Six Very Important Questions for our AV Authors!

I don’t know about you, but August makes me want to be silly! In the spirit of August Austen silliness, I presented my fellow Austen Variation authors with six very important questions. Read on to find out what they thought!

(Want to answer these questions yourself? Click here if you want to answer the questions before finding out what our authors think, or click the link at the end of this post if you’d rather read our answers first. Either way, you too can answer six very important questions!)

Here are our answers…

Attribution: Pexels

Question #1:If an alien came to Earth and said, “Give me one and ONLY one novel to describe humanity,” which Austen novel would you choose?

• The top choice with four votes was…Mansfield Park! (Diana Birchall, Jack Caldwell Melanie Rachel, and Abigail Reynolds)
• Emma received three votes (Monica Fairview, Joana Starnes, and yours truly).
• Pride and Prejudice received two votes (Amy D’Orazio and Anngela Schroeder)
• And Persuasion (LL Diamond) and Sense and Sensibility (MJ Stratton) received one vote a piece.
• Poor Northanger Abbey! No one chose it as the book most suited to describe humanity. What, we don’t think frenemies, cruel fathers, and a strong understanding of muslin fabrics display the breadth and depth of human nature?

Lady Bertram’s pug: living in grand style since 1814… (Attribution: Pexels)

Question #2: You have been magically transported to an Austen book and have become one of the characters in that novel. Which novel/character would you become? (Sorry — you can’t choose beyond these options; the magic is finicky that way!)

• Diana Birchall, Anngela Schroeder, Joana Starnes, MJ Stratton would choose to be Mrs. Hill from Pride and Prejudice. (Whoa — they are brave and patient souls!)
• Melanie Rachel and Abigail Reynolds would be Lady Bertram’s pug. (Clearly, they understand which member of the Bertram household gets the best treatment!)
• Monica Fairview and Amy D’Orazio would be Little Charles Musgrove from Persuasion. (I mean, if you’re going to break a bone, it’s better to be nursed by Aunt Anne than Mother Mary any day.)
• LL Diamond and I decided we’d be Mr. Woodhouse in Emma. True, we don’t eat much besides gruel, but Emma and Mr. Knightley treat us like a king!
• Jack Caldwell would be Mr. Palmer from Sense and Sensibility. Wait, Jack: are you saying you like sarcasm and newspapers?
• No one chose to be Mrs. Thorpe from Northanger Abbey. Why ever not? Mother of Isabella and John Thorpe? She’s mother of the year!

Hugh Thomson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Question #3: In one sentence, who is your favorite Bennet sister (excluding Elizabeth) — and why?

• Diana Birchall: “Jane. I don’t actually like her a lot, she’s so goody-goody, but the others are just impossible!” (Hah! Diana, are you secretly Jane Austen? This is a question I’ve often wondered…)
• Jack Caldwell: “Kitty – because she is a blank slate.”
• LL Diamond: “Jane, because she’s more normal!”
• Amy D’Orazio: “Lydia, because I think with a little direction she could have become wonderful.”
• Monica Fairview: “Lydia, because she’s really silly, but she’s a teenager, so it’s fun to explore her thought process!”
• Melanie Rachel: “To write? Probably Jane or Lydia, if I can improve them.”
• Abigail Reynolds: “Jane, because she always thinks the best of everyone!”
• Anngela Schroeder: “Kitty – I believe that kitty has such untapped potential, and she is stifled by Lydia. I am working on something that will have her break free and it will make me very happy when it’s completed.” (It will make us, as readers, very happy, too!)
• Joana Starnes: “Since I can’t choose Elizabeth, it’ll have to be Kitty – there’s still hope for her to become a sensible young lady.”
• MJ Stratton: “Mary. As a middle child myself I can relate to her struggles for attention!”
• And here’s my response: “I have a secret fondness for Kitty because I think she’s stuck between being loyal, having fun, and doing what’s right–a place I understand well!” (I was surprised how many of us appreciate Kitty! I expected more love for Mary and Jane, to be honest.)

