Flash Back Friday

This post was originally shared on May 30, 2014

It was a book recommendation for The Duke's Obsession by Frances Fowlkes

Description

 London 1818

An American Heiress Who Must Swallow Her Pride 

Miss Daphne Farrington despises three things: England's dreary weather, the grimy streets of London, and most especially the English aristocracy. Despite her misgivings, she must persuade the very English Duke of Waverly to save her family shipping business. If only she could ignore the way he makes her pulse race whenever she's near him.

 A Duke Who Must Overcome Her Prejudice 

 Edward Lacey, the Duke of Waverly, is convinced that the lovely Miss Farrington, with her penchant for numbers, is the woman he'd like to make his Duchess. But unless he can convince her that not all English lords are callous, calculating rakes, a dark secret will ruin his chance at happiness.

Review

With a description like that one would hope that there would be essences of P&P in the novel, and I'm happy to say there were, but with out being a rewrite of the novel.  The first thing that caught my attention was this line:

He was, in the eyes of his mother and society, a man in possession of wealth and fortune, and of an age when he ought to have a wife. 

I liked that Daphne wasn't over in England specifically to hunt for a titled husband. If she had her way she would be going home to Boston ASAP! But things are not going smoothly and she ends up forming attachments despite her best efforts to keep everyone at a distance.

Her gift with numbers helps her family's business as well as the Duke's own personal fiances. The Duke adds this to his ever growing list of reasons why he likes her and thinks she'll make a perfect Duchess. His mother, who reminds me of a mix between Mrs. Bennett and Lady Catherine, keeps trying to direct her son's relationships.  She wishes he would turn his attention away from Daphne who is just a lowly American.

Perfect summer read!

I received an ebook copy from Netgalley for my honest review.

Flashback Friday! - Friday Audio - Kathyrn Sutherland's Jane Austen Talks

This post was originally shared on June 22, 2012


Our friends at JASNA - New York Metro Region shared this last week:

Two podcasts (audio) from Oxford's Bodleian Library series featuring Kathryn Sutherland speaking on Jane Austen and what we can learn from her manuscripts about her life, writing style and techniques: Jane Austen Podcasts.

I've included the first podcast listed: Jane Austen's Manuscripts Explored

Professor Kathyrn Sutherland from the University of Oxford talks around the manuscripts of Jane Austen, what we can learn from them about her family life but also her writing style and techniques.

I suggest checking out the rest of the podcasts, they are great discussions.

Flashback Friday - Pugs, Jane Austen, political conspiracy and mass murder

This post was originally posted on July 19, 2010

Versailles and More's Catherine Delors shares, "Fans of Jane Austen will remember Lady Bertram in Mansfield Park sitting on her sofa with her pug by her side. “The next time Pug has a litter you shall have a puppy,” she tells her niece Fanny. Lady Bertram can think of no higher mark of her regard. Indeed pugs were great favorites for ladies of fashion in Regency England. Across the Channel, they were no less popular with Parisian élégantes. "

To read more, click here.

Flashback Friday

This post was originally shared on August 18, 2009

The surprising combination of smoked trout and roasted beets produces a teatime taste treat.

Smoked Trout and Roasted Beet Tea Sandwiches

Makes 12 tea sandwiches

4 large beets, scrubbed and trimmed
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1/4 cup chopped chives, divided
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced shallots
1 loaf thin wheat bread, crusts removed
1 (8-ounce) package smoked trout
Garnish: beets, chopped chives

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Place beets on a baking sheet, and roast for 45 minutes. Cool beets, peel, and thinly slice.

2. In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, chives (reserving some for garnish), lemon juice, and shallots; stir until mixture is well blended.

3. Cut each slice of bread diagonally, and toast until golden and crisp. Cool completely.

4. Spread a thin layer of the cream-cheese mixture on all toast points. Evenly layer sliced beets and trout over the cream cheese, and top with another prepared toast point. Garnish with beets and chives, if desired.

From TeaTime Magazine

Flashback Friday - Bollywood's Emma

This post was originally shared on June 30, 2010


For those of you who enjoyed the Bollywood "Bride and Prejudice," you can look forward to the August release of India's version of Jane Austen's Emma.
To see the trailer and learn more just click on this link.

Flashback Friday - May I call on you?

This was original posted on May 24, 2010.


With today’s boundless and constant “visiting” through email, texting, and even Twitter, it is refreshing to step-back-in-time when precise and extensive etiquette conventions ruled all social interactions. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, it was established that it was always better to overdo the polite than to underdo it.

