Death of a Dandy by Riana Everly ~ Blog Tour ~ Guest Post, Excerpt, & Giveaway!

Hello, my friends! I have the lovely Riana Everly visiting the blog with her new book, Death of a Dandy: A Mansfield Park Mystery. 

The Moral Concerns About Acting

Thank you for hosting me on this stop along my blog tour for my latest mystery, Death of a Dandy: A Mansfield Park Mystery. 

In this book, the third in the Miss Mary Investigates series, the story takes place within the world of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, which might be her least-known novel. For those with only a passing knowledge of the work, here is a ridiculously brief summary. Poor relation Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy cousins, the children of Sir Thomas Bertram, baronet, at Mansfield Park. Most of the story takes place when she is around eighteen. Her eldest cousin, Tom, is determined to mount a performance of a popular play, and invites several young people from the neighbourhood to participate. There is a great deal of flirting and moral indignation, and eventually Fanny and Edmund get married. There is a great deal more to the story, but for the purposes of my novel, it is the play that takes centre stage (if you’ll pardon my pun).

Fanny is quiet and reserved but has firm ideas of what is proper
and what should be avoided. And acting in a play, she asserts, is quite inappropriate for people of good moral fibre. Edmund, who is to become a clergyman, initially feels likewise, but is convinced into participating by charming neighbour Mary Crawford.

But what, exactly, is wrong with putting on a play? After all, these days we idolise actors and many people from all walks of life dream of making it in Hollywood or New York.

But sentiment has changed over the years. For one thing, there was a big difference between reading plays at home for personal entertainment in a world pre-movies or pre-television, and performing in public. To spend quality time with the family while pronouncing the great words of Shakespeare (or a tamed-down version to protect the sensibilities of the ladies) was acceptable, even in the finest of homes. But to put oneself on display before others was quite a different matter.

There were, to be certain, many edifying plays available at the time, but many (the fun ones!) involved topics that were quite scandalous for the time. Flirtation, infidelity, and other inappropriate behaviours were exactly the things that drew audiences. Even Hamlet, alluded to by Tom Bertram in his plea to Edmund, involves the quasi-incestuous relationship between Hamlet’s mother and uncle.

How many a time have we mourned over the dead body of Julius Caesar, and to be’d and not to be’d, in this very room, for [father’s] amusement? 

But even here, Edmund is not convinced, seeing the Bard’s plays more as a means to learn rhetoric than as vehicles for performance.

It was a very different thing. You must see the difference yourself. My father wished us, as schoolboys, to speak well, but he would never wish his grown-up daughters to be acting plays. His sense of decorum is strict.”

In acting out a play like Lovers’ Vows, the characters dress up, possibly wear cosmetics, touch, embrace, fight, and caress each other, all most unsuitable for ladies of quality. One can see why Fanny would be so opposed to being involved in such a production.

Furthermore, acting was a profession, a task undertaken for
money, and actresses often found their patrons expected more than a note at the back of the program or an extra bow after the first performance. Even great artists of the stage like Mrs. Sarah Siddons were not considered entirely respectable, for all that she was a favourite of King George III and Queen Charlotte.

At one point in my novel, Fanny produces a volume of Thomas Gisborne’s work, An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex (1797). Gisborne’s sentiments are echoed in Fanny’s own, and to a degree in Edmund’s, as he writes:

… yet what is even then the tendency of such an amusement? To encourage vanity; to excite a thirst of applause and admiration of attainments which, if they are to be thus exhibited, it would commonly have been far better for the individual not to possess; to destroy diffidence, by the unrestrained familiarity with the persons of the other sex, which inevitably results from being joined with them in the drama; to create a general fondness for the perusal of plays, of which so many are unfit to be read; and for attending dramatic representations, of which so many are unfit to be witnessed.

Because this is such an important part of Mansfield Park, I have included the play in my mystery. Here is an excerpt from Death of a Dandy: A Mansfield Park Mystery.

*. *. *. 

     “If Mr. Lyons wishes to take the case, I am certain my family will forgive my absence for a few days longer. However, I am loath to intrude upon Mr. and Mrs. Meldola’s hospitality for more than the short time they had expected.”

     “To that, Miss Bennet, you need have no fear,” Meldola offered. He had the expression of a man who dearly wished to laugh, but dare not. He most certainly did not look like a man anxious to return to his place of business. Alexander believed his friend was enjoying himself. 

     This hospitality was welcome; there were issues, however, which he could not raise at the moment. Later, he would speak with his friend, and then with Mary. That latter conversation was one he dreaded, and he determined to put it off for as long as possibly he could. A lump threatened in his throat at the thought, and he swallowed around it.

