The Rise of The Bennet Wardrobe
As I reflect on the more than six years it has taken to explore the arc of the Bennet Wardrobe universe, I pause at this distant vantage point to try to articulate my design behind the complicated tale that comprises six full novels and two novellas.
First, though, an excerpt from a blog post on the Meryton site from my beta reader and good friend Carole Steinhardt—Carole in Canada:
Each novel is a deeply layered journey of the human spirit...a journey of love. Through the unique time-travel ability of the Bennet Wardrobe, it is more than just an adventure; for the Wardrobe gives each Bennet who touches it not just what they think they want, but what they truly need in order to grow and in some cases, find love and redemption. Each novel is intricate, poignant, imaginative, highly engaging, and powerful.
I have always been a strong believer in speculative fiction. Pride and Prejudice was not, to my mind speculative fiction—a story that grounds its plot and character development on a set of notions that are not necessarily present ITRW.
Austen’s genius (other than being someone who modernized the novel) came in that she took thoroughly realistic situations and found a refreshing level of humanity not dependent upon the gothic devices prevalent in novels of the time. Yes, she did start with scenarios that might be seen as what-if, but the idea of an estate entailed away to the male line causing stress in a family of five daughters was something understood in an agrarian male England. Likewise, the need to marry well for women accustomed to an elevated standard of living (nothing here about second sons of earls…but…) was a familiar theme as were the social strictures embodied in propriety.
None of this detracts from the novel. This only makes it different from the sort of speculative fiction which I found appealing.
As I re-read P&P (spurred by a gift of a Kindle reader in 2011 and the discovery the completion of The Watsons), my writing brownies began noodging me. The manner Austen barely sketched Mary and Kitty—Lydia, too, in her unitary fixation on soldiers—made me wonder what if their stories carried well beyond the end of the book? What if they had the opportunity to grow up? What would they become? Would Mary turn into a sour moralizing woman condemned to a life as a solicitor’s wife in a dusty High Street home? Would Kitty continue to be undistinguished and vanish into the English countryside paired with an obscure clergyman? Would the forty-year-old Lydia continue to be that saddest of caricatures—a forty-year-old version of her adolescent self?
Thus, the roots of the Wardrobe stories began to spread. However, in the early months of tackling the character—Mary—that I found easiest to write, my goal was to give the three sisters what I considered to be their best outcomes. The Wardrobe appeared before me because of my fascination with C.S. Lewis. Here was a form of magical transport (I was also entranced with Rowling’s flue network and Clark’s king’s roads) that allowed users to escape here/nows that constrained them from becoming their best selves. Of course, sending Mary, Kitty, and Lydia to Narnia was a level of plot-stealing that I was unwilling to undertake.
A side note about the Mary book: a few readers have found the relationship between a twenty-year-old Mary and her twenty-one-year-old half-uncle somewhat discomfiting. There have been some cries of “incest.” I did wrestle with these comments—until I realized that the twenty-first century image of a skeezy older male abusing a tender age female was being used as the yardstick. I am in no way suggesting that such abuse is anything but a crime. However, the modern definition of incest (outside of first-degree kindred relationships) was not applicable two hundred years ago. As we historians would say, that is a presentist interpretation.
In fact, the post-Waterloo wedding of Edward Benton (born in 1759, translated to 1811 on the night of his twenty-first birthday) and Mary Bennet (born in 1792) was in no way barred by the Church of England’s ecclesiastical law. And, as the characters stood, the power dynamic that is part of sexual abuse in the modern sense was non-existent. The possibility of issue also was barred by Gibbon’s Seventh Rule which prohibited male Bennets traveling into the future from siring offspring.
Finally, recall that Austen suggested that the key impediment to a marriage between Fitzwilliam Darcy and Anne De Bourgh was that they did not love each other, not that they were first cousins! Although Pride and Prejudice would have had no reason to be written if the two DID love one another, I am left with the sentiment that Austen was just fine with first cousins marrying.
Turning the Wardrobe into a time travel device limited to those of the Bennet bloodline opened uncountable worlds where these women could learn that which they needed to become the best versions of themselves. Readers of the Wardrobe know that redemption is the Fifth Love which is articulated—along with the Sixth—in later volumes of the Wardrobe. Discovering this modality of change for the three young women set me free to tell each story.
You can see that I was seeing each story as stand-alone. Yet, they were linked by a common mechanism. Was this time-traveling Wardrobe simply a piece of furniture with unusual properties? Or was there more to it?
