little miss austin

Alice thought Beckford was right.

Novels, as a rising form of artistic creation, actually appeared as early as the middle of the 17th century, but for more than 100 years, novels and novel reading are still "unpopular" pastimes, ladies and ladies can have their own book clubs , but if a man finds out that he is reading these "vulgar" books, he will still feel embarrassed, and he will say "it's just for entertainment" in a very fake way.

It is generally believed that women only need to learn the cultural knowledge they should have. For example, they can write letters and read newspapers. Do not read these."

And only in the home of someone like Beckford, the reading of novels and professional works, far from being ridiculed, is encouraged.Susan didn't inherit her father's writing talent, but she read enough. Even in daily letters, her choice of words and sentences was a bit higher than that of ordinary people.

The first British woman who made money by writing books and could be called a "professional writer" was Aphra Behn (Aphra Behn). There was a war, and King Charles II sent Aphra to the Netherlands as a spy, but she was not paid, and instead went to prison in debt. After that, she began to write scripts, earn money to pay off debts, and published the legendary novel Oronoque in 1666. ", the "Legend of Heroes" from France was all the rage in Britain at that time.

Because of Aphra's success, many female writers emerged in the UK, but many of them just imitated Aphra Bain. These works are very "vulgar".Moreover, due to the limitation of vision and experience of female writers, the pattern of novels is not large, and most of them are limited to narrow themes of love and love.

When Beckford taught Alice, she said that she should broaden her horizons, and the subject matter does not matter, but it should not be too limited, otherwise the artistic life will not last long.William Beckford did not write more outstanding and famous works after "History of the Vasak Caliphate". Firstly, because he was full of scandals, publishers were afraid to publish his books; secondly, he was rich and did not rely on Writing to make money, a "History of the Vasak Caliphate" has given him the fame he deserves, and he has no higher pursuit.

As for Alice, I also think that the description of lust is appropriate. It must conform to the character setting and the story, otherwise it will be a bit overwhelming. Jane Austen does not rely on passionate descriptions. Her books have been sold for 200 years. Most of the works of female writers But there is no such a long life cycle.

Well, then take my sister as my goal and strive to become a great writer with classic works handed down to the world!

Susan Beckford thinks it's great that 15-year-old Alice can write "Season of the Witch", but of course it has to be "Pride and Prejudice" when it comes to liking.She vaguely knew that J. Austen was a member of the Austin family, but she was just not sure who it was. After all, there were many women in the Austin family, including two sisters and three sisters-in-law. But after knowing the names of all Miss Austin and Mrs. Austin, she Target Jane.

"Tell me, is J. Austen really Jane?" Susan finally forcibly became Alice's best friend by writing letters persistently.After finishing what he wanted to say to Alice, Beckford didn't like to discuss any in-depth topics with Pastor George, so he left and left, but left Susan to stay for a few days.

"How did you know?"

"Is it hard to guess? The only woman in your family whose first name is J. How difficult is it?"

"There is no reward for guessing."

"Really?" Susan hugged Alice, resting her chin on her shoulder, "Can you help me find Jian Jian's autograph?"

"You want an autograph? I can write you one right now." Alice pushed Susan's face away, took a piece of paper, and quickly signed "J·Austen".

"It doesn't count!"

"Exactly the same, I practiced."

"You are fake!" Susan was angry.

Alice made a face at her.

But she quickly put it aside, "When is your family planning to hold a dance for you? We will stay in London until I get engaged. You must invite me to your dance."

"Engaged? Has anyone proposed to you?"

"Not yet." Susan sighed, "God knows why it is so difficult for me to find a suitable husband!"

"Don't you have any aunts or uncles?"

"Yes, but they hardly get in touch with father, who thinks they are too vulgar."

"That's okay, you see which of your relatives has more friends, you can live there for a while, Mr. Beckford will not let you go." Beckford himself is very artistic, so he almost Everyone looks vulgar. Of course, money is the main reason.

"But I don't want to leave him alone. My father is very pitiful. In fact, I think that my father can have a lover. As for whether it is a man or a woman, I don't care."

Alice couldn't participate in this topic, so she had to laugh.

