediacy it could have been written yesterday.

This week is the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, the grand battle that finally ended the reign of Napoleon, so it seemed fitting for me to address what it was like in Brussels on June 15, 1815, three days before the battle.

Here, are Charlotte's words:

We had not entered the hotel many minutes, and had not once sat down, when we recognised our pleasant compagnon de voyage. Major Wylie, standing in the Place Royale below, encompassed with officers. He saw us, took off his hat, and, breaking from the people that surrounded him, darted in at the door of the hotel, and was with us in a minute. Breathless with haste, he could scarcely articulate that hostilities had commenced! Our amazement may be conceived: at first we could scarcely believe him to be in earnest.

“Upon my honour," exclaimed Major Wylie, still panting, and scarcely able to speak, from the haste with which he had flown up the hundred steps, "it is quite true; and the troops are ordered to be in readiness to march at a moment's notice; and we shall probably leave Brussels to-morrow morning."

In answer to our eager inquiries, he then told us that this unexpected intelligence had only just arrived; that he had that moment left the Duke of Wellington's table, where he had been dining with a party of officers ; and that, just as the dessert had been set upon the table, a courier had arrived, bringing dispatches from Marshal Blucher, announcing that he had been attacked by the French, but although the fighting was hot, it seemed to be Blucher's opinion that it would most probably be nothing more than a mere skirmish.

While the Duke was reading the dispatches, the Prince of Orange, General Mufflin, and some other foreign officers had come in. After a short debate, the Duke, expecting that the blow would be followed up, and believing that it was the enemy's plan to crush the English army, and take Brussels, immediately ordered the troops to be in readiness to take the field at a moment's notice.

"And when did all this happen? when was this attack made?" we anxiously inquired.

“It took place this afternoon."

“This afternoon !" I exclaimed, in astonishment, and, I suppose, with looks of consternation, which drew a good-natured smile from Major Wylie, for we had not been used to hear of battles so near, or fought the same afternoon.

“Yes, it happened this very afternoon” said Mayor Wylie ; " and when the express came away, they were fighting as hard as ever, but after all, it may prove a mere trifling affair of outposts nothing at all."

"But are the French in great force? Where are they? Where are the Prussians ? How far off do you suppose all this fighting is?" were some of the many questions we asked.

The fighting was in the neighbourhood of Charleroi, about half a day's march from Brussels; nothing certainly was known of the force of the French. In fact, nothing at all was known, except that the French had this very day attacked the Prussians, when they were totally unprepared, at a short distance from us.

"However, after all, this may end in nothing,"said Major Wylie, after a pause; “we may have to march to-morrow morning, or we may not march these three weeks, but the Duke expects another dispatch from Blucher, and that will settle the business:"

And so saying, Major Wylie went away to dress for a ball. Yes, a ball ! For the Duke of Wellington, and his aides-de-camp, and half of the British officers, though they expected to go to a battle to-morrow, were going to a ball to-night, at the Duchess of Richmond's; and to the ball they did accordingly go. They seemed to say, or to feel, with the Scottish Chief in Douglas:

Tills night once more
Within these walls we rest; our tents we pitch
To-morrow in the field. Prepare the feast!
Free is his heart who for his country fights:
He on the eve of battle may resign
Himself to social pleasure: sweetest then,
When danger to a soldier's soul endears
The human joy that never may return.

Would you like to have been in Brussels on June 15, 1815?
What do you think it would have been like to attend the Duchess of Richmond's ball?

Visit my website and enter my contest! Next prize (to be chosen today!) is my RITA winner, A Reputable Rake. So hurry.

Terri Brisbin Visits the Riskies!

This Sunday we welcome Harlequin Historicals and Kensington Brava author Terri Brisbin (who is also a 2009 RITA nominee)! Comment for a chance to win a signed copy of The Conqueror's Lady...

Riskies: Welcome to the blog, Terri! Tell us about your July release, The Conqueror's Lady. Where did you find the idea for this book?

Terri: I love the classic medieval romances about a victorious Norman knight and a Saxon lady and I tried to think of a twist on that premise--in researching the battle, I discovered that the Bretons were blamed for a big misstep that nearly cost William his invasion so I wondered if that was true or if the Bretons got the bad press? LOL! Anyway, after meeting a very sexy Breton harpist in Scotland, I decided my heroes should be Breton knights, all linked by being fostered by the same man. So, The Conqueror's Lady is the first of my trilogy--Knights of Brittany.

