The Making of Margaret Dashwood

Who will she meet, besides the Wilberforce’s, of course. Why, the abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, and Clarkson’s dear friends in the Lake Country, William Wordsworth, his wife Mary, and his sister Dorothy. What will the events of the turbulent early years of the 19th century bring to our dear heroine and her family and friends?

While I was researching for my newest novel, “The Making of Margaret Dashwood,” I ran across authors who influenced Jane Austen’s writings.

Frances Burney was an influential writer during Jane’s lifetime. She is considered a pioneer of novels of manners, witty satires of the foibles of British Georgian society. When only twenty six, Burney wrote her popular novel, “Evelina: or, the History of a Young Ladies’ Entrance into the World,” published in 1778. “Cecilia,” followed in 1782, and “Camilla,” in 1796. The theme of these novels dealt with young ladies’ making their way in society, as does Austen’s own novels. So the great Jane Austen was influenced by the great writers of her time. A novel thought. Just as she influences other authors even more than two hundred years after her own time. Like me.

No one writes or creates in any medium in a vacuum. All are influenced by each other. There is a connecting power in creativity. It is like the wind passing through the air, like musical strains reaching the ear and passing on. Through the whole world and across time. Creativity connects us to each other. That is wondrous.

I’ve been looking up words Austen uses in her novels that I don’t know the meaning of:

Coxcomb: a vain and conceited man, a dandy

Bilious: nausea or vomiting

Piquet: a card game with two players

Tippet: a long fur scarf or shawl worn around the neck and shoulders

Sanguine: optimistic or positive

Cara sposo: a dear husband

Pertinacity: sticking to an opinion or purpose, stubbornly tenacious

Verdure: fresh green color and vegetation

Segacity: discernment, foresight

And this is just the beginning…..