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Reading group letters | Dear Miss Emma

9/3/2015

1 Comment

 

The Set Up:

As a romance writer, I thought it would be fun to write a letter to Emma Woodhouse asking her for advice with my novel since she is a matchmaker with a very fanciful imagination. My novel is a paranormal contemporary time travel romance back into Regency England. One of the challenges was making it understood by Emma so that she could assist me.  Here is the letter I crafted.

The Letter:

My Dear Emma,

I have long admired your expertise in matchmaking. As your dear friend at Donwell Abbey, you confided to me your matchmaking schemes before your marriage to Mr. Knightly. I am astonished at your cleverness. You boasted to me of your matchmaking skills and that they are a matter of joy to you.  I realize that you are naturally gifted in conjuring love matches. A true imaginist as the novelist, Jane Austen, would say. You have orchestrated so many of them beginning with the marriage of your former governess, Miss Taylor to Mr. Weston.

I know that your matchmaking is more than fortune telling or a lucky guess. Perhaps you can divulge your talent. When we sat together after the picnic at Box Hill, I was overcome by your excellent matchmaking plans. Now I am burning with impatience to know the secrets to your success. You see, I have fancied myself writing a novel. Remember how fun it was discussing the adventures of Evelina by the author, Miss Burney? How our hearts pounded in terror at The Mysteries of Udolpho by Mrs. Radcliffe!

With high spirits, I have begun my own matchmaking novel with Gothic overtones, but alas, I am vexed at my efforts and require your assistance. You have excellent tastes! And a most romantic imagination! My heroine, Serena, has such a sweet countenance but she is also an ambitious bluestocking. What virtues shall I give her? My hero, Myles, is a bewitching bachelor. A handsome man but a bit of rake. What manners shall I give him?

During the high point of my tale, my characters attend a masquerade ball with haunting music 
where gossip is the game and calling cards the prize. During a lull in the dancing, Serena escapes to the library and becomes lost in the great castle. Myles finds her whereupon they are chased through the dark passages by villainous apparitions. 

Although my hero and heroine have sensible feelings towards each other, I need them to develop a tenderness for each other and reach a finer understanding so that they may have their own happy ending and be united in wedlock. You are skilled with observing every look and word which betrays the heart. What contrivances shall I use for them to cherish a most tender affection for each other?

Help me to imagine their courtship. Where should the marriage proposal take place? Should it be prefaced by a letter or a poem?  Or, foreshadowed by a charade or some other word play? What clues shall I provide for my characters to discover a delicacy of feeling?

Should the engagement be long or short? What about the wedding? Should it be a fashionable one during the morning in a church? Or, a very private one at night, perhaps in a drawing room by means of a special license?  Or, a country wedding? Or perhaps something scandalous, like an elopement to Gretna Green?

I beg of you, please, be sincere with me. Persuade me of the right way to fasten an arrangement of the heart. I await your quick discernment.

Yours ever,
Miss Vonnie Alto
1 Comment
Buckeye Coe
4/5/2016 04:25:27 pm

Dear Ms. Emma:

I am so pleased to hear that you are still active in the art of matchmaking, and attending to related matters of the heart. Please forgive me for asking, but I too am in need of your expertise. I am sorry to say, however, that I am a bit perplexed for what specific help I should ask. For you see, Emma, I am in need not only of your advise about a certain match, but also how I may find the whereabouts of said possible match that has piqued my interest.

To be sure, I am well aware of the success and depth of your experience, Ms. Emma, which leads me to write. Now I mean no disrespect, but I must share with you how much I cherish a conversation you and your Dr. Knightly had in private during your picnic outing. The good Doctor was chiding you, I believe, for your seemingly rude treatment of your widow friend. I remember succinctly in my mind the Doctor's exact words, for I have used them and his expressions in similar instances of my own. Their use has been helpful during times of interpersonal angst and conflict. They have been words well tendered, and I have oft found them personally consoling as well. I will not reiterate his exact words here, Ms. Emma, for I wish not to conjure embarrassment, nor hard feelings. Yet I digress.

The real reason I write, Ms. Emma, is to seek your judgment as to the possibility of a match with a certain someone I met but briefly most recently. Our chance meeting happened during a simple financial transaction at a local bank. Most innocuous at the time, and one would not make much mind of it, however the event still lingers in my mind. To confound things even more, she knows absolutely nothing of me, and I very little of her. But this much I can tell you.

She is a writer of romance. We share a love for the works of Eyre, Bronte, and no doubt others of their period and style. Myself a former professional saxophone player, there is a somewhat tacit connection between that instrumentation, and her last name. We also share a professional connection, for I at one point worked as a series bibliographer for a book distributor of scholarly works, and she for a number of years as a librarian, as I have garnered from an internet survey.

I will not be so bold as to try and describe her, as my description may embarrass her, for which I would not want to offend. But suffice it to say it would be a very warm, heart-felt description as I remember her looks, hair, smile, soft features, charm and perfect shape/size.

To confound matters even more, I know not where to find her. Nor do I know of her current marital status. So you see, Ms. Emma, my problem is multi-fold. Perhaps you have heard of her, or perhaps with any such luck she may be part of your inner circle. If perchance you should know the whereabouts of this young lady, and if you think there would be any chance of a match between the two of us, I would be so pleased to hear your advise on how I should proceed.

As I write, a male black capped chickadee is tap-tap-tappy his mating spring song whilst preparing a nest for his intended, in the birdhouse just outside my window. Suffice it to say that I must be suffering from the spring fever. I will be pleased and most thankful for any advise offered, or for any light you may shed on my current predicament. Till I hear back, be well.

Warm Wishes,

Buckeye (MJ)

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