We were on Coffee with an Author this week, coming to you from I Just Finished.com. The interviewer, Naomi Giroux, was really nice and we had a lot of fun talking to her about working on the book, how we write, and the publishing process. Check it out at Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway on Coffee with an Author.
My dear Cassandra,
We had not finished our breakfast when Henry’s friend Mr Plumptre appeared to say that he had secured passes to a very new kind of Entertainment called a Moving Picture, a sort of Playlet whereby the images of the performers are thrown upon a great sheet hung above the Stage. These Playlets are quite short – no more than two hours – and all carried out in a single act with no break, which allows for many performances each day.
I confess that the Story confused me exceedingly as a great deal of Plot was crammed into the two hours, but I will recount it as far as my paper and ink will oblige.
The name of this Playlet was Twilight and Heroine of the tale was Miss Isabella Swan, or Bella, as she would have everyone call her. It seems that some time in the past, Bella’s mother, Mrs Charles Swan abandoned her family and threw in her lot with a Cricket Player of great renown. Mr Charles Swan, having little confidence in his ability to raise a daughter, allowed the girl to continue with her mother, while he remained in his native village of Forks, where he had long been charged with keeping the Peace and resolving matters of Law.
When Bella reached her seventeenth year, her mother and the Cricket Player (whom she married as Mr Charles Swan had no difficulty in obtaining a divorce) wished to attend some Cricket Matches to be held very far from their home, and their scheme was to have Bella accompany them, but she, having no interest in Cricket, petitioned to return to her father and to Forks.
The village of Forks was set near to a coarse and rocky Coast, among great Woods and Fens, and was so beset with clouds and rain, as to impart an unhealthful caste upon the villagers. Many of the younger set were quite thin and wan, and yet, they appeared cheerful and content with themselves and eager to make Bella feel at home among them.
Mr Swan, intending to promote wholesome and healthful pursuits for his daughter, made her a gift of a Chariot. This Chariot (a curious Vehicle with no clew as to how it propelled itself with no horses!) was purchased from the descendant of one of the country’s most ancient families. This gentleman, having long been subjected to the insalubrious Climate of Forks was quite infirm and deprived of the use of his lower limbs. Yet this affliction did not dampen his spirits – indeed, he was full of noisy good cheer. This man had one son, Jacob, a fine-looking lad, who was as robust as his father was frail, and who wore his hair in a very long fashion, which, it seems, was a family custom.
Bella was enrolled in the village School where young ladies and gentlemen were educated together in everything. At physical activities, Bella did not fare well (as a natural awkwardness rendered her unfit for anything requiring quickness or skill), but happily she was of that class of Females whose awkwardnesses were as good as graces.
One afternoon, sitting with her friends in the school’s dining hall, Bella spied a young man who, she was told, was Edward Cullen one of many adopted children of the local Physician. Nature had given young Edward his share of good looks and yet he was so very pale and wasted-looking as to suggest a chronic infirmity. Moreover, he was of a reserved and melancholy disposition, keeping entirely to his family circle, and addressing no one else. When he happened to be placed next to Bella in a lecture of Natural Science (as young ladies were encouraged to be scientific at this particular academy) he regarded her with coldness and silence and this conduct, so unlike the ease and informality of the other young people, left Bella with the opposing sensations of curiosity and indignation.
In time, however, Edward made one or two attempts at conversation, addressing the Climate and asking whether Bella was very much put off by the quantity of rain until Bella understood that he was not proud, but only very shy and unused to conversation with anyone beyond his immediate family.
Still, their acquaintance might not have progressed had not Edward occasion to save Bella from certain disaster when a Chariot, coursing at great speed, raced in her direction. Edward flew to her rescue and – with a remarkable display of strength – held off the Chariot until Bella could be removed to safety. Though uninjured, it was thought necessary for Bella to be attended by a Physician, which gave her opportunity to meet Doctor Cullen, a kindly gentleman, but one whose pallor was so extreme that it was difficult to imagine, looking so ill himself, that he could coax anyone else into health and vigor.
Bella now had time to reflect upon Edward’s display of inhuman speed and strength, but when she demanded an explanation, he rebuffed her so coldly that all intercourse between them seemed now at an end.
(Bye the bye, not long after these events, Bella was to learn of an ancient Feud between the families of Jacob and Edward.)
