Extra! Acts of Creation

Worldbuilding in the Wardrobe's Universe

Feb 20, 2022

“History is respected as the backdrop and there is even whimsy when great fictional figures stroll into the pages of the Wardrobe universe. Readers and listeners are charmed by romance and are riveted by gritty action and suspense. That mysterious Wardrobe, its rules, its quirks, and its near sentience captivates me the most as the central figure in all the series tales. An innovative series not to be missed by lovers of Austen’s classic P&P characters or those who enjoy an engaging time travel series.”

Sophia Rose on the Bennet Wardrobe Series

This special Edition of Austenesque Thoughts is part of the rollout of the final book of the Bennet Wardrobe Series—The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy. In celebration of the release of the book, all new subscribers may select any two Audible recordings of any books in my catalog (excluding “In Plain Sight” and “The Longbourn Quarantine”). The list of recordings appears at the end of this column which explores the evolution of Jane Austen’s universe into that of the Wardrobe. I will ask which Audible store (US or UK) you use.

BTW…existing subscribers may also request two Audible Codes. Simply post a comment at the end if you have not received an email from me before.

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Most fans of Austenesque Fiction have engaged in that oft-pleasant pastime of daydreaming about their favorite characters. You may be sitting in a window seat with a well-thumbed copy of Pride and Prejudice. On the other side of those panes rests your pretty little wilderness. Only, you are not imagining taking a walk on paths familiar to you in your present, but rather those snaking between Mrs. Bennet’s coveted roses behind Longbourn.

Will you overhear Lady Catherine abuse Elizabeth over her interest in Mr. Darcy? Perhaps you will chance upon Kitty and Lydia, heads together, plotting to meet Denny and Wickham. Or, will you simply drink in the beauty of a Hertfordshire day beneath the rising crest of Oakham Mount?

Whatever your destination, you have stepped into the reality—the universe—created by Jane Austen. You believe that the Bennets and their broader circle are fully real; that Longbourn exists; and that the events described by Austen took place. You have imbibed the “world as myth” which is a literary device known as solipsism. Solipsism posits that the act of writing fiction creates the realities in which that fiction exists.

The speculative fiction master Robert A. Heinlein employed this approach in his majestic work The Number of the Beast (1980).

“As in many of his later works, Heinlein refers to the idea of solipsism, but in this book develops it into an idea he called "World as Myth" — the idea that universes are created by the act of imagining them, so that all fictional worlds are in fact real and all real worlds are figments of fictional figures' fancy…”[i]

Thus, by extension, the daughter of Steventon’s vicar created a new universe within which Pride and Prejudice is an account of the real interaction between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. While she populated it with a number of persons and events, much of the terrain outside of Longbourn/Meryton, Pemberley/Derbyshire, and London/Darcy House/and Cheapside remained without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep.[ii] In other words, Austen’s process of imagining her fiction did not extend beyond her narrative needs.

That was left to other writers to fill in…some writing in an Austenesque spirit, and others, like Patrick O’Brien and Graham Wilson, writing of things Napoleonic and Georgian/Regency. Essentially Captain Jack Aubrey, Ross and Demelza Poldark, and Richard Sharpe existed but were not mentioned in the Canonical novels was simply because Miss Austen had not met them.

The Bennet Wardrobe series became part of the Austenesque universe after the Wardrobe’s appearance at Longbourn. Once Gibbons constructed and delivered it to Mr. Christopher Bennet in 1691, the fabric of the cosmos was irrevocably altered creating a backstory to Austen’s Longbourn saga. Now, the history of England within which the Longbourn of the Bennets existed split off to allow the Wardrobe tales to develop. However, rather than reworking the existing Canon and, thus, focusing on how ODC came together, I accepted Austen’s account as accurate. My interest was initially focused upon how those around the “Big Four” were shaped and grew into three-dimensional persons well beyond the devices required by Austen.

By this point I can imagine readers seeking out references to mental health professionals in the Las Vegas area, all the better to help me avoid hurting others or myself. I assure you I am not fey. On the contrary, I have accepted that the easiest way for me to create the framework in which the Bennet Wardrobe stories exist is to treat both the Wardrobe and the Pride and Prejudice world as real. The stories become histories.

Consider that the leading characters appearing in the Bennet Wardrobe stories are able to interact not only with personages from our own history but also those found in other works of fiction.

For instance, in the first Volume of the series, Mary Bennet encounters an original character in the streets of Meryton, naval Lieutenant Guillaume (Will) Rochet. Not interesting until you learn that he is serving aboard Post Captain Jack Aubrey’s Surprise. Aubrey is the main character of Patrick O’Brien’s twenty-one book series of the Napoleonic War.

Likewise Mary, after her marriage to Edward Benton, comes face-to-face with a young Catholic Priest, John Henry Newman, after a particular tragedy that brings the two confessions together to consider the welfare of weeks-old twins. The advantage of creating a universe is that I was afforded the liberty of making John Newman a Catholic from birth rather than a later-in-life convert which ultimately led to his elevation to Cardinal.

In subsequent books, historical events and persons along with great fictional characters blend into the workings of the core characters of the Wardrobe. Henry Fitzwilliam’s War sees the hero falling victim to a horrible British miscue during the battle of Loos in 1915 which allowed released poison gas to blow back onto their own troops.

The Exile: Kitty Bennet and the Belle Époque sees the fourth sister nursed back to health by Aline and Pierre-Auguste Renoir under the watchful eye of Sigmund Freud. And Henry Fitzwilliam consults with Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson as he searches for Kitty.

I stepped back toward the turn of the nineteenth century with the first half of Volume Four, Lizzy Bennet Meets the Countess. Here, I wanted to explore not only why Mr. Bennet began to educate a ten-year-old Elizabeth, but also how her experiences down the timeline influenced her as an adult. That Mary Godwin Shelley became a close friend (as the other Mary) was a happy circumstance.

As for The Exile: The Countess Visits Longbourn, Captain Richard Sharpe from Bernard Cornwell’s stories encounters both the Dowager Countess of Matlock as well as Lieutenant George Wickham in Regency London. He helps Wickham’s lost soul find himself and his love.

Volumes Six—The Avenger: Thomas Bennet and a Father’s Lament—and Seven—The Pilgrim: Lydia Bennet and a Soldier’s Portion—consider those characters with whom I feel most in love. Thomas and Frances Bennet’s story within the Wardrobe allowed me to explore love between persons of a certain age. Lydia’s long life permitted me to examine aspects of my own existence while also preparing the way for the closing of the Wardobe’s circle in Volume Eight.

I found it fruitful to consider the Wardrobe, the Bennets, and all of my other characters in the stories as being part of a new reality created by Jane Austen as she wrote her overarching novels. Your willingness to join me on this journey through another world is gratifying to me and, I hope, a worthwhile endeavor on your part.

Austenesque Thoughts

Extra! Acts of Creation

Worldbuilding in the Wardrobe's Universe

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