Amanda Grange
19th October 2011, 06:50 PM
I just wanted to say that the UK paperback of Colonel Brandon's Diary is out now.
I used to hang out on BGO a lot but I was spending too much time here and not getting on with writing, so if I'm posting this in the wrong place, please let me know.
I've always loved Jane Austen and if she'd written 50 books I would have spent my life reading them, but like a lot of people I was left wanting more, so I wrote a series of diaries which look at her novels from the male point of view.
The paperback of Colonel Brandon's Diary has been released to coincide with the bicentennial of Sense and Sensibility, so if you like Jane Austen, why not give it a try? It starts when Brandon is 18 and it fleshes out the back story given in Sense and Sensibility, then leads on to the events of Sense and Sensibility, but shown from Brandon's point of view.
Jane Austen tells us that Brandon fought a duel because of his ward, Eliza, and her seduction by Willoughby. Here is that section from Colonel Brandon's Diary:
Willoughby was out, but I said I would wait and the landlady let me in. I sat and waited an hour for him. He entered in high good humour, looking as handsome as ever, and with not a care in the world.
‘What, Brandon? I never thought to find you here. I thought you were attending to urgent business,’ he said impudently. ‘Well, what is it then? You must have some reason for coming here, and I cannot suppose it is for the pleasure of my company. You never struck me as a man who courted pleasure! Indeed, the last time I saw you, you were doing everything in your power to avoid it.’
I took my glove and slapped his face. He looked startled, and his hand went to his cheek, and then he laughed.
‘What! Are you calling me out! I cannot believe it. For laughing at you? No, that is impossible. For what then? I have done nothing – unless you wish to call me out for taking Miss Marianne for a drive when you were called away?’
‘I am not here about Miss Marianne, though, God knows, if I were her brother, I would be tempted to give you a thrashing,’ I said. ‘I am here about Eliza Williams.’
‘Eliza Williams?’ he asked incredulously, and then something wary entered his eye and the smile left his face. ‘I know no one of that name.’
‘Then let me refresh your memory. She is the young girl you met in Bath, and then seduced and abandoned,’ I said.
‘Oh, hardly that. She took no seducing —‘ He stopped as he realised that he had admitted to knowing her, but then he shrugged and went on, ‘and as for abandoning her, I did no such thing.’
‘You left her alone in a strange city where she had no friends,’ I said, restraining the impulse to knock him down. ‘The very circumstances that should have aroused your compassion instead aroused your cruelty. She was an orphan, with no one to protect her and so you used her as you pleased.’
He shrugged, and said, ‘And if I did, what business is it of yours? You cannot mean to champion every waif and stray you discover. Not even your chivalry would stretch to that.’
‘She is my ward,’ I said.
He went pale.
‘Your ward?’ he asked, and he put his hand out behind him and supported himself on the back of a chair.
‘Indeed. My ward. I am here to tell you that you must marry her. You cannot give her back her heart, but you can at least give her the protection of your name,’ I said shortly.
‘Marry her? Come, now, Brandon, you cannot expect me to marry her. She is not at all the sort of girl I would wish to marry, and besides, she has not a penny to her name. A man does not marry his mistress, Brandon, you know that,’ he said, gaining courage again and smirking at me insolently.
‘She is not your mistress. She is a young girl of good family who has been cruelly deceived. I have been lenient with you in offering you a chance to marry her, but I confess that I am pleased you have refused, for I would not have liked to see her tied to a man of so little worth. If you will give me the name of your seconds, we will meet at a time and place of your choosing and settle this matter.’
‘Now look here, Brandon, you are a man of the world. Let us settle this as men of the world.’
‘That is what I am here to do.’
‘On the field of honour? Oh, come now, Brandon, you are making too much of it. I am sure she will be happy as long as she has an income. I am not rich, but I can give her something, I am sure. And then, when Mrs Smith dies and I inherit my fortune I can give her something more. I will set her up in her own establishment, with a maid and everything comfortable.’
‘If you will not repair the damage you have done to her by marrying her then you will name your seconds. Which is it to be?’
The book is out now (actually, the official release date is 31 October, but Amazon have it already http://tinyurl.com/5uc2bxj - if you'd rather buy from a bookshop then you probably won't be able to find it until the end of the month).
Amanda Grange
www.amandagrange.com
__________________
Colonel Brandon's Diary - "Sure to delight Austen fans", Cheshire Life
Captain Wentworth's Diary - Editors' Choice, Historical Novels Review
Mr Darcy's Diary "Absolutely fascinating" - Historical Novel Society; "Lots of fun" - Woman magazine
http://www.amandagrange.com
I used to hang out on BGO a lot but I was spending too much time here and not getting on with writing, so if I'm posting this in the wrong place, please let me know.