Susan then began to discuss the issue of the new dance dress, enthusiastically introduced her tailor to Alice, and made an appointment to go to the tailor shop together.Her enthusiasm for the prom was obviously high, and she would shake her legs when she mentioned the prom, trying to instill in Alice how fun the prom would be.

Alice asked suspiciously: "Is it so fun?"

"I can't tell you what's so good about it. It's just that when the music starts, you can't help but want to go to the dance floor, but it doesn't matter if your partner is a man or a woman! Of course, the other party must be a good dancer, otherwise If he keeps stepping on your feet, you might want to chop off his hooves to relieve your anger!"

Alice remembered that there were quite a few such clumsy guys in the dance hall, and they were all boys.Men, after many years of training, they will not always step on the feet of their dancing partners. They really can’t learn, and they can hide their clumsiness without dancing; but boys are different. When they first enter the social circle, they expect to meet beautiful women in the dance hall. girl.

Then I thought of Wesley stepping on Jane's foot back then, so that Jane's perception of him was extremely bad.Therefore, whether you can dance is also an important indicator.

Susan has been nagging there for a long time, saying that whoever can't dance always steps on her instep, she is not someone who uses her instep for nothing to be stepped on by others, the first time being stepped on can be regarded as that person's mistake, the second time Being stepped on, she left the dance floor without even saying a polite word.

Alice was about to die laughing, "That guy must be embarrassing."

Susan raised her chin, "I don't care if he's embarrassed or not. You know, unmarried girls can always be willful."

Alice nodded again and again, "Yes, yes."

Susan is actually just a spoiled child, she is not bad at heart, well-bred, and sometimes she is arrogant because she is a beautiful girl, so she can easily be forgiven by others, not to mention Her family is still very rich.What does it matter if a beautiful girl is wayward?

Susan also talked about some things about her aunts and uncles, ignoring the trivial details of their family, and only talked about their attitude towards Susan's marriage. The aunts hoped that she could marry one of her relatives.Her mother is the daughter of the fourth Earl of Aberne, and her uncle is George Gordon, the fifth Earl of Aberne. Susan has no direct aunts, but noble families like theirs always have countless relatives. The aunts are all cousins ​​of Mrs. Margaret. Even Susan can't count how many aunts and uncles she has, but the closest blood relationship is the Earl of Aberne.

Beckford is very rich, and Susan has no brothers to inherit the family property, which means that Beckford will give his daughter a considerable dowry.This is a good thing, but it's not a good thing. The other party's status is not high enough to be her husband, and young men of the same age rarely inherit the title and family property in their 20s.

All the aunts want Susan to marry into their own family, her husband’s family or her mother’s family are fine, so Susan is busy meeting strange men all day long, and attends at least 4 or 5 dances every week. The shoes wear out after a few wears.

My uncle is more reliable. His son is 6 years younger than Susan, and he is only 13 years old now, so he gave up the idea of ​​letting Susan marry back to the Gordon family. Instead, he carefully chose the right one for Susan. husband.

"Mrs. Catherine said that the aunts are not all good for me. The men they introduced to me may not be all good. I have to be careful to distinguish." Mrs. Catherine is Susan's aunt.Susan fiddled with Alice's long hair, "Tell me, how annoying this is! In Fengshan, I used to worry that I couldn't meet suitable candidates, but now I worry that there are too many candidates, how can I meet them one by one ?”

"It's easy to handle, just choose those who are beautiful."

Susan burst out laughing, "You're absolutely right!"

William Beckford is a beautiful man, and he is also a beautiful middle-aged man; Susan's mother, Mrs. Margaret, is a beauty, and Susan's appearance is also super high, so she must not look down on ordinary people.

"By the way, you haven't met my cousin, Charles Gordon, have you?"

"I haven't seen it. Isn't he several years younger than you?"

"More than 5 years younger than me, 2 years younger than you, almost 14 years old. When will you visit the earl's house with me and see Charles."

Alice wondered, "Why do you want to see him?"

"Because he's good-looking."

"—even you think he's good-looking, must be a pretty boy. Is he in London?"

"Yes, the family stays in London all winter, and they don't return to Scotland until spring."

"Then I can invite the Earl's family to my ball."

Susan nodded, "That's no problem."

Wesley arrived in London at the end of November and still lives next to Hyde Park.

A few days after arriving in London, he came to visit Austin's house.