The answer to that question proved to be the epiphany I needed that exploded onto my mindscape with this question: If the Wardrobe is attuned to Bennets, why? If was simply to act like the #23 bus, why did it matter if it was a Bennet or a Jacobson? Bright flashing lights went off! There was a greater purpose to the power of and behind the Wardrobe. Each user of the Wardrobe was playing a role in a much larger play…one with a story that spanned not centuries but all of the ages themselves.
Thus, what happened to Mary…or Kitty…or Lydia occurred in pursuit of a greater goal. The redemption of each would move all closer to that end. Their tales now were linked together like gemstones in a necklace. The metaphor also demanded that I look more closely at each character’s life and the forces which would shape her into the instrument of the prime mover.
This new understanding shifted the work from plot drivers to put Mary, Kitty, or Lydia through their paces much as we see them in dozens of Austenesque variations. Rather, I needed to learn how would their characters develop to serve the greater purpose. As such, I had to examine the psychology behind the rather flat persons offered by Austen. To write the stories of their later lives in the Wardrobe’s Universe, I first had to explore what turned them into the people we saw in Austen’s. I had to find plausible reasons for Mary to moralize, Kitty to cough, and Lydia to be attracted to men in uniform.
Thus, in each book—The Keeper (Mary’s story), the two Exiles (Kitty), and Pilgrim (Lydia)—offers not just a plotline designed to move each through her life, but also a deep study of why she is as she is/becomes. These characters grow using Austen’s design as a starting point. Hence, my conviction that the Wardrobe books are speculation. However, I try to treat them as if I am engaged in biography, that what they encounter is realistic if in a fantastic manner.
As I considered the flow of one story into the next, I realized that other stories had to be told. An example is Kitty’s tale which begins seventy-five years down the timeline from Elizabeth and Jane’s weddings. Kitty’s desire was to be away from everyone who had plagued her, and that meant that all persons in P&P. Since each book is also a love story, I had to create a new love interest for her. However, like Edward Benton (Mary’s half-uncle who appears on her timeline), I had to uncover the nature of the man with whom Kitty would fall in love. That was the genesis for Henry Fitzwilliam’s War. This 20,000-word novella was a character study for the young viscount which allowed me to uncover what motivated him both before, during, and after his trip through the Wardrobe.
When I moved deeper into the Wardrobe, new possibilities and new questions arose. What caused Wickham to be who he was? Why did Mrs. Bennet become so fearful? Why did Thomas Bennet become so indolent? Why did Mr. Bennet take Elizabeth in hand? Answers appear throughout from Volumes Three through Seven. New characters were created to help our featured players move to their ends. Love is revealed to be the ultimate power in the Wardrobe’s Universe. The Wardrobe became a character unto itself. Villains appear and do their worst. The Bennet family endures. The balance of the universe is restored.
The final book in the Bennet Wardrobe series—The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy—brings all the threads together in a final tapestry. The fabulous author Lory Lilian offers the highest praise that explains everything.
As an author myself, I admit I would never be capable to craft such a complex, enchanting and exciting story, not to mention an entire series! Congratulations to Don for a masterful work! I highly recommend “The Bennet Wardrobe” series to all the readers - especially those who love Pride and Prejudice, but not only - who enjoy time travel, mystery, originality, history – all gripped together by a talented writer.
The cover was revealed on February 7 in the wonderful blog Austenesque Reviews.
If you drop in and leave a comment, you will be eligible to receive one of two copies of the e-book for The Grail. I also have offered up an excerpt from the book.
However, as I have previously advised, you will have a richer experience if you read the books sequentially. Here are universal links suitable for every Amazon site worldwide:
Volume One The Keeper: Mary Bennet’s Extraordinary Journey mybook.to/MPKeeperwardrobe
Volume Two Henry Fitzwilliam’s War mybook.to/HenryFtizwilliamMP
Volume Three The Exile: Kitty Bennet and the Belle Epoque mybook.to/KittyBennetBelleMP
Volume Four Lizzy Bennet Meets the Countess mybook.to/MPLizzyBennetMeets
Volume Five The Exile: The Countess Visits Longbourn mybook.to/CountessVisitsMP
Volume Six The Avenger: Thomas Bennet and a Father’s Lament mybook.to/MPAvengerWardrobe
Volume Seven The Pilgrim: Lydia Bennet and a Soldier’s Portion mybook.to/PilgrimLydiaWardrobeMP
Volume Eight The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy will be published on Valentine’s Day 2022.