Attribution: Pexels

Question #4: You’re going to have a tea party. Which invitation list do you choose? (Sorry, you’re stuck again with my choices…)

• Mr. Woodhouse, Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Jennings: Seven of us chose this option — the most popular by far! And no wonder: who wouldn’t want to have tea with a hypochondriac, a cynic, and a gossipy matchmaker? To be fair, I think all three of these characters are essentially good people. See below for some truly awful tea-party guest lists! (Authors who chose this option:  Jack Caldwell, LL Diamond, Melanie Rachel, Anngela Schroeder, Joana Starnes, MJ Stratton, and yours truly.)
• Mary Crawford, Mary Bennet, Mary Musgrove: Three brave souls chose the “Mary” guest list! (Amy D’Orazio, Monica Fairview, and Abigail Reynolds — tell us your reasoning! Maybe you wanted to see Mary Crawford eviscerate the other Marys with her wit? Maybe you thought Mary Bennet would spend all of the tea party playing pianoforte, so the other two couldn’t talk? Maybe you hoped Mary Musgrove would be too busy eating to spend the entire tea party complaining? )
• Lady Catherine, Miss Bates, and Sir John Middleton: Diana Birchall, I want to read this tea party scene…
• None of us chose either of the following trios: The Vanity Trio (Sir Walter Elliot, Lucy Steele, and Mr. Collins) or the Mean Trio (Mrs. Norris, General Tilney, and Mrs. Elton). I wonder: would any of you choose to have tea with these trios?

Could I have a hug? Attribution: Masterpiece Theatre/PBS

Question #5: You have the chance to give one, and only one, Austen character a hug. Whom would you choose and why?

• Diana Birchall: “I think all Jane Austen characters would be affronted by a hug from a stranger. But the one I’d most enjoy hugging is Mr. Tilney.” (Mr. Tilney would be honored, I’m sure!)
• Jack Caldwell: “Elinor Dashwood – because she’s the one most like my wife.” (Be still my beating heart! You are such a romantic, Jack!)
• LL Diamond: “Anne Elliot, because she needs one during parts of Persuasion.” (Definitely during any scene with a member of her own family!)
• Amy D’Orazio: “Well, Darcy of course ,because who wouldn’t, haha!” (Wouldn’t it be great to see the expression on his face, if we all lined up and starting hugging him?)
• Monica Fairview: “Jane, because she’s so idealistic and good hearted!” (So true! Plus, she’d be the least likely, according to Diana, to be affronted!)
• Melanie Rachel: “Kitty.” (When it comes to Kitty, no explanation is necessary!)
• Abigail Reynolds: “Colonel Brandon, because he really deserves it!” (He does put up with  a lot!)
• Anngela Schroeder: “Georgiana, because she just really needs a good long hug from a mom.” (Awwww!)
• Joana Starnes: “Elinor Dashwood, because none of her relations and friends seems to think that she has feelings too.” (Ouch! Take that, Marianne!)
• MJ Stratton: “Elinor from S&S. She carries so much and gets next to no credit.” (You and Joana are such empaths, MJ!)
• And here’s what I wrote: “Fanny Price needs such a big hug; her family is pretty much the worst (perhaps Edward Ferrars has an equally bad family, but at least he gets to marry into the Dashwood family)!

Courtesy of Sony Picture Classics

Question #6: Who is your favorite pairing (excluding Elizabeth and Darcy) and why?

• Diana Birchall: “Catherine and Henry Tilney.” (Probably relates to that hug from the question above!)
• Jack Caldwell: “Capt. Wentworth and Anne Elliot – they are the most mature.”
• LL Diamond: “Captain Wentworth and Anne. The letter!”
• Amy D’Orazio: “Capt Wentworth and Anne because their love triumphed at long last and they seem to have a more solid basis for a relationship.”
• Monica Fairview: “Bingley and Jane. They’re perfectly matched. Both of them are not assertive, they are very trusting and good natured, and they always look on the bright side!”
• Melanie Rachel: “Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth because they are real, flawed, and romantic.”
• Abigail Reynolds: “Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley, because I have reservations about all the rest! :)”
• Anngela Schroeder: “Focusing on a minor character couple I would say, Harriet Smith and Robert Martin. He obviously loves her and doesn’t stop…”
• Joana Starnes: “Emma and Mr Knightley, for so many reasons! How long have I got?” (You can never write too many words for us, Joana!)
• MJ Stratton: “Can they be fanon pairings? I love Col Brandon paired with Elinor.”
• And I wrote: “I really do love Elinor and Edward, perhaps because I spent so long writing about them in The Year in Between, or perhaps because I actually think they’d have one of the happiest and most functional marriages.”

So, it looks like there’s a lot of Anne/Wentworth love here, plus the possibility of a showdown between MJ and me when it comes to Elinor’s future happiness! 🙂

I loved reading everyone’s responses! So, what do you think of our answers?

If you would like to take the poll, check it out here! (If you complete the poll before August 10, I’ll include it in my August 11 post!)