In the community of Forks, the point at which a young lady might be said to be ‘out’ was in her seventeenth year or thereabouts, whereupon they were brought into Society all together at a Great Promenade, which the young people referred to as The Prom. At The Prom, young ladies and their escorts dress in their finest attire and attend a Great Ball, where they have their likenesses done, and partake of refreshments and then there is Dancing.
There were no mantua makers in Forks, so young ladies traveled to a near-by village to purchase their attire ready-made! Bella left her friends to chuse their Dresses and made her way to a bookseller to purchase an ancient volume which might provide an explanation of Edward’s curious History. While returning to her friends, Bella was set upon by several inebriated young men who would surely have done her mischief had not Edward appeared and driven off the ruffians. This mysterious display of prescience added to the puzzle of Edward’s excessive pallor, his extraordinary strength and other peculiarities, such as his sleeplessness and spare diet.
Edward, wishing to unburden himself, confessed to Bella that he and all his family were long afflicted with an incurable Malady, and to make her better understand it, he carried her above the crest of the wood to the point where the sun broke through the clouds. The sunlight raised great radiant blisters upon Edward’s skin, and from this and his strange fits of passion and dyspepsia and sleeplessness, I inferred that his Malady was the same which was said to have beset His Majesty, our beloved King George, though Bella called it by a peculiar name. Her expressions of tenderness and compassion reassured him that his affection for her – despite his declaration that he had killed a great number of People, and, in fact, had wished to kill Miss Swan herself upon their first introduction – was enthusiastically reciprocated. An invitation to know his family better, to dine with them (though their chronic dyspepsia kept them from eating scarcely anything at all) and to join them in a family game of Cricket was offered, and Mr. Swan – delighted to see that his daughter had not been kept back from companionship and amusements by his preoccupation with the matter of some villagers who had been savaged by Wild Beasts – made no objection to her going.
The Cullens all displayed a superior agility and speed at the game of Cricket, which gave Bella the hope that, despite their dyspepsia and pallor and chronic infirmity, they might one day rally against the ravages of their Affliction.
Their spirited match was interrupted when three blowsy-looking and unshod Trampers, who had made great mischief in Forks, (and who were in fact responsible for the acts of savagery attributed to Wild Beasts), set upon the players. Two of these Vagrants were young men, one a Moor and the other appeared to be English, and the third was a young lady who gave every appearance of Irish lineage. The Englishman, James, was immediately possessed of a great passion for Bella, which put the Cullens and the Trampers at variance, and ended in the Vagabonds being driven off. The Cullens insisted upon removing Bella from the neighborhood, and from the peril of James’s wickedness and ignoble desires. The clever Vagabond, however, contrived to lure Bella away from the protection of her friends and used her very ill and indeed, she might have been killed had not Edward arrived and called out the villain. With all the Cullens acting as his seconds, and none to stand for James (his companions having abandoned him), the Duel was quickly finished and James was dispatched in a violent manner. It was discovered that James had poisoned Bella and there was nothing to be done to save her but for Edward to draw out the venom with his lips, putting her at great risk of inflicting his contagion upon her. Bella was then conveyed to bed to recover from her injuries, which were a great loss of blood and a fracture of one of her limbs.
Despite her injuries, Bella was able to attend The Prom with Edward though obliged to wear a great splint upon her injured limb, which, while cumbersome, could not render her unfit for Dancing. When they were able to draw away from the company and enjoy a few minutes of uninterrupted discourse, Bella expressed a genuine dismay that Edward had been so skillful in extracting the Poison from her that she had not suffered any Infection, and thereby been deprived of sharing in his Affliction. She pressed him to inflict his Malady upon her, but Edward firmly refused, insisting that he could not consign her with so grave and irreversible a state and still be thought a gentleman. It was upon this note that the Playlet ended, and when I remarked upon the abruptness of it, Mr Plumptre informed me that it was only the First Part of the Playlet and that in the coming months there will be subsequent new performances that are called Sequels which will continue on with further episodes of Bella, the Cullens, etc etc
For my own part, I can see no advantage to irritate an audience by giving them only a portion of the Work or suspend their interest and pleasure. I am certain that no one could like P&P half so much if they got to the end only to find that they had put down their money and only got half a tale!
Yours very affec.
J. Austen
________________________
________________________