In this, Giles Fitzrobert is the first one to be sent to lands granted by William and he needs to fight his way in! As he arrives, he interrupts a wedding between his betrothed and another man and Giles is not happy. Fayth is trying to hold everything her father worked so hard for together and ends up married to a warrior who may have been her father's killer. But of course they begin to learn about each other and there is much more there than meets the eye going on...

Riskies: Did you find any interesting research tidbits?

Terri: Yes!!! William the Conqueror had anger management issues and poison seemed to be his favorite weapon of choice when taking out his enemies. The story of his rivalry and hostilities with Conan of Brittany were verryyy interesting. FYI--Conan died after wearing poisoned riding gloves...poisoned LEATHER riding gloves. Did I mention that William's mother was apparently the daughter of a tanner? Ahem...

Riskies: And what is "risky" about this book?

Terri: Any time an author begins a new series, it's risky...Will the readers like it? Will it all work out the way I planned? Will the characters do as they're told and stop whining about it being THEIR story? All those things and more went through my mind as I wrote this story.

Riskies: And tell us about your July "Undone" release!

Terri: Now, this is the RISKY thing I wrote! It's amazingly difficult for me to write these shorter length stories--I am used to having 350+ manuscript pages to tell my stories, so asking me to write something good in 1/3 of that for a novella was hard. But this Undone is 1/2 of a novella, so the same elements--plot, characters, emotions, relationship--all had to be a oart of it...and it had to make sense, too!

So I decided to tell the story of how the Knights of Brittany decided to fight for William and introduced the noble-born knight Simon, whose father fostered the other 3. It is Simon's wedding day to the lovely, feminine Lady Elise and Simon worries over how things will go between them. Lady Elise has the same worries and they spend the day trying to be the person they think the other wants them to be. Simon is wooing her gently and Elise is tempting him to the brink of his self-control.

Riskies: I see on your website you have lots of beautiful pics of Scotland! What are some of your favorite places there?

Terri: I do love Scotland! A couple of my favorite places are Edinburgh (so much to see and do, oh my!), Pitlochry (a small Victorian village in the Cairngorm mountains) and the Highlands. And Islands. Too many places to list, really. I'm planning a trip for September and my problem is that I want to visit too many places there!

Riskies: And what's next for you?

Terri: I am so excited to share that after my July Harlequin Historicals release, my next book will be in December and from Kensington Brava! A Storm of Passion is a medieval historical, set in Scotland when magic still glimmered in the Highlands and Islands. It's a story of a gift and a curse and forces so strong that only love can prevail, if it can be found. That is also the first of a new trilogy so there will be two more to follow in 2010 and 2011, and they promise to be very emotional and sexy romances.

The next one out from Harlequin will be Brice's story--I'm writing that now, so I suspect it will be a Spring 2010 release?

Also, Kensington just asked me to do a novella for an anthology headed up by Susan Johnson--THE Susan Johnson! I am so excited to be part of that project. I don't have a title (or even an idea!) for it yet, but it is scheduled as a May 2010 release.

Please check my website for all the details, and for a new contest I'm going to do over the summer. Mills & Boon, the UK Harlequin company, is releasing all 3 of my Highlander novels this summer, so I'm doing some giveaways of the British editions. Lots of new stuff and I'll be announcing it through my website and newsletter.

Thanks to the Risky Regencies for inviting me here today! Please ask me questions--I'll be stopping in during the day and would love to hear from readers and writers...

Letter to A Regency Son During Summer

Dear Heir,

Your tutor has gone back to the benighted rural village from which he comes, and he does not return until September. Which means that you have nearly three months of free hours. Mother, however, still has her correspondence, her visits to the poor, her sewing, her planning on dinner parties and general running of the household.

Mother does not get any months off from her life.

Not that she is envious, or anything.

Therefore, I've compiled a list of what you could do to occupy your time during the summer months. Please refer to this list before demanding to know what I have planned for you on any particular day.

Go fishing, either on our property or our neighbor's.
If it is our neighbor's, make sure the neighbor does not know. Until you fall in and need rescue from the neighbor's equal-aged daughter.

Make sure to knock all equal-aged girls out of trees, mock their lack of sports ability, pull on their pigtails and generally do things to ensure they a) hate you now and b) will love you later.

