Napoleon, Invasion, and Jane Austen - Random Bits of Fascination
 
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Napoleon, Invasion, and Jane Austen — 16 Comments

  1. Love these extra bits of history. Well, big bits, really. As you know, I am a big fan of your latest book. Thanks Maria for featuring Abigail here. Jen Red

  2. I’m currently in the middle of Conceit and Concealment, having placed my life on hold so I can do little besides read. Your view of an alternate history is really interesting to me because recently I’ve been wondering how authors research for their books. Did you just happen to be reading about Napoleon and find your way to your story, or did you have a general idea and then research source material? If you have the time to answer, I would really appreciate your feedback! Thanks in advance!

    • It was stranger than that. A JAFF writer friend was struggling to find ideas for a story that would be both Regency (since that’s what sells) and outside the usual JAFF box (since that’s what she likes to write). I brainstormed some crazy ideas for her, hoping that would help her get started, and the alternate history was one of them. But once I started thinking about all the things that could be done with the idea, I really wanted to write it myself. Now my problem is that every other plot idea I have seems tame and boring!

  3. This is such a fascinating premise; I love history, but I also had little idea how close Napoleon was to actually capturing England!

    I thoroughly enjoyed C&C; it was a delight to read!! Thank you, Abigail!!

    Warmly,
    Susanne 🙂

    • I had never realized how close Napoleon came invading. I wonder if it’s something people of the time preferred to forget about rather than putting it in history books. Thanks for your help with the manuscript!

  4. Thank you for this interesting post and for enlightening us on Napoleon’s plans regarding England. Until now I considered the possibility rather fantastic, but now I know better:) And now the idea of your new book seems more real but no less intriguing.

  5. I have so many books on my TBR list that so far I haven’t bought this one. It is only a delaying tactic though because I often re read all of Abigail’s other books and I really enjoyed the chapters of this book that I read so I will definitely be buying it soon. Thanks for sharing your research and ideas.

  6. I can honestly say, as a Brit, that I had NO idea that we’d come so close to this invasion. I knew that we’d come close in WWII, but not this one. Of course, as an island, we have some protection from the seas surrounding us, but the English Channel isn’t that wide and from a high vantage point, I’ve seen France on a clear day, many years ago on a family holiday in Kent – didn’t call to see Lady C. though! On that same holiday, we saw some of the coastal defences from that era but it always seemed to have been a somewhat nebulous threat to me, until now, of course.

    Thanks for such an informative post, Abigail. I loved the chapters you posted on Austen Variations and of course I’ve been seeing our English bluebell woods in a different light ever since!

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