After introductions, visits or “calls” came next in the first round of the proper social sequence that Jane Austen's characters adhered. The custom of restricting hours to certain parts of days, and then to certain days of the week, was started in self-preservation to prevent callers from spreading themselves into whole days — some calling in the mornings, others in the afternoons, still others evenings, and all on any day in the week. Read the rules of “calling” here. Or order a set of your very own calling cards here.

Flashback Friday - Little-known fact about Jane #7

This post is originally from 7/3/2008

A number of recent movies, such as Clueless (1995), have placed the plots of Jane Austen novels in contemporary settings. Martin Scorsese introduced an unexpected note of violence into his version of Mansfield Park, re-shot as Goodfellas (1990), but, as he pointed out in a talk at the National Film Theatre recently: "To me, there's an underlying violence in every word Austen wrote." Experts have now begun to realise that the longrunning series EastEnders is in fact an extended version of Sense and Sensibility, with Barbara Windsor as Mrs Dashwood and Phil Mitchell as John Willoughby. 

By Craig Brown The Telegraph 26/01/2008 www.telegraph.co.uk

You can find the full article here --> Twelve little-known facts about Jane Austen

Flashback Friady - Book Suggestion: Old Friends and New Fancies

This post was originally from June 8, 2008

Old Friends and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen
By Sybil G. Brinton


Old Friends and New Fancies distinguishes itself from the spate of Jane Austen sequels we've seen in the last several years in that it was written in 1913—now almost a century ago but, then, just 100 years after the publication of Austen's most famous novel. Furthermore, it is a sequel to all six of Austen's novels. Characters from Northanger Abbey (1798), Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1816), and Persuasion (1818, published posthumously) interact, intertwine, and, of course, eventually intermarry! In the foreword to her book, Sybil G. Brinton acknowledges the presumption and difficulties of the task she has undertaken. Nevertheless she succeeds nicely in imitating the cadences and stylistic nuances of the originals, carrying the characters forward in this pleasing novel.

Flashback Friday - Creamy White-Bean and Sage Soup

This post was originally from January18, 2010

Creamy White-Bean and Sage Soup

Makes 6 to 8 servings

4 ounces bacon, finely diced

2 cups finely chopped onion

1 tablespoon prepared roasted garlic

4 cups chicken broth

4 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

3 sprigs fresh parsley

8 sprigs fresh thyme

3 bay leaves

1 cup heavy whipping cream

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon black truffle oil

Garnish: additional black truffle oil and ground black pepper

1. In a large stockpot over medium-high heat, cook the bacon until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels. 2. Add the onion and roasted garlic to the bacon drippings in the pot, and cook for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour in the broth, and bring to a boil. Add the beans, parsley, thyme, and bay leaves; cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and cool slightly.3. Remove the parsley, thyme, and bay leaves from the soup. Using a blender, puree the mixture in batches until smooth. 4. Return soup to the pot, and add cream, butter, lemon juice, white pepper, and salt. Cook over medium-low heat until hot. Stir in truffle oil. Ladle soup into individual serving dishes, and drizzle each serving with additional truffle oil and a sprinkle of black pepper, if desired. Recipe from Tea Time Magazine

Flashback Friday - Tips for cheering yourself up, from 1820

This post was originally published on April 20, 2008

In 1820, English writer Sydney Smith wrote a letter to an unhappy friend, Lady Morpeth, in which he offered her tips for cheering up. His suggestions are as sound now as they were almost 200 years ago.

1st. Live as well as you dare.
2nd. Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold, 75 or 80 degrees.
3rd. Amusing books.
4th. Short views of human life—not further than dinner or tea.
5th. Be as busy as you can.
6th. See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you.
7th. And of those acquaintances who amuse you.
8th. Make no secret of low spirits to you friends, but talk of them freely—they are always worse for dignified concealment.
9th. Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you.
10th. Compare your lot with that of other people.
11th. Don’t expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best.
12th. Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy, sentimental people, and everything likely to excite feeling or emotion, not ending in active benevolence.
13th. Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree.
14th Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15th. Make the room where you commonly sit gay and pleasant.
16th. Struggle by little and little against idleness.
17th. Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18th. Keep good blazing fires.
19th. Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
20th. Believe me, dear Lady Georgiana.

From a great blog, called "The Happiness Project"
http://www.happiness-project.com/