Go for long walks where you dream of what you could do if you were not the heir.

Indulge in your scientific obsession, especially if you plan on becoming an intense reserved man in the future. Woman you end up with will be fascinated with your preoccupation and knowledge, not to mention passion.

Speaking of passion, steer clear of those maids who have a come-hither look. You will either a) have a miserable experience that will taint your life or b) end up being a father. Perhaps both. Either way, not so good.

Spend hours thinking of ways in which I am the ideal, or not ideal, mother against whom you will compare all other women.

Please feel free to add to this list, as needed; your younger brothers will soon have their own books, and will need other diversions from which to draw inspiration.

Love,

Mother

What else could my heir do this summer? What are your kids up to?

Megan

Happy Birthday, Mr. Constable

It's the birthday of the great English landscape artist John Constable, born this day in 1776 (died 1837). He was born and grew up in Suffolk, the son of a corn merchant who owned Flatford Mill (now an environmental center), and it was expected that he would take over the family business. But while still quite young he sketched the Suffolk countryside and eventually in 1799 persuaded his father to give him an allowance so that he could attend the Royal Academy.

In 1802, he turned down the position of drawing master at Marlow Military College and around this time seems to have had a breakthrough regarding his art, realizing that his calling was as a professional landscape painter and rejecting the classical conventions of his training:

For the last two years I have been running after pictures, and seeking the truth at second hand. I have not endeavoured to represent nature with the same elevation of mind with which I set out, but have rather tried to make my performances look like the work of other men…There is room enough for a natural painter. The great vice of the present day is bravura, an attempt to do something beyond the truth.

Although he visited the Lake District his first love, and the landscape that spoke most strongly to him, remained that of Suffolk. Unlike his literary contemporaries, he did not seek or find the sublime in "romantic" landscapes. In the words of his biographer, Charles Leslie,

His nature was peculiarly social and could not feel satisfied with scenery, however grand in itself, that did not abound in human associations. He required villages, churches, farmhouses and cottages.

In his lifetime his paintings were far more successful in France than in England although he refused to travel abroad to promote his work.

In 1809 he met his future wife, Maria Bicknell, but her family opposed the match; they considered Constable a poor, unsuccessful artist from an inferior social background. Constable painted this portrait of Maria in 1816, the year they finally married.

During their long engagement, ten months before their marriage, he wrote her this letter:

East Bergholt. February 27, 1816

Let us...think only of the blessings that providence may yet have in store for us and that we may yet possess. I am happy in love--an affection exceeding a thousand times my deserts, which has continued so many years, and is yet undiminished...Never will I marry in this world if I marry not you. Truly can I say that for the seven years since I avowed my love for you, I have...foregone all company, and the society of all females (except my own relations) for your sake.

I am still ready to make my sacrifice for you...I will submit to any thing you may command me--but cease to respect, to love and adore you I never can or will. I must still think that we should have married long ago--we should have had many troubles--but we have yet had no joys, and we could not have starved...Your FRIENDS have never been without a hope of parting us and see what that has cost us both--but no more.

Sadly, Maria weakened by tuberculosis and giving birth to seven children, died in 1828. Constable mourned her for the rest of his life and raised their children alone.

Constable was fascinated by clouds and skies, and if you visit Constable Country you'll see those same huge skies. He was the first artist to paint oil sketches out of doors, with free, vivid brushstrokes. (Left: Seascape Study with Rain Cloud, painted in 1824 at Brighton, where the Constables had gone for Maria's health.)

Check out this site from the Tate Gallery, UK, where you can compare modern landscapes with Constable's interpretations.

And here's a lovely interpretation of Constable landscapes:



What are your favorite Constable paintings? Here's a list of paintings worldwide and a link to an exhibit of his huge landscapes that was on exhibit in the US a couple of years ago.

And now, in a blatant burst of self-promotion:
New website and contest at janetmullany.com and a chance to win a signed copy of A Most Lamentable Comedy in Pam Rosenthal's latest contest.
Plus today I'm blogging over at the History Hoydens about Jane Austen's letter of June 11, 1799, and talking about Immortal Jane at Austenprose and Jane Austen Today.

The Regency Ottoman Empire

When I realized that my October 2009 historical from Berkley Indiscreet was going to be set, for the most part, in the Ottoman Empire, I had to do some research. It is a fact of my writing process that important developments develop in media res, so it's not as though I knew ahead of time I wanted to set a story outside of England.

