Austen's Dedication of Emma: Who and Why

One of Jane Austen’s most ardent supporters was her brother Henry. Despite being cautioned by his sister that she did not want her identity known, Henry could not help but brag about his younger sister’s success, especially when Pride & Prejudice went into its third printing. It was Henry, from his sickbed, who successfully negotiated her agreement with John Murray, Lord Byron’s publisher, for her fourth novel, Emma. After an agreement had been secured with Murray, Jane went up to London to see if she could expedite the printing of her book. During her stay, she was contacted by Rev. James Stanier Clarke, the Prince Regent’s librarian. His Royal Highness had learned that Jane was in town from his physician who also happened to be her brother Henry’s doctor.

Rev. Stanier Clarke invited Jane to tour Carlton House, the Regent’s opulent London residence. Putting aside her “hatred” for the Prince because of his debauchery and ill treatment of his wife, Princess Caroline, Jane accepted the invitation. During her tour, Stanier Clarke told Jane that the Prince had a set of her novels in each of his many residences and that, “by permission of His Royal Highness,” she was “at liberty to dedicate any future novel to him.” Jane immediately recognized the commercial value of such a dedication. The dedication that Jane wrote for Emma read: “Dedicated by permission to HRH The Prince Regent,” but was embellished by the publisher, and in unctuous prose worthy of Mr. Collins, the wording as it appeared on December 23, 1815 read: “To His Royal Highness, The Prince Regent. This work is, by his Royal Highness’s permission, most respectfully dedicated by His Royal Highness’s dutiful and obedient humble servant, The Author.”

Did the Prince Regent’s notice of Jane Austen’s writings have any effect on the success of Emma? It is impossible to know. What we do know is that Emma sold more copies in its first run than any of her three previous novels.

Berlin in Ruins

In the novel, Maggie Joyce goes to work in Frankfurt in 1946 for the Army Exchange Service. This part of her story was based on my father's sister, Mim, who went to work for the State Department in Berlin shortly after the war ended. Because of the ferocity of the fight by the Russians in taking the German capital, much of the city was left in ruins. Many of the buildings left standing were comandeered by the Army of Occupation to house their employees. The hardships suffered by the Germans after the war are unimaginable, especially since the winter of 1945-46 was brutally cold. However, the Germans immediately started to rebuild their city and their lives. Streets were cleared of rubble; trolley lines were repaired; buildings were rebuilt using material from bombed buildings. Although there was a non-fraternization order between Americans and Germans, it didn't last long, and many soldiers returned to the U.S. with a German war bride. Photos from my aunt's time in Berlin can be seen at http://www.pemberleyremembered.com/ on the "Story Background" page. There is a slide show at the bottom of the page.

60th Anniversary of Berlin Airlift

Pemberley Remembered takes place in 1947-48. Part of the story includes the start of the Berlin Airlift. Here is some background to that part of the story.

During WWII, the United States and Great Britain had been allies of the Soviet Union. It was never a comfortable alliance because it was known that Josef Stalin was a murderous dictator. But as Winston Churchill put it, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” and Stalin was the enemy of Nazi Germany. After the war, Stalin wanted to dismantle German industry and ship it back to the Soviet Union, and it believed its millions of casualties gave it that right. The Western Allies, however, did not want to repeat mistakes made at the end of WWI. The conditions of the armistice were so burdensome that they all but guaranteed that there would be another war. Great Britain and the U.S. wanted to see a democracy arise from the ashes of the Third Reich.

In mid June, 1948, the Soviet Union halted all traffic by water and land into or out of the Allied sectors of Berlin. The only remaining access routes into the city were three 20 mile wide air corridors across the Russian zone. The Soviets’ intention was to take over the three zones of Berlin not under their control. With no Allied traffic coming into Berlin to supply its inhabitants with basic necessities, the Soviet Union would be able to starve Berlin into submission.

On June 26, 1948, the Western Powers responded with the start of the Berlin Airlift. On that day, C-47 cargo planes flown by the United States Air Force carried 80 tons of food into Berlin, not nearly enough to provide the minimum daily requirements of Berlin’s population, but it would soon be joined by the U. S. Navy and the Royal Air Force. In short order, the United States responded to the Soviet’s blockade by making an open-ended commitment to the people of Berlin to supply them with calories and coal as long as they were willing to stand up to Soviet bullying.

Review of PR from a South Scranton Native

I am particularly pleased with this review from Marybeth VanWinkle, the Editor of "The Searcher," the newsletter of the Northeast PA Genealogical Society, and a resident of South Scranton.

Pemberley Remembered is a precious jewel of a novel. Like a carefully cut stone, it can be read from many angles, each presenting a different perspective, yet no single one detracts from the cohesive beauty of the whole. It is a love story, a mystery, and a glimpse into two separate historical time periods in which the protagonists are struggling against traditions and mores of the past while attempting to live their lives according to an emerging set of values.The main character, Maggie Joyce, is typical of many young people who are anxious to try their wings in the great world outside of their hometowns. Given the opportunity to work for the government after World War II in Europe, she believes that she is leaving behind the predictability and inevitability of what her life would have been had she stayed in her little village of Minooka, PA, a depressed mining town, where anthracite coal was once king. Most of the residents are of Irish descent, as well as strictly observant Catholics. There was no need for police or constables because the parish priest wielded all the power, both temporal and spiritual. Maggie’s memories are both nostalgic and painful: her hardworking mother, hard-drinking father and their large brood of children. Maggie doesn’t want to be defined by the parameters of Minooka. She chooses to go, first to Germany and then to England, to work in a post-war administrative office.Maggie is, at heart, a romantic. From childhood, she had read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice enough times to have memorized most of it. By coincidence, she meets the Crowells, who seem to have amazing first-hand knowledge of the book, as well as the real people about whom the book was written. As Maggie gets to know the Crowells, she is introduced to yet another new world, one of gracious and elegant living of the years before World War I, as well as the horrors of the war itself.While the Crowells slowly feed Maggie the story of Elizabeth Garrison and William Lacey, Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, she acquires a boyfriend, Rob McAllister, a hero with a degree of status having been a navigator on a B-17 bomber in World War II. After months of courtship, Maggie learns that Rob has not mentioned their relationship to his family because she is a Catholic and his people are Lutherans. Long before the advent of ecumenism, this would have ended any prospect of marriage. Yet Darcy overcame the differences in society that separated him from Elizabeth. Can Rob overcome the differences between Maggie and him?Pemberley Remembered is absorbing, amusing and very cleverly written. The different styles of writing in the book lend an air of realism to the plot. There are letters, both contemporary and historical, and old diary entries. It combines three time periods successfully without causing confusion for the reader. It has a strong love story and page-turning mystery. For readers who are not sure which genre they wish to read, there is mystery, romance and history enough to go around for everyone