By a Lady
Page 37
By a Lady
AMANDA ELYOT
A READER’S GROUP GUIDE
About This Guide
An audition for a plum role in a play about Jane Austen becomes an unexpected adventure for New York actress and unabashed Anglophile C. J. Welles. Upon exiting the stage following her final audition, C. J. finds herself inexplicably transported to Bath, England, at the turn of the nineteenth century. Alone in a strange place, at first C. J. is frightened and confused, and barely succeeds in fitting in without betraying the truth of her origin. But she grows increasingly comfortable after she meets the delightfully eccentric Lady Dalrymple, with whom she forms a special bond. A budding romance with Owen Percival, the dashing Earl of Darlington, fosters her increasing affection for the earlier era, especially when C. J. finds out that Darlington’s cousin is none other than Jane Austen—one of C. J.’s literary heroes.
But C. J. remains desperately torn between the two centuries. She longs to return to her own time but faces the difficult decision of leaving behind her new friends and the irresistible Lord Darlington. Then, in the midst of a remarkable turn of events, C. J. makes a startling discovery, uncovering a secret about her past that may explain why she wound up in Bath in the first place.
By a Lady is a marvelous fish-out-of-water historical drama, laced with comedy, romance, and mystery. This guide is designed to help direct your reading group’s discussion of Amanda Elyot’s delightful novel.
Questions for Discussion
1. Before you read By a Lady, had you read any of Jane Austen’s novels? If so, what are some themes common to Austen’s writing that appear in By a Lady? Do any of the characters in By a Lady resemble those in Austen’s works?
2. At the book’s opening, the author includes this quote from Jane Austen: “The novels which I approve are such as display human nature with grandeur—such as show her in the sublimities of intense feeling—such as exhibit the progress of strong passion from the first germ of incipient susceptibility to the utmost energies of reason half-dethroned—where we see the strong spark of women’s captivations elicit such fire in the soul of man as leads him . . . to hazard all, dare all, achieve all, to obtain her.” Do you think By a Lady lives up to the standards Austen sets forth in these words? Why or why not?
3. Do you share an affinity for another era? If so, which one and why?
4. Austen’s Pride and Prejudice opens with this line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” How does this sentiment hold true in By a Lady?
5. The author describes the acute class differences in Georgian England, as well as C. J.’s intense feelings about this disparity. In Chapter 11, Lady Dalrymple says to C. J., “I do not condone the behavior you just witnessed, nor do I agree with it, but my dear, that is the way of the upper crust.” In Chapter 15, Darlington says to C. J., “The English class system has been ingrained for centuries, Miss Welles, and everyone knows and accepts his place with alacrity. That is the way of the world.” Do you agree with the sentiment that a tradition should be upheld for no other reason than its continued existence? Where in the modern world are there similar disparities in economic and/or social classes? Why do you think this kind of inequality has endured? Do you think circumstances in these societies could someday change?
6. By a Lady is full of rich period detail—clothing, sights and smells, societal customs. What were some of the more surprising aspects of Georgian life you became familiar with through this novel?
7. “Every time C. J. thought she had gotten a handle on their mores or manners, these Georgians threw her a curve. A proper lady did not address the servants as equals, and yet she drank her tea out of the saucer!” (Chapter 9). Discuss other points in the book where such inconsistency in manners is displayed by members of Bath’s society.
8. In Chapter Three, when C. J. is brought in front of the magistrate, she learns the origin of the phrase “rule of thumb” as it applied to a case of a man accused of abusing his wife with a stick. In Chapter Ten, she is horrified to discover the quite literal meaning of “putting on the dog.” Are there other colloquialisms from the Georgian age enduring today that you know of? What are they and what are their origins?
9. “Nearly everyone here danced around his or her intentions, cloaking them in nuance, riddle, and understatement,” C. J. observes. What are the benefits of a polite society like that of Georgian Bath, where custom prevented expression of candid thoughts and ideas? Would you prefer this type of polite society, or a more liberated society where people were free to express their opinions? Why?
10. “Despite the fact that she had been arrested, imprisoned, tried, nearly committed to a lifetime of indentured servitude, publicly jilted by the man she loved, and, most recently, incarcerated in a madhouse, C. J. had come to feel, in a most inexplicable way, that she really belonged in 1801” (pChapter 26). Were you surprised at C. J.’s decision to remain in nineteenth-century Bath? Did you see her decision as a foreshadowing of the novel’s subsequent plot twist?
11. Did the book’s ending surprise you? Why or why not?
12. Who are your literary heroes? Who would you like to befriend in another life?
AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK JULY 2006
Also by Amanda Elyot
Written as a memoir, this lush, compelling novel of passion and loss tells the story of Helen of Troy and the truth about her life, her lovers, and the Trojan War. This is the tale as she would have told it—her legendary beauty still undimmed by age.
$13.95 paper (Canada: $18.95)
0-307-33860-6
AVAILABLE FROM THREE RIVERS PRESS WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD
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Copyright © 2006 by Leslie Sara Carroll
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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THREE RIVERS PRESS and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Elyot, Amanda.
By a lady: being the adventures of an enlightened American in Jane Austen’s England/Amanda Elyot.—1st ed.
1. Austen, Jane, 1775–1817—Appreciation—Fiction. 2. Master and servant—Fiction. 3. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction. 4. Women domestics—Fiction. 5. Bath (England)—Fiction. 6. Time travel—Fiction. 7. Actresses—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3603.A77458B9 2005
813'.6—dc22 2005007410
eISBN: 978-0-307-34532-5
v3.0