At some point during the writing, fairly early on, I am glad to say, I discovered -- that's how it seems to me, I don't decide, I discover-- that my hero and heroine meet in Turkey. Oh, how interesting, I thought. And then I thought I'd better do some research about that.

Some random Facts

Foreigners (non-Muslims for the most part) were not permitted to live in Constantinople. Instead, the extensive European community lived just outside the capital, in two cities, for the most part; Pera and Buyukdere. There were European diplomats from Britain, France, Russia, the Netherlands and Prussia among many others. The British had a not insignificant military presence, as did the French. And these men brought their families or were married here and started families. There was great alarm on one occasion when the wife of a British diplomat received a Turkish dignitary in her home in her husband's absence. But there wasn't the feared international incident with the potentate taking offense at being entertained by a woman without her head covered. By all accounts he was charmed. There was as well as subtext of his having found her sexually attractive. Were overtures subsequently made? There are hints.

The heavy diplomatic and military presences shouldn't come as a surprise since Napoleon was mucking about in Egypt at the time. Egypt was fairly unstable internally, though Ibrahim Pasha had a firm grip once he'd massacred the Mameluks. Earlier in the 1800's, British and Turkish troops marched through the desert to Egypt in order to put on a show of force. British accounts of the desert march were not particularly complimentary of the Turkish troops which were not trained with the European love of discipline. I'm quite sure prejudice and ignorance of culture and custom played a large role in the troubles.

It was customary for British ships to fire cannons (salute) when they passed the Seraglio, a word by the way, that was specific to the sultan's harem, despite the definition having since been often misused to refer to any harem.

There were, reputedly, over 30,000 women in the Seraglio. Parents sold their daughters into the Seraglio in the hopes that she would catch the sultan's eye and bear him a son. A son would immediately elevate the woman into favored status. Such a woman had political influence. The sons, however, did not have the princely life you'd imagine. They were confined to their own quarters, uneducated for the most part, and deliberately isolated so they would not represent a threat to the Sultan. Historians have speculated that this isolation and lack of training of any possible successor deeply contributed to the decline of the Empire.

British accounts of sojourns in Ottoman Turkey are overwhelmingly, gushingly complimentary of the horses. Arabians, of course. They were small but hardy, fast, tireless and smart, subsisting on meager rations. A day's journey of 25 miles through rugged country was quite common. The British were not so complimentary of their treatment of these Arab horses. The local custom was to leave the horses saddled, wet blankets and all, for the entire course of journey. Most every account takes disapproving note of this practice. The Bedouins were considered heroic with respect to their horsemanship.

I came across some interesting spellings of city names which I conformed to current spellings where those cities still exist -- most do. Iskenderun, on the Mediterranean coast of modern day Turkey, was commonly spelled Skanderoon. Beirut was often spelled Bayroot. Iskenderun, by the way, is named after Alexander the Great. It is not far from the pass where he defeated Darius of Persia.

The Syrian city of Aleppo, in ancient times and presently called Haleb, may well be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world -- at least 5,000 years. Aleppo was once the crossroads for caravans from all directions. It was the trade center of the ancient world and for centuries beyond.

Throughout Syria, Serjillo to the north for example, there are Roman ruins, entire villages, actually, that stand as if only recently abandoned. Crusaders from England, Richard The Lionheart among them, came to what is now Syria, some were imprisoned in the Citadel of Aleppo.

The Syrian province of the Ottoman Empire, with Aleppo still dominant, was a religious melting pot. Christians (Nazrins), Druze (often spelled Drooze, in period writings) the Wahabists, Muslims all made their homes here.

The Levant Company was the functional equivalent of the East India Company. The diplomatic corp was funneled through and approved by the Levant Company. So, often, was foreign policy. King George, and later, the Regent, had frustratingly little input -- in part as a function of time. It's difficult to conduct foreign policy when instructions to the region might take 6 months to get there and by then, conditions may well have changed. The Levant Company, in effect, conducted British foreign policy in the region and you better believe commercial interests superseded politics more than once.

Well, there you go. A quick and random overview of the Regency era Ottoman Empire.