A 30-year-old man with excellent speech and demeanor, steady and mature.

Pastor George couldn't help lamenting how much he had changed, and Mrs. Austin lamented that he didn't know what kind of wife he would marry in the future, Gresham Manor, an annual income of at least 7-8000 pounds, and a huge sum of money in the bank.

Jane and Tom are now financially well-off, with their own small building, some deposits, and company shares, but they still can't compare with Wesley's net worth.That's all Mrs. Austin said, and she didn't mention Jane. After all, Jane's marriage is considered good. Apart from the last quarrel, the young couple really didn't have any other conflicts.

Reverend George invited him to dinner, and Wesley and Alice sat on both sides of the table, facing each other.Wesley said that he ordered several sets of "The Season of the Witch", one for Gresham Manor and one for London, and he also ordered a pocket version so that he could take it with him.

Alice said flatteredly, "Do you like it?"

"Excellent, I love it."

"Then I will write more novels in the future, do you like them too?"

"I'm sure you'll like it. No matter what novel you write, it will be interesting, exciting, and addictive."

"Of course!" Alice was very confident about this.

Henry has been busy with the steam printing machine for a while, and has reached the final acceptance stage.

The current technical level is sufficient. What the steam printing machine lacks is the direction of improvement and development funds. Once there are engineers and funds, it will take a few years to continuously design, test run, and modify, and the development will be successful in a few years. At this stage, only the final operation acceptance is required to ensure that the printing machine can work continuously, and the time is increased from 72 hours at the beginning to 720 hours or even longer.

Most of the parts of the printing press are now cast by hand, for which 3 blacksmiths are employed; there are also some carpentry work, which employs 12 carpenters, including Jacob's carpenter father.For this reason, Jacob's family moved from a small village in Oxfordshire to the vicinity of the factory. Jacob's eldest brother was apprenticed to a blacksmith, and the other two younger brothers who were over [-] years old followed their father as apprentices.

Jacob's family is very grateful to Alice for this. Jacob's mother is very proud. When she heard that Lady Anna wanted to find a companion for her little cousin, she immediately asked her son to try it. It can be said that it was too witty.Jacob wasn't the smartest among those kids, but Alice didn't expect that Jacob just fell in love with him.

Jacob is now Alice's favorite servant. He handles all of Alice's external affairs at home and when he is away from home. From small things like sending letters to various places in London to big things like food, accommodation and transportation when traveling, the actual effect has already been achieved. Beyond what a valet can do, and less like a butler than a master's steward, Alice was wondering if she should send him somewhere to learn how to be a master's steward.

She trusts Jacob very much. Jacob has the simplicity of a country boy. His family is poor, but he has not been raised badly. .In fact, according to the things he handled, he secretly took a few pounds every month, and reported a little more when repaying the accounts, so Alice couldn't tell.

Alice is not stingy, and often gives him bonuses. His current annual salary is 20 pounds, and his usual bonus can be 1 to 20 pounds a year. It is considered a high salary for the servant class. He does not need to spend money on food, clothing, housing and transportation. Half of his salary is given to the family, plus his father's current annual salary, the family can now be said to have enough food and clothing.

In early December, Alice and Brother Henry went to the printing machine factory, and finally accepted the steam printing machine.

The noise of the steam engine was loud, but not as much as the excitement of creating a new machine. Alice was very satisfied, and felt that the money was well spent.

Henry soon began to send salesmen to run around, bring leaflets, and sell new printing machines all over the UK. For customers who are interested in ordering new machines, they offer package pick-up and delivery services, and pick you up to London to see the goods on the spot, or Reimbursement of travel expenses.

As for the pricing, of course it is not cheap, it is 7 times the cost.

In the two weeks before Christmas, the boys from the university began to return to London.

Ivo came to look for Alice on the afternoon of the day he arrived in London, and complained that the portrait she painted for him during the summer vacation was gone, and he cherished it very much and put it on the bedside table in the bedroom. It's gone.

"There's no need to be sad, right? I'll draw another picture for you." The big boy's angry and guilty expression was quite cute.

"Then when are you free?"

"Just for a few days—not tomorrow, Susan will come over tomorrow, we ordered a new dance dress, and the tailor will send it tomorrow."

