In which certain characters address me personally:
I tried to write a longish Jane Austen fic, but look what happened:
Dear Miss Soubie,
Madam, I would not wish to trouble you, but what exactly has happened to my wife? My dearest friend, yes, I understand- I realise, unhappily, that this is the cause of the whole sorry narrative; but while I realise Miss Austen did not give my wife such strong character development, I feel sure that were she yet living, she would have more influence- to say nothing of shelter- to give any of her sisters- especially, if needed, our dear friend Mrs. Darcey. Also, were she dead, then much as I realise that this is believable for the era, I feel sure that at least Mrs. Darcey and I would have been more affected by it than occasionally wishing she was there.
Yours with somewhat flagging good nature,
Bingley
Dear Miss Soubie,
It may have escaped your notice, but I seem to exist entirely as a narrative device. I realise that, if my age is adjusted appropriately, this may not be a problem, but if I am to have this function, it must be necessary to establish what exactly my confusing parentage- and moreover, my connection to the Darcey family- actually is, before playing to the misconceptions of what it looks like. Also, I fear that, if Mr. Wickham is heavily involved, it’s unlikely that I can be a first person narrator. Before any matters of propriety, there’s the fact that we simply cannot spend that much time together, if he’s going to do anything interesting.
Yours truly,
Mary Smith (possibly)
I'm going to have to give more thought to this one.
Dear Miss Soubie,
Madam, I would not wish to trouble you, but what exactly has happened to my wife? My dearest friend, yes, I understand- I realise, unhappily, that this is the cause of the whole sorry narrative; but while I realise Miss Austen did not give my wife such strong character development, I feel sure that were she yet living, she would have more influence- to say nothing of shelter- to give any of her sisters- especially, if needed, our dear friend Mrs. Darcey. Also, were she dead, then much as I realise that this is believable for the era, I feel sure that at least Mrs. Darcey and I would have been more affected by it than occasionally wishing she was there.
Yours with somewhat flagging good nature,
Bingley
Dear Miss Soubie,
It may have escaped your notice, but I seem to exist entirely as a narrative device. I realise that, if my age is adjusted appropriately, this may not be a problem, but if I am to have this function, it must be necessary to establish what exactly my confusing parentage- and moreover, my connection to the Darcey family- actually is, before playing to the misconceptions of what it looks like. Also, I fear that, if Mr. Wickham is heavily involved, it’s unlikely that I can be a first person narrator. Before any matters of propriety, there’s the fact that we simply cannot spend that much time together, if he’s going to do anything interesting.
Yours truly,
Mary Smith (possibly)
I'm going to have to give more thought to this one.