Things I Learned in NYC

So last week was a fun-filled extravaganza of friends, books, and great food! I still haven't quite recovered (the suitcase is only half-unpacked, and the new books from our trek to the Strand are piled up waiting for shelf space to open), but I did learn a few things:

1) On Thursday evening, Diane and I joined Andrea Pickens at ABT for Le Corsaire (based on the Byron poem!), and I learned some plotting tips. All a story really needs to be exciting are some fights, an abduction or two, a pirate grotto, a ship wreck, an eeeevil villain, and a hunky shirtless guy. Pretty clothes don't hurt, either.

2) Those old Harlequin covers are hilarious! Why don't we have more like that now? And great titles like Pardon My Body and Love Me and Die... (this exhibit is up until June 12, if you're in the NYC area)

3) BEA is, well, very large. And very crowded. And full of eye-catching book displays that meant I kept tripping over my feet while trying to look at them AND walk. I only got 2 free books, though, unlike Kwana and her 4 big bags full. Next time, I am sticking with her for the whole day. (Crush It!!)

4) Rose laasi + Chicken tikka + Dinner with friends like Hope Tarr, Megan Frampton, Diane, and Kwana = Awesome (street fairs with cheap summer dresses and jewelry on the way to the restaurant just makes it that much better)

5) Cocktails called "French Lavender" are really, really yummy (thanks to Elizabeth Mahon for suggesting Dove Parlor!)

6) I want to live in the Decorative Arts galleries at the Metropolitan Museum

7) Lady Jane's Salon is totally as much fun as it looks. I wish I could get together something like that for romance fiction lovers here! (And finding out how covers evolve was very interesting, thanks to my editor at Grand Central Publishing)

8) Recording podcasts = Not as fearsome as I thought

9) Sadly, I missed a week-long display of costumes from the Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet in the lobby of the Time Warner building. This is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I was kicking myself when I found out (after we had already left NYC)!

10) I always feel so much more energized and ready to write after spending time with friends. Now I can't wait for RWA, which is only 5 weeks away! (Who is planning to be there? We're hoping to get together a Riskies gathering...)

(And thanks to Kwana for the NY pics!)

A Hint of Wicked Winner

Gillian Layne, you've won an autographed copy of Jennifer Haymore's A Hint of Wicked! Please send your address to us at riskies@yahoo.com

Diane and Amanda Visit The Strand

The Strand Bookstore, 12th Street and Broadway, is one of my favorite places to visit in New York City. Eighteen miles of books! Used and New. What's not to love?

Last Sunday Amanda, our friend Kwana and I went to The Strand. I mean, after a day at Book Expo, in which Kwana managed to get two shopping bags of books, what we all really needed was...more books. (from left to right, the photo shows Kwana, me, Hope Tarr, and Amanda the night before)

We spent most of the time in the England History aisles at The Strand. I suspect we only saw about one mile of the 18 miles of books.

We each bought these cool totebags to hold our purchases and Amanda and I kicked ourselves for not buying more of them for contest giveaways and such. It turns out you can order these online, along with other cool The Strand stuff, HERE.

And here are my purchases!

London Homes (1952) by Ralph Dutton: "...traces the development of the residential areas of London through three and a half centuries."

The Last Duel (2005) by James Landale: "In 1826 a merchant named David Landale shot his banker dead in a duel....one of the final fatal duels in European history." The author is a descendant of David Landale.

The Life and Death of Benjamin Robert Haydon (1948) by Eric George: "...an outstanding figure among men of art and letters in the first half of the nineteenth century."

Frances Anne, Lady Londonderry (1958) by Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry: Frances Anne was the second wife of the brother of Lord Castlereagh, who inherited the title after his brother's suicide.

Wellington's Peninsular Victories (1996) by Michael Glover: "Four great military victories: the Battles of Busaco, Salamanca, Vitoria and the Nivelle." (Come on, you knew I'd buy a Napoleonic war book!)

Wellington (2005) by Elizabeth Longford: This is a slim abridgement of her two volume biography.

Your Most Obedient Servant: James Thornton, Cook to the Duke of Wellington (1985) by James Thornton: This is a reprint of an 1851 interview conducted with the man who cooked for Wellington during his campaigns.

A Hundred Years of Georgian London from the Accession of George I to the Heyday of the Regency (1970) by Douglas Hill. The title says it all!

A Holiday History of Scotland (1986) by Ronald Hamilton: Gotta laugh. I thought this was a history of the holidays of Scotland, but it is a short history of what vacationers to Scotland might want to know about the country's past to enhance their "holiday" experience. Duh!