I've always loved Jane Austen and if she'd written 50 books I would have spent my life reading them, but like a lot of people I was left wanting more, so I wrote a series of diaries which look at her novels from the male point of view.
The paperback of Colonel Brandon's Diary has been released to coincide with the bicentennial of Sense and Sensibility, so if you like Jane Austen, why not give it a try? It starts when Brandon is 18 and it fleshes out the back story given in Sense and Sensibility, then leads on to the events of Sense and Sensibility, but shown from Brandon's point of view.
Jane Austen tells us that Brandon fought a duel because of his ward, Eliza, and her seduction by Willoughby. Here is that section from Colonel Brandon's Diary:
Willoughby was out, but I said I would wait and the landlady let me in. I sat and waited an hour for him. He entered in high good humour, looking as handsome as ever, and with not a care in the world.
‘What, Brandon? I never thought to find you here. I thought you were attending to urgent business,’ he said impudently. ‘Well, what is it then? You must have some reason for coming here, and I cannot suppose it is for the pleasure of my company. You never struck me as a man who courted pleasure! Indeed, the last time I saw you, you were doing everything in your power to avoid it.’
I took my glove and slapped his face. He looked startled, and his hand went to his cheek, and then he laughed.
‘What! Are you calling me out! I cannot believe it. For laughing at you? No, that is impossible. For what then? I have done nothing – unless you wish to call me out for taking Miss Marianne for a drive when you were called away?’
‘I am not here about Miss Marianne, though, God knows, if I were her brother, I would be tempted to give you a thrashing,’ I said. ‘I am here about Eliza Williams.’
‘Eliza Williams?’ he asked incredulously, and then something wary entered his eye and the smile left his face. ‘I know no one of that name.’
‘Then let me refresh your memory. She is the young girl you met in Bath, and then seduced and abandoned,’ I said.
‘Oh, hardly that. She took no seducing —‘ He stopped as he realised that he had admitted to knowing her, but then he shrugged and went on, ‘and as for abandoning her, I did no such thing.’
‘You left her alone in a strange city where she had no friends,’ I said, restraining the impulse to knock him down. ‘The very circumstances that should have aroused your compassion instead aroused your cruelty. She was an orphan, with no one to protect her and so you used her as you pleased.’
He shrugged, and said, ‘And if I did, what business is it of yours? You cannot mean to champion every waif and stray you discover. Not even your chivalry would stretch to that.’
‘She is my ward,’ I said.
He went pale.
‘Your ward?’ he asked, and he put his hand out behind him and supported himself on the back of a chair.
‘Indeed. My ward. I am here to tell you that you must marry her. You cannot give her back her heart, but you can at least give her the protection of your name,’ I said shortly.
‘Marry her? Come, now, Brandon, you cannot expect me to marry her. She is not at all the sort of girl I would wish to marry, and besides, she has not a penny to her name. A man does not marry his mistress, Brandon, you know that,’ he said, gaining courage again and smirking at me insolently.
‘She is not your mistress. She is a young girl of good family who has been cruelly deceived. I have been lenient with you in offering you a chance to marry her, but I confess that I am pleased you have refused, for I would not have liked to see her tied to a man of so little worth. If you will give me the name of your seconds, we will meet at a time and place of your choosing and settle this matter.’
‘Now look here, Brandon, you are a man of the world. Let us settle this as men of the world.’
‘That is what I am here to do.’
‘On the field of honour? Oh, come now, Brandon, you are making too much of it. I am sure she will be happy as long as she has an income. I am not rich, but I can give her something, I am sure. And then, when Mrs Smith dies and I inherit my fortune I can give her something more. I will set her up in her own establishment, with a maid and everything comfortable.’
‘If you will not repair the damage you have done to her by marrying her then you will name your seconds. Which is it to be?’
The book is out now (actually, the official release date is 31 October, but Amazon have it already http://tinyurl.com/5uc2bxj - if you'd rather buy from a bookshop then you probably won't be able to find it until the end of the month).
Amanda Grange
www.amandagrange.com
__________________
Colonel Brandon's Diary - "Sure to delight Austen fans", Cheshire Life
Captain Wentworth's Diary - Editors' Choice, Historical Novels Review
Mr Darcy's Diary "Absolutely fascinating" - Historical Novel Society; "Lots of fun" - Woman magazine
http://www.amandagrange.com