(April) Fool for Love

This month’s theme is “Fool for Love,” partly inspired by April Fools’ Day.  And since I’m first up, I thought I’d start with a bit about April Fools’ Day itself, including a few infamous hoaxes. Then I have a fun excerpt for you that fits the theme!

According to history.com, the exact origins of April Fools’ Day, which has been celebrated for centuries by different cultures, are unknown. But there’s some speculation that it dates to 1582, when France made the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. People who were slow to catch on to the change were called “April fools” and made the butt of jokes/hoaxes for continuing to celebrate the new year at that time of year instead of the new date in January.

April Fools’ Day would have been a Regency era event too, since the tradition had spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. Then as now, jokes and pranks – from simple to elaborate – were the order of the day, Here are a few creative and elaborate modern AFD hoaxes that gave me a laugh:

In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop (footage showed people harvesting noodles from trees).  In 1992, NPR played a spot claiming that Richard Nixon was running for president again, complete with an actor in the role of Nixon. In 1996, Taco Bell announced that it had made a deal to purchase the Liberty Bell with the intent of renaming it the “Taco Liberty Bell.” In 1998, after Burger King advertised a new menu item (a “Left-Handed Whopper”), scores of clueless customers came in requesting the fake sandwich.

I don’t remember hearing about any of these before, but I especially enjoy the idea of the Taco Liberty Bell. Actually, with corporations paying millions for naming rights to sports stadiums, etc., it doesn’t sound all that farfetched, does it?

Now for your excerpt! This one is from The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen, a novel wherein she tells her own story of lost love, second chances, and finding her happy ending. The premise is that Jane Austen based Persuasion on events in her life and a sea captain of her very own. And so in this excerpt, Jane relates riding in a carriage with the Crowes (the couple that inspired her writing of Admiral and Mrs. Croft), who are discussing  Mrs. Crowe’s brother Captain Phillipe Devereaux  (Captain Wentworth’s counterpart). Watch for where our April theme comes in!

Captain Devereaux was not already married, as I had originally feared he would be – intelligence I had acquired en route to Sidmouth when riding with the Crowes – but it seemed he was very much of a mind to be so, if his relations were any authority.

I had been resting with eyes closed, lulled nearly to sleep by the rocking motion of the carriage, when I overheard a conversation going forward between the admiral and his wife. They were speaking in low tones, so as not to disturb me, and I never let on that they had.

“Now that your brother has been put ashore, he will be looking about for a wife,” the admiral was saying when I became aware. “And he will make quick work of the business too, unless I miss my guess. Sailors cannot afford to go in for long courtships during times of war, and who knows how long this current peace will hold?”

“I should very much like to see Philippe well married, my dear,” returned Mrs. Crowe. “I hope he will not be in too much of a rush to the altar, though. It must take more than a little beauty and a few smiles to win his heart. He deserves a wife with a strong mind and a sweetness of temper as well. This is how he has described to me the woman he wants.”

“So you see, he has been thinking on the subject seriously.”

“Yes, and I trust it will serve as some protection against an overly impulsive choice.”

“Ah, that is where you are mistaken, Marguerite. Like all men, he thinks he will judge soundly, but it is more probable he will lose his head and end by make a very stupid match.”

“For shame, Caspian! How can you say such a thing? This is no very fine compliment to me, I fear… or to yourself either.”

“I deserve no credit, it is true. I lost my head like every other young fool in love, but I had the great good fortune to lose both head and heart to a woman of superior worth. We must hope your brother has the same good luck.”

Affectionate murmurings between husband and wife followed, to which I tried not to attend. Instead, I indulged myself with the pleasant speculation that, when Captain Devereaux had described his ideal woman to his sister, he might unconsciously have been talking of me. But this was before we met again and his subsequent coldness banished any such possibility from my head.

What the admiral had said of Philippe being ready to fall in love did seem perfectly true, not that these things were immediately apparent. The state of affairs would quickly unfold before my eyes in the days that followed, however.

At the time, Captain Devereaux had every advantage a young man could possess – looks, health, fortune, and a season of leisure from a prosperous career. What was there to wait for? All he had lacked was the proper temptation. Then, in Sidmouth, fate smiled on him once more by throwing a suitable young lady, Miss Cumphries, in his way just when he would be most receptive to her charms. And if he could manage to court and fall in love with her right in front of the woman who had dared to reject his suit years before, so much the better.

Perhaps I was wrong to suspect Captain Devereaux of so base a motive, but it required no very great stretch of mind to imagine there would be considerable consolation in it for a long-wounded pride.

I’m with Admiral Crowe. It sounds to me like Captain Devereaux is going to behave very stupidly indeed, playing the fool for love! I hope you will read the rest of the story of Jane and her captain. I think I can promise that the ending will surprise you! The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen is available in Kindle, Nook, paperback, and audio.

For every fan who has wished Jane Austen herself might have enjoyed the romance and happy ending she so carefully crafted for all her heroines…

The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen

What if the tale Jane Austen told in her last, most poignant novel was actually inspired by momentous events in her own life? Did she in fact intend Persuasion to stand forever in homage to her one true love?

While creating Persuasion, Jane Austen also kept a private journal in which she recorded the story behind the story – her real-life romance with a navy captain of her own. The parallel could only go so far, however. As author of her characters’ lives, but not her own, Jane Austen made sure to fashion a second chance and happy ending for Anne and Captain Wentworth. Then, with her novel complete and her health failing, Jane prepared her simple will and resigned herself to never seeing the love of her life again. Yet fate, it seems, wasn’t quite finished with her. Nor was Captain Devereaux.

The official record says that Jane Austen died at 41, having never been married. But what if that’s only what she wanted people to believe? It’s time she, through her own private journal, revealed the rest of her story.