Kwana or Amanda, what was the name of that book that you both snatched off the shelf before I could get to it? Something about Nineteenth Century London???? I need it!!!

Have you bought any good research or non-fiction books lately? Do you have a favorite used bookstore?
What do you think about reusable totebags? Do you use them?

I'm still giving away backlist books at my website contest.

The Vanishing Viscountess WON the Golden Quill for Best Regency.

The Riskies Welcome Jennifer Haymore!

The Riskies are very excited to welcome debut author Jennifer Haymore to the blog today! Her first book, A Hint of Wicked, is out this month from Grand Central Publishing. Comment for a chance to win an autographed copy...

Riskies:Welcome to the blog, Jennifer! Tell us about A Hint of Wicked...

Jennifer: Thanks so much! This is one of my favorite blogs, so I'm thrilled to be here! A Hint of Wicked is the story of a woman who's spent 7 years mourning her husband lost at Waterloo to finally marry again, only to have her first husband appear less than a year into her new marriage. She's legally bound to her first husband, her second husband is appealing to the courts, and she's completely torn between the two men.

Riskies: Sounds exciting! How did you come up with the idea for this book?

Jennifer: My husband usually brainstorms with me, and one night I wanted to brainstorm some new ideas for a Regency. He said, "What do you think of a husband walking in on his wife having sex with someone else?" I shuddered and said, "That's a horrible idea--nobody likes adultery in their romance!" He said, "Hmmm...but what if she doesn't know she's committing adultery? What if...what if she thinks her husband is dead?"

Hehee! That's how A Hint of Wicked was born. I took that idea and ran with it. My husband read an early version of the manuscript, and after he finished he turned to me with a scowl on his face. "This is nothing like I imagined it," he said. "Nothing!" I just grinned at him and said, "Too bad." It was his original idea, but MY story, after all!

Riskies: And what's "risky" about this book? (this one should be easy, LOL!)

Jennifer: AHOW strays a little from some of the established conventions of romance. There is truly more than one hero in this book, and one doesn't get a happy ending. As much as I wanted my heroine to end up with both men (and as much as she wanted it!), it wouldn't have been a realistic ending for the character in the world she lives in, not to mention that her husbands wouldn't have accepted such a resolution. Fortunately, she does end up with the man who is right for her, and the other hero will get his own HEA in a big, big way---A Touch of Scandal will be released by Grand Central in April 2010.

Also, I don't want to give away spoilers, but I will say the heroine is sexually attracted to both men. And she has certain fantasies I would definitely call risky...

Riskies: Did you find any interesting or surprising research tidbits that went along with this book?

Jennifer: Oooh, I found tons. I spend hours reading through books and resources written in the early 19th century. From theatre reviews (the performance of A Vision of the Sun depicted in AHOW was actually performed in Covent Garden on that date) to medical journals (I feel like an expert on laudanum and opium overdose now!) to dinner menus, I had a great time with all of it.

Riskies: And what's next for you?

Jennifer: I'm finishing up edits on A Touch of Scandal as we speak. By the end of the month I'm going to start work on Lady Rebecca's story. (Rebecca is the younger sister of one of the heroes in A Hint of Wicked), and I'm so excited about that!

Thanks for having me here at the Riskies!

You can visit Jennifer's website for more information and research info! Remember--be sure and comment for a chance to win a copy of this very intriguing book!! And join us next weekend as we welcome Terri Brisbin...

Edith Layton

Most of you have probably already heard of the unfortunate passing of author Edith Layton. Tributes are up at the Word Wenches, Smart Bitches Trashy Books, and from Edith's daughter, Susie Felber.

Edith Layton was, and remains, one of my favorite Regency authors. Back in 2001, when I got laid off because of effects of 9/11, I decided I would try to write a book like the ones I read and loved when I was young. I went to the library and hunted down any book that had "Regency" on the spine. Naturally, Edith Layton's books were prime among them, and thank goodness, because I am not certain I would have persevered if I hadn't read some superb quality books right away. In short succession, I read The Duke's Wager, The Disdainful Marquis, Lord of Dishonor and The Abandoned Bride.

Later, I was floored by The Devil's Bargain. The hero in That Subtle Knot, my book being submitted to publishers now, is named Alisdair in homage to The Devil's Bargain very dark, very tortured hero.

