As I’ve mentioned in various interviews, though I’ve always loved English literature, I had some issues with it. Why did strong-willed women so seldom triumph in those 19th century novels I loved so much? Why were smart, strong women objects of derision in books and plays? Why were they always punished for, say, having sex or having brains? Even women writers couldn’t seem to help punishing the most interesting women characters for being… interesting.
A few of my books have been reactions to this. Well, maybe all of my books, but some had specific inspiration in Great Literature. Daphne in Mr. Impossible. Cassandra in Ten Things I Hate About the Duke. And then there’s Lady Charlotte in Not Quite a Lady.
Lady Charlotte was my reaction to Lady Dedlock in Bleak House—which by the way happens to be one of my favorite Dickens novels. Favorite or not, it seemed to me that Dickens did not do right by her. Even before I began to write my own novels, I saw how easily her story could have come out differently, and still remained true to elements of the book. But maybe that wouldn’t have gone down well with Victorian audiences, or maybe the author had his own issues. (Oh, he certainly did.) Lots of reasons. In any case, Lady Dedlock was the starting point for Lady Charlotte.
While these two women characters do have one thing in common, their stories are not the same. Not Quite a Lady, the fourth book of the Carsington brothers trilogy (I know), is on sale for $1.99 for a limited time. I don’t know how limited, but if you’d like a copy, for yourself or as a gift, I pray you make haste, as my characters would say.