Did Jane Austen Ever Date the Earl?
Mr. Gareth Andrews of Mount Lake Terrace asks: Did Jane Austen ever date the Earl? Was he the inspiration for much of her fiction?
Dear Gareth, Good to hear from you. I’m just catching up on my mail after resetting the parking brake on my Viggen ( the key to commuting is air superiority.) Many things have gone to seed in my absence…and I have strange cravings for onion rings, but no matter! ‘Tis the Season! I think my romantic entanglements are hardly suitable fare for this web log although one can certainly read between the lines in re the enigmatic Chalfont-Smythe. Widowed at a young age, heiress to the Crumbly Cakes fortune, one can imagine the parade of unsuitable scoundrels, rakes and Lotharios presenting their burnished credentials. I think Prudentia, if I may use the familiar, is drawn to my capacious knowledge of all things literary, a knowledge, Gareth, hard earned indeed. No less a figure than Natasha Last Name Deleted has written several passionate essays on the topic of my fabulous collection of author photographs taken against the day my literary ship comes in.
As to Jane Austen I recall escorting a young woman of that name to the Fusilier’s Ball. The evening ended abruptly after I was shot out of a cannon ( a dreadful misunderstanding). I penned a note of apology but I fear the transgression has yet to be forgiven. YHS, The Earl.