I got to meet Ms. Layton at RWA New York; it was my first conference, and I had persuaded my husband to join me for the Literacy Signing. We wandered the exhibition area, him feeling like a rare piece of meat, since there were two other men in the entire room: One a Brockmann-imported Navy SEAL, and one an indie-paper guy dressed in an Iggy Pop t-shirt. When we got the "L" row, I made a beeline for Edith Layton. She was totally gracious, and eyeballed Scott, telling him he should model for our covers. I got to tell her how much I loved her books.

I am so grateful she turned her enormous writing talent to romance, and very grateful she was so prolific, and was given the chance to share her talent with us.

Thank you, Ms. Layton. You will be missed.

Megan

Casanova, risk taker

I will begin with this confession: whatever I have done in the course of my life, whether it be good or evil, has been done freely; I am a free agent... My success and my misfortunes, the bright and the dark days I have gone through, everything has proved to me that in this world, either physical or moral, good comes out of evil just as well as evil comes out of good.
Casanova, foreword to his Memoirs

It's the anniversary of the death of Casanova (Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt) born in Venice, April 2, 1725, died June 4, 1798 in Prague. His name is synonymous with the archetypal male lover/seducer, but who was he really?

He's a fascinating complex figure, full of contradictions and immensely talented and restless. In addition to the amorous activities for which he's best known, he was also a preacher, philosopher, occultist, diplomat, soldier, spy, writer, author, librarian, and jailbreaker. He wrote extensive Memoirs but admits that he may not be altogether truthful--however, the Memoirs give a brilliant picture of life in eighteenth-century Europe. He has all the prejudices of a man of his times yet he has a remarkably modern voice.

His adventurous, sexy life has been a favorite among film-makers, with a version starring the late Heath Ledger, and a BBC version with David Tennant (David who? Yes, that guy).

Fellini made a strange (which really goes without saying), stylized movie in 1976 starring a young and exotic Donald Sutherland, that perfectly captures Casanova's sexual ambivalence and cool detachment.


And, yes, Casanova apparently did like to cross-dress now and again. (Well, honestly, what did you expect?) Carol Ann Duffy, the UK's first woman poet laureate, went a step further with her 2007 play in which Casanova is actually a woman. The Guardian reported: It is not sex but looks, food, music and language that are the agents of seduction. This Casanova gives everyone she meets their heart's desire: Voltaire gets his ideas from her; Mozart gets music; and even a raging bull becomes as docile as a kitten when it looks into Casanova's eyes. Hmm.

And talking of Mozart, yes, they did meet, along with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte when they were in Prague for the creation and premiere of Don Giovanni (1787). Casanova was an advisor for the libretto and part of the libretto exists in Casanova's hand. Da Ponte, a former priest with a penchant for married women (I don't think I've blogged yet about da Ponte, another fascinating character, but I will do so sometime soon) didn't really need much advising in bedchamber matters. Another story: when da Ponte met Casanova another time, he was so embarrassed by his marriage and subsequent fall into respectability that he introduced his wife to the aging rake as his mistress. (The trouble is that although da Ponte and Casanova both wrote memoirs they are equally unreliable.)


Casanova was the only prisoner to escape from the Doge of Venice's notorious prison, which was accessed by the Bridge of Sighs, a gorgeous entrance to a human roach motel (you went in but you didn't come out). That was probably true.

Have you tackled the Memoirs?--the prison escape is riveting, and Casanova rivets over 120 women in loving, pervy detail. Not to everyone's tastes... Which movie of Casanova is your favorite?

May I Have The Honor of an Introduction?

I feel as if I've finally obtained those coveted tickets to Almack's! Goodness. I'm really here. At the Risky Regencies. (fanning self) Everyone here is so deliciously wonderful, a few are even notorious. Is my gown is fashionable enough? What if I say the wrong thing to the person, or the right thing to the wrong gentleman? What if no one asks me to dance? Should I have the ratafia or the orgeat? Perhaps it would be safer to have nothing and refuse all offers to dance. I might fall or otherwise make a spectacle of myself. Life is fraught, I tell you. Simply fraught.

Hello there. I'm Carolyn Jewel and this is my Riskies debut. Be gentle for this is my first time in the social whirl that is the ton.

A little bit about myself, then. Right. Carolyn Jewel, as mentioned. I write historical romance for Berkley Sensation. My most recent historical is Scandal and Indiscreet will be out this October. I write paranormals, too, but not Regency set ones, so 'nuff said.

