Becoming Georgiana Darcy

By Linda Beulter

Because I hail from a small family, with only one elder sister, stories like Pride & Prejudice and Little Women have always fascinated me. Perhaps Georgian Darcy, with only an elder brother who is more a father than a brother might feel the same. It was my good fortune to marry into a large family. We can easily imagine Georgiana hoping her brother would marry in such a way as to provide her with sisters-in-law and a larger extended family.

As I approached the character of Georgiana Darcy, I tried to look at the type of sister she might have been to Fitzwilliam Darcy prior to her heartbreak at the hands of George Wickham. Georgiana and Darcy’s cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam says to Elizabeth Bennet “….Darcy is lively enough in other places.” when Elizabeth meets him in Kent (this is a quote from the 1995 BBC screenplay). What would a lively Darcy have been like, pre-Wickham, and what sort of sister would Georgiana have been to him? I felt that knowing her better would help us know Darcy better, too.

I like to think Georgiana shared her brother’s assurance and wit. Although a Regency teenager, she might have been in the habit of teasing Darcy, perhaps challenging his authority a bit, and bristling at having to always be the demure Miss Darcy. My Darcy is in the habit of calling her a gosling. She is still awkward at times, with the odd bit of downy feathers at the wrong place, as a gawky teenager might look in any era.

Darcy has been sometimes in need of attempting to control his sister with what is called in the book “his grumpy-brother look”. Imagine the look of a knowing but exasperated father, one misstep from delivering a serious scolding, and you will have some idea of the expression I suggest.

But post-Wickham, Darcy’s fears for his sister are foremost. Combine his protective feelings with Georgiana’s assumption she has disappointed him, and we see their relationship suffering a setback. We know Darcy hopes the lively friendship of Elizabeth might restore Georgiana’s confidence. Darcy has already written Georgiana about Elizabeth, making her an object of interest in Georgiana’s mind. He has been her only family, so the observant Georgiana has a keen insight to her brother’s mind. She is one of the first to understand his feelings for Elizabeth.

After the near disaster with Wickham, any youthful invincibility has fled Georgiana. With only her music for solace, Georgiana has become timid. Although still an innocent, Georgiana’s trust has been breeched. She has attracted the attention of a grown man and it ended in betrayal. We can imagine her withdrawal into modest, girlish fashions. She does not put herself forward in company, and is embarrassed to be the object of attention by the likes of Caroline Bingley. In The Red Chrysanthemum Georgiana complains to her brother, “…it is so difficult with Bingley’s sisters jumping on my every syllable as if I were as wise as Aristotle.”

Because in my story we begin after Georgiana has met Elizabeth, and Elizabeth does not leave Lambton as early as in Pride and Prejudice, there is time for Georgiana to watch Elizabeth with Darcy. Georgiana begins to build her longed-for relationship with Elizabeth, and in fact leads her on a tour of Pemberley more thorough than that provided by Mrs. Reynolds to tourists.

As Georgiana becomes witness to the unfolding but wary affection between her brother and Elizabeth, she regains emotional strength. After her brother does her the honor of confiding in her, she becomes a source of support to him, instead of it always being vice-versa. We see, in just the time Elizabeth stays in Lambton, a renewal of Georgiana and Darcy’s sibling bonds. When the story reverts back to the P & P plot, rather than having any detail kept from her, it is Georgiana who remembers particulars of Wickham’s acquaintance, helping Darcy track him. Georgiana requests permission to correspond with Elizabeth, deepening a sisterly connection Georgiana is loathe to lose.

But most importantly for a novel involving the language of flowers, Georgiana is the catalyst who assists Darcy in composing a nosegay, and it is her herbal they use in developing his message. Not knowing if Elizabeth would travel with a book of flower meanings with which to translate, it is Georgiana’s copy that is left with the flowers for the fair recipient to find and decipher. As Georgiana’s Darcy-DNA driven self-confidence reasserts itself, so does her teen-aged curiosity and outright sneakiness.

By the end of The Red Chrysanthemum, Georgiana is able to tease her brother again, and laugh aloud in public. The grumpy-brother look has lost whatever power it ever had.

I sincerely hope you will enjoy Georgiana’s journey from gosling to full grown silly goose.

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About the author

Linda Beutler is an Oregon native who began writing professionally in 1996 (meaning that is when they started paying her…), in the field of garden writing. First published in magazines, Linda graduated to book authorship in 2004 with the publication of Gardening With Clematis (2004, Timber Press). In 2007 Timber Press presented her second title, Garden to Vase, a partnership with garden photographer Allan Mandell. Now in 2013 Linda is working with Meryton Press.

Linda lives the gardening life: she is a part-time instructor in the horticulture department at Clackamas Community College; writes and lectures about gardening topics throughout the USA; and is traveling the world through her active participation in the International Clematis Society, of which she is the current president. Then there’s that dream job–which she is sure everyone else must covet but which she alone has– curator of the Rogerson Clematis Collection, which is located at Luscher Farm, a farm/park maintained by the city of Lake Oswego. They say to keep resumes brief, but Linda considers Garden With Clematis her 72,000 word resume. She signed on as curator to North America’s most comprehensive and publicly accessible collection of the genus clematis in July 2007, and they will no doubt not get shut of her until she can be carried out in a pine box.

And now for something completely different: in September 2011, Linda checked out a book of Jane Austen fan fiction from her local library, and was, to put it in the modern British vernacular, gob smacked. After devouring every title she could get her hands on, she quite arrogantly decided that, in some cases, she could do better, and began writing her own expansions and variations of Pride and Prejudice. The will to publish became too tempting, and after viewing the welcoming Meryton Press website, she sent her child before the firing squad. Luckily, the discerning editors at Meryton Press saved the child from slaughter, and Linda’s first work of Jane Austen-esque fiction, The Red Chrysanthemum, is ready for publication.

Linda shares a small garden in Southeast Portland with her husband, and pets that function as surrogate children. Her personal collection of clematis numbers something around 230 taxa. These are also surrogate children, and just as badly behaved.

Buy links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-Chrysanthemum-ebook/dp/B00F4F921Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379604601&sr=1-1&keywords=the+red+chrysanthemum