"New dance dress?" Ivo's eyes lit up, and he said excitedly, "Then I'm going to come again, and I'll help you see if the dance dress looks good."

"Why do I need you to judge whether the dance dress looks good? I think it's fine."

"How many dresses did you order?"

"6."

Ivo nodded, "I'll help you choose. When my sisters are at home, they always ask me to help them choose their dance dresses."

Alice thought about it, Ivo's aesthetics is good, under the influence of his sisters, he can speak clearly about colors and accessories, which is much better than Oliver.So it is good to have more sisters.

"Well, you can come over tomorrow. I'll treat you to a chocolate chip cookie."

"What are cookies?"

"A kind of biscuit, with chocolate, it's delicious."

"Then I must try it."

"You stay for dinner, and then we can go over and see William."

It was not uncommon for the boys to stay for dinner, without even adding food.Alice likes to eat delicious food, so she found a cook who has a good taste in cooking. She can cook home-cooked dishes well, and she also likes to think about new dishes. Mrs. Austin shared her many years of recipes.

Little William is one and a half months old, and he is white and fat.

Ivo is not very interested in children, and finds them annoying and uninteresting.

The two of them walked to the small villa and walked side by side when they came back. Sidney was holding a lantern in front, and Jacob was holding a lantern behind.

Ivo said of his sisters' children that they were too loud and not fun at all, and Alice felt the same way.

"Why don't you like children? I thought all women would like children." He asked in astonishment.

"Who told you that?"

"Everyone says that, and that's what my mother told my sisters."

"I don't think so. There is nothing good about a child other than being an heir."

Ivo thought about it, and it was indeed so.

"However, men, regardless of whether they have family property and titles or not, still want to have children, preferably boys." Alice said again.

"It can't be helped, only boys can inherit the family property and title."

It is a fact that both custom and law recognize only male inheritance.

Alice suddenly felt discouraged, and felt that no matter how much money she made, she would not be able to change her thinking quickly.The society and the state require women to marry, but after women get married, their property rights and personal rights belong to their husbands instead of their own; while women can at least have property rights before they get married at home, and parents can’t say they want to beat their children to death Just beat the children to death.

The printing factory employs a laundress to wash clothes and sheets for the workers and managers. Alice occasionally hears the laundress telling people about her sister. However, the salary of female workers is often only half of that of male workers, and the salary of child workers is even less. At least 80% of the jobs in textile factories are female workers and child workers. Because the wages are lower, the cost is lower and the profit is higher; There are only male workers in heavy physical work and technical work;

The husbands of the sisters complained that the female workers seized their job opportunities, and at the same time took every penny earned by their wives. The sisters were 8 months pregnant and had to work, otherwise they would not even have the money to buy bread. The baby was born right next to the machine.

Alice was dumbfounded.

So in this society, boys can live better, no matter what class they are from.

For example, the Princess of Wales was a princess before she got married, but she also had to travel across the oceans for a political marriage. For the purpose of accusing Princess Caroline of having an affair with others, the city was full of turmoil, which added explosive gossip to countless gossip crowds in the UK. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

The oppression of women is from top to bottom and unified. A very small number of women can use beauty and money to achieve seemingly freedom, but in fact, their fate is still controlled by the patriarchal society.

The reason Alice is less sensitive to this is that she is underage, not married, not confronted with most of the specific issues, and not given the opportunity to observe the bottom rungs of society on the ground.

But the discrimination she received was still obvious. For example, she couldn't use her real name to sign it calmly like later generations, so she had to give in and change a pseudonym.

The aristocrats and gentlemen talk about "ladies first", not based on gentlemanly demeanor, but based on the nature of women as a weak species. They think that women are delicate flowers in the greenhouse and need to be cared for; they let women learn all the skills to please men , such as music, singing, dancing, and flirting skills, are all for better service to men, women who learn the best can get better husbands, or more money, and everything about women revolves around men , your upbringing, your knowledge, your gentleness, all do not belong to you.

The author has something to say:

*In line with the principle that British boys are British actors and American boys are American actors, Grant refers to Grant Gustin (Little Flash in the TV series "The Flash") or Brenton Thwaites (in the TV series "Titans") Nightwing).Both are boys from DC, they both look alike and have similar auras. (Brandon is an Australian, and it seems to be okay to play the American boy whose ancestral home is England.)