I love the Regency era and I very much look forward to posting about all things Regency and Risky. While I was writing Indiscreet I learned a great deal about Britain's presence in the Ottoman Empire during the time period. Any opinions on a post or two about this subject? Until next time,

Carolyn

Risky Lady Madeleine de Scudery

I'm currently off having fun in New York with Diane and Megan! Next week I hope to have some pics and an account of our time here (BEA, museums, theaters, Lady Jane's Salon, oh my!). But I've left this post about a most Risky lady of history, the author and salon hostess Madeleine de Scudery (who died on this day in 1701).

Madeleine was born in Le Havre in 1607, where her father was captain of the port. He died when she was about 7, and she went to live in Rouen with an uncle who had spent time at Court and possessed a large library, which she avidly explored. Sometime after the death of her mother in 1635, she went to live with her playwright brother Georges in Paris. With her brother she attended Catherine de Rambouillet's famous salon. Eventually she formed her own salon, the Societe de samedi, and became known as the first bluestocking of France.

She wrote many immensely long volumes, both under her own name and the pseudonym pf "Sapho," including Artamene (10 volumes, 2.1 millions words, 1648-53), Ibrahim (4 volumes, 1641), and Almahide (8 volumes, 1661-3). They are set in the classical world or an imaginary Orient, but their language and plots reflect the life of 17th century Paris, full of philosophical conversations and many abductions of heroines. The characters were often based on Madeleine's own friends and acquaintances, such as her lover Paul Pellison.

For more information, her biography and correspondence were published in Paris in 1873, and there is a chapter about her in AG Mason's The Women of the French Salons. I find her fascinating, and would love to write a saloniste heroine someday!

More news from New York next week...

Elizabeth Rolls Winner

Winner of Lord Braybrook's Penniless Bride is....

Eleni Konstantine!!

Eleni, email us at riskies@yahoo.com with your address so we can send you a copy of Lord Braybrook's Penniless Bride!

New York New York. It's a Wonderful Town

Greetings from the Big Apple!

Amanda and I are having a wonderful time. We arrived in NYC Thursday and had dinner with fellow regency author, Andrea Pickens and afterward the three of us went to Lincoln Center to see American Ballet Theatre's Le Corsaire.

Friday we went to the Metropolitan Museum and spent lots of time looking at 18th and 19th century paintings and sculpture. Then Andrea and our very own Risky, Megan joined us for lunch and a long tour of the decorative arts section of the museum. Here's just one example of the sort of items we oohed and aahed over.

Friday night Amanda and I attended a special viewing of the Heart of a Woman exhibit, celebrating 60 years of Harlequin books cover art. My favorite cover was an old one, Love Me and Die. We met Max Ginsberg, cover artist for many of the past Harlequin covers. On display were several of his works, all worthy of being hung in art galleries as fine art.

Saturday was Book Expo America, where Amanda and I signed The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor. Deb Marlowe, the third author of our anthology, was supposed to come with us but she got sick and couldn't travel to NYC. We missed her!

Harlequin treated us very well, though, and in no time at all we gave away every copy of our book that the publisher provided.

Sunday we went to The Strand Bookstore where Amanda and I bought lots of research books. Our friend Kwana (who took the booksigning photo above) went with us, but she only bought a couple of books. Kwana had also gone to Book Expo and came back with three totebags full of free books. Amanda and I did not get any free books at BEA.

Megan and Kwana joined us for dinner. Also with us was my good friend, Hope Tarr, whom I haven't really seen since she moved from DC to NYC.

Tonight is Lady Jane's Salon where Amanda and I will be reading excerpts from The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor. All our New York friends, Megan, Andrea, Kwana, Hope, and others will be there too.

Wish us luck on our readings!

Do you have a favorite place in New York City? Or one place in the city you would most like to see? (Mine is the Metropolitan Museum!)

I can't wait to welcome our newest Risky, coming this Wednesday, June 3!

Winner of Elizabeth Roll's Lord Braybrook's Penniless Bride will be announced tonight.

The Unlacing of Miss Leigh, my Undone short estory, hit number one on the Harlequin eBook Best Seller list again last week!

Stay tuned to discover if Deb Marlowe's An Improper Aristocrat or my The Vanishing Viscountess or Scandalizing the Ton won the Desert Rose Golden Quill contest. Winners should be announced today!