     Instead, hoping for a reprieve from what he must say later, he turned to Edmund Bertram. “You have mentioned sisters; how many have you? Who else is at Mansfield Park?”

     To his surprise, Mr. Bertram turned a rather unbecoming shade of red. Whatever could bring about this reaction? Alexander reached across the table for the notebook Mary had been using to record the replies to last night’s notes and turned to a new page. “Everything you say will be held in the strictest confidence, Mr. Bertram. However, if you wish for my assistance in this matter, I must have information. If there is something you wish Miss Bennet not to hear…”

     “No, no! Nothing like that.” Mr. Bertram sputtered. “It is… that is, we are… Oh, dash it! We are engaged in preparing a theatrical performance”

     “A play?” Mary’s voice held the intimations of a suppressed chuckle. “But that is a fine endeavour. There is no need for concealment. At Longbourn, my family’s estate in Hertfordshire, we often spend a winter’s evening reading through Hamlet or Lear or one of the comedies, with the unsuitable sections removed, of course.”

     “Er, well, yes, Miss Bennet, but we have not chosen one of the Bard’s plays, neither are we merely reading it, but acting it out like players on a stage. It is one matter for men to engage in such affairs, but my sisters… ladies! This borders on the disreputable.”

     “Surely there can be no harm in a simple amusement in the privacy of your house,” Mr. Meldola soothed. “Reading, even acting out a scene, is hardly the same thing as setting yourself up as an actress on the public stage.”

     “There can surely be no harm,” Mary added in her most prim voice, “in such a pastime, as long as one is not exposing himself to the eyes of the neighbourhood. Although acting can be seen as the entryway to less salutary pursuits, at home, with one’s own family, there can be no danger.” 

     Alexander could almost see her searching her mind for some quote from the sermons she used to read so assiduously.

     Bertram cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. “Well, you see… Here is the problem. Tom, my brother, set off to invite some of our neighbours to come as an audience…” He ran a hand across his brow.

Death of a Dandy

A Mansfield Park Mystery

by Riana Everly

Blurb 

The worlds of Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park meet when Mary Bennet lands in the middle of her third adventure with handsome investigator Alexander Lyons. 

The two friends are travelling back to Mary’s home after a visit to the Darcy family at Pemberley when their journey is interrupted by the news that Tom Bertram, the heir to Mansfield Park, has disappeared. Alexander is asked to take the case, and he and Mary find themselves as guests at the estate. The house is abuzz with activity as plans go ahead for a fox hunt and the performance of a play, and Mary sees intrigue in every interaction between the beautiful residents of Mansfield Park and their sophisticated guests. 

When the hunt ends in tragedy with the discovery of a body, Alexander’s involvement grows even deeper, but every clue leads to even more questions. The more Alexander digs, the more it seems this death might involve people much higher up than he can reach. And the biggest question of all is who, exactly, was the intended victim of what is surely murder most foul? 

Mary and Alexander find themselves hard at work to unravel a web of secrets and dark goings-on that enshroud the elegant estate of Mansfield Park. But Alexander is hiding a secret of his own, one which he knows will forever doom any possible future for him and Mary. 

Will they solve the mystery before somebody else dies? And will any hearts remain unbroken if they succeed?

 

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About the Author

Riana Everly was born in South Africa, but has called Canada home since she was eight years old. She has a Master’s degree in Medieval Studies and is trained as a classical musician, specialising in Baroque and early Classical music. She first encountered Jane Austen when her father handed her a copy of Emma at age 11, and has never looked back. 

Riana now lives in Toronto with her family. When she is not writing, she can often be found playing string quartets with friends, biking around the beautiful province of Ontario with her husband, trying to improve her photography, thinking about what to make for dinner, and, of course, reading!

Riana’s novels have received several awards and citations as favourite reads of the year, including two Jane Austen Awards and a Discovering Diamonds review.

Connect with Riana Everly

Website • Blog • Facebook • Twitter • Amazon

* * * GIVEAWAY * * *

Riana Everly is giving away five eBooks of Death of a Dandy: A Mansfield Park Mystery. She has set up a Rafflecopter draw, but for anybody who cannot use the link, please email her with your name and preferred email address, and she will add you manually to the list for the draw. Her email is riana.everly@gmail.com

Good luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations to Riana Everly to the release of Death of a Dandy! Thank you for visiting us here today!

Friends, what do you think? Please leave any questions or comments you have for Riana Everly below!