How I became interested in history, Jane Austen, and reading by Mary Lydon Simonsen (and GIVEAWAY!)

First, Laura, I would like to thank you for inviting me to join you on your blog today. You asked about my interest in European and American history.

It all began because of a poppy. When I was about ten years old, on Armistice Day in the early 1960s, my mother bought a red poppy from a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and I asked her what it meant, and she recited a part of John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row.

That question led to a picture of my grandfather sitting on a camp stool, in front of a pup tent, in an open field in Pennsylvania. He had been drafted for service in World War I.* After hearing his story, I was hooked and wanted to learn about my parents’ generation. All of my aunts and uncles and my parents either served in one of the armed services during World War II or worked for government agencies in Washington, D.C. My first book was a young adult version of Guadalcanal Diary by Richard Tregaskis. One book led to another, and I now have a floor-to-ceiling bookcase containing nothing but books about the two great wars.

Because I was raised Catholic, I was curious about the reasons for the split between the Catholic Church and the Church of England. That led me to Henry VIII and all the Tudors and then the Stuarts and Hanoverians, especially George III, because of my interest in the history of the Revolutionary War. Moving chronologically, I eventually ended up in the Regency Era. I can say without hesitation that I would not have been as interested in Regency/Georgian history if it had not been for Jane Austen.

In Pride and Prejudice, Austen created this beautiful world of handsome ladies and gentlemen, exquisitely attired, attending assemblies and balls and going to London for the season. My interest in this era was piqued when I saw the 1980 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. I loved the clothes, the dancing, the accomplished ladies, and athletic men, and I loved Austen’s venues: great country houses, gardens, Bath, Lyme, Devon, and a carriage-choked London.

You also asked about what 19th Century novels I enjoyed. In the early 1970s, while my husband was overseas, I subscribed to the “100 Greatest Books” (bound in real leather!!! Are you impressed?) Well, some were great and some not so great (Master Skylark??), but it did open my world to great authors. In addition to Jane Austen, I also enjoyed Jane Eyre, Vanity Fair, Middlemarch, Silas Marner, Ivanhoe, Barchester Towers, David Copperfield, and Oliver Twist. (I would give my right arm to be able to write quirky characters like Dickens wrote.)

But the morale of my story is that reading leads to other things. After reading Pride and Prejudice when I was 17 years old, I went on an Austen binge and devoured her five complete novels. Thirty years after first meeting Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, I tried my hand at writing a Pride and Prejudice re-imagining. I would never have become an author without the help of my good friend, Jane Austen.

*I have written a post-World War I novella, Mr. Darcy’s Angel of Mercy.

Thank-you Mary Lydon Simonsen for the great guest post! Mr. Darcy's Angel of Mercy sounds very intrigung to me as well. I will have a review of Ms. Simonsen's new novel, A Wife for Mr. Darcy posted next week so stay tuned!

Giveaway Details
Sourcebooks is going to send one lucky winner a copy of A Wife for Mr. Darcy by Mary Lydon Simonsen.

If you would like to win a copy of A Wife for Mr. Darcy by Mary Lydon Simonsen please leave a comment about what intrigues you about the novel or this guest post.

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a monte carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to US and Canadian residents (Sorry!).

No P.O. Boxes.

The deadline for entry is midnight, Friday August 12th.

Good luck!