A Love Made to Measure
Page 15
Author Notes
The characters and names in this story are fictitious, but to give them authenticity, I relied on historical research. Most of the time, I kept as close a historical reconstruction as possible. Where that would not work with the story, I stretched dates and the like.
It is very unusual that Grant Galavyin asked Cora to call him by first name. Because the dynamics of the relationship were dictated in part by social-class concerns, and I wanted to highlight how different he was from many in his station, I found that poetic license necessary. I wanted her to be surprised at the fact that he thought of them in those terms.
Regent Street was indeed (and still is) a major shopping site in London.
The fashions featured in the story are as close as possible to those of the period in question, especially the year 1870. Just like in our own time, the fashions varied with the season, and even if we would be hard pressed to tell apart the dresses of one year from another, the sharp eyes and good knowledge of the ladies at the time certainly could.
It actually did rain a lot the second day of the Henley in 1870. It was rather convenient for my purposes, so I used that information. The Henley Regatta is currently held in July, but at the time, it was a June event.
Punch Magazine did publish a special on Women’s Suffrage, including poetry, essays, and reflections. It was exactly the kind of thing Cora would have read and Grant would have appreciated.
Dostoyevsky’s Poor Folk was indeed published in 1846, but an English edition was not available until 1894, after the success of Crime and Punishment, published in 1866 and translated to English in the 1880s. Poor Folk features a young seamstress, which made it a perfect reading for Cora. It also contained social justice issues, which were of much interest to Cora and Grant. Because the date of the translation would have made it impossible for Cora and Grant to read the book in English (and they acknowledged not speaking Russian), I had to make believe a translation was already available.
I also mention casually that Grant very much enjoyed the works of George Eliot, a woman who wrote under the pseudonym of a man. While in 1870 she was just about to publish Middlemarch, considered her masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the English language, her other works would have been available. Grant appreciating the writing of a woman would have been well within his progressive (for the time) character.
I also took creative license with the scene at the British Museum. The Reading Room was finished in 1857, but whether there were lectures of that kind and special nights when the building stayed open is not a conjecture I make based on fact. Since Cora worked, the only chance for that kind of outing was in the evening, and, with this subterfuge, all worked out.
One of the fun linguistic elements of writing a historical text is to try and use words that would have already had the contemporary meaning in the time period in question or to find historical equivalents. For that reason, I tried to consult my trusted etymology dictionary whenever I suspected that a term might have been added to the language or shifted significantly in meaning since the 1870s. One such example is the verb to splurge, meaning “to spend lavishly” which Cora uses in reference to buying hats. I was able to establish that it was used in the nineteenth century although probably with a slightly different meaning (i.e. displaying something ostentatiously, which also works for our purposes). As a bonus, I learned that the word is possibly the result of the combination of splash and surge.
But this is certainly not an exact science, and I am sure my characters may have uttered words that only their descendants knew and used. My request to you is that you suspend disbelief in those cases and enjoy the dialogue, which I wrote with that purpose in mind, anyway.
A word about the author…
Eliza Emmett writes historical fiction inspired by the work of her favorite author, Jane Austen.
Find her at:
http://www.elizaemmett.com
Eliza.emmett.fiction@gmail.com
@EmmettEliza
https://www.facebook.com/ElizaEmmettAuthor/
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