Book Description
While her sister Jane is ill at Netherfield, Elizabeth Bennet overhears Miss Bingley and the proud Mr Darcy discussing his admiration of Elizabeth and her fine eyes. Not sure what to think of his praise after all of their previous disagreements, and more flattered than she wants to admit, Elizabeth teases him for the disparaging remark he made about her at the Meryton Assembly. Darcy is then forced to reconsider his opinion of a woman who has truly bewitched him more than any other.
The result of this unintended eavesdropping leads to confrontations and apologies on both sides and, eventually, the beginnings of a friendship between Darcy and Elizabeth. Their warming acquaintance impacts the courtship of Darcy’s friend and Elizabeth’s sister, the jealous temper of Miss Bingley, and even the behavior of Mr. Wickham after he arrives in Meryton.
How are the events of the winter drastically affected by the Bennet sisters choosing to spend two more days at Netherfield?
* * *
Guest Post from the Author of Two More Days at Netherfield, Heather Moll
Hello
Ceri and thank you for welcoming me back to Babblings of a Bookworm to share my
new release Two More Days at Netherfield. Imagine that it’s another cold
November evening at a house party. You never have a good whist partner. None of
the ladies want to play the pianoforte. Your friend’s library has nothing worth
reading aloud. And everyone is sick of playing cards. What do you do to pass
the time?
You
play a parlor game.
Two
More Days at Netherfield features a longer stay for
Elizabeth and Jane and, throughout the visit and the rest of the book, parlor
games are both entertainment and a way to advance the plot. Games were not only
a fun way to pass the time but an important way to solidify social bonds. They
also gave men and women the chance to act with a little more freedom than the
era’s societal restrictions allowed.
The
first game played during Jane and Elizabeth’s stay is called Consequences. It’s
best described as a regency-era Mad Libs. Each player takes a turn writing one
of the following words or phrases:
1.
Adjective for gentleman
2.
Gentleman’s name
3.
Adjective for lady
4.
Lady’s name
5.
Where they met
6.
What he wore
7.
What she wore
8.
He said to her
9.
She said to him
10.
The consequence was
11.
What the world said
The
player writes their answer, folds the paper so the next player can’t see it,
and passes it to the next player until the phrase is complete and read aloud. This
game can produce some amusing stories, but in Two More Days at Netherfield
it allows Darcy and Elizabeth to send some veiled messages to one another, and
this has far-reaching consequences on its own.
Snapdragon |
Christmas
and Twelfth Night was a time that leant itself to revel and games. In Two
More Days at Netherfield, a few lively activities are mentioned. One is
snapdragon. The room’s lights are dimmed, a few dozen raisins are put in a
shallow bowl, and then the bowl is filled with brandy and lit on fire. The
object was to put your fingers through the low blue flames, snatch out as many
raisins as you could, and pop them in your mouth without burning yourself too
badly. I think this sounds ridiculous and would result in sore fingers and a
burned dining room table but, then again, I have a Fortnite Monopoly game in my
house so maybe I shouldn’t judge other people’s games?
Another
game mentioned at Christmas is Buffy Gruffy. One person stands blindfolded
while the other players arrange their chairs in a circle and exchange seats.
The player approaches a chair and pushes their knee forward to see if anyone is
there—I can imagine Mr. Wickham nudging someone’s skirts a little more than
necessary. The blindfolded player asks 3 questions to determine who is in the
chair and the seated player disguises their voice as much as possible. If the player
guesses correctly, they exchange places. If they miss, they pay a forfeit and
have to proceed to another player until they successfully guess.
A
key element to many of these parlor games was the forfeit. In order to ensure
that everyone participated to the best of their abilities, for every loss or
error a player makes, a forfeit has to be paid. Sometimes they were trivial
stunts or slightly embarrassing actions or a riddle to solve. Or they could be
kissing forfeits. Physical contact between the sexes was limited, so opportunities
like this to flirt and maybe kiss someone’s cheek were not to be missed.
Forfeit - "Kiss if you can" |
One
kissing forfeit was “kiss the person you love best without disclosing the
secret”. This one is pretty simple to win: The gentleman has to kiss all the
ladies present so his love stays a secret. A more challenging kissing forfeit
was “kiss if you can”. Both the loser and the person assigned to them kneel on
the floor back to back. The lady looks over her left shoulder while the
gentleman looks over his right shoulder and he has one chance to kiss her cheek
while she tries to evade him by either leaning down or standing up. A motivated
and quick man just might be able to get an arm around her waist and catch a
kiss before she escapes.
We
can play one of the games played in Two More Days at Netherfield in
Ceri’s comment thread. It’s called I love My Love with an A. It’s a turn-taking
alphabet game and you incur a forfeit if you can’t come up with a suitable
word. But no kissing forfeits for us, and we can exclude X, Y, and Z. This is a
format:
I
love my love with a(n) ___ because s/he is ___. I hate my love because s/he is
___. I took him/her to ___ to the sign of the ___. I treated him/her with___
and his/her name is ___.
I’ll
start: I love my love with an A because he is ardent. I hate my love because he
is angry. I took him to Albany to the sign of the acorn. I treated him with
apples and his name is Andrew.
Parlor
games were an important way both sexes in Georgian England entertained
themselves in the evenings outside of music or cards. In Two More Days at
Netherfield, they help pass some of that extra time and it helps to push
Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship in a new direction. But you’ll have to read
the book to learn if anyone gets a kiss.
Author Bio
Heather Moll is an avid reader of mysteries and biographies with a master’s in information science. She found Jane Austen later than she should have and made up for lost time by devouring Austen’s letters and unpublished works, joining JASNA, and spending too much time researching the Regency era. She is the author of Two More Days at Netherfield and His Choice of a Wife. She lives with her husband and son and struggles to balance all of the important things, like whether to clean the house or write.
Connect with her on Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, and Twitter.
Buy Links
Two More Days at Netherfield is available to buy now in both ebook and paperback. It's also available to read in Kindle Unlimited - Amazon US / Amazon UK / Amazon CA / Add to Goodreads shelf
Giveaway Time!
Note Regarding Comments: I love to read your comments, but a few blog visitors have reported difficulties in commenting while using the Safari browser. If you are unable to comment, please try using another web browser, such as Google Chrome, or please contact me and I will add your comment for you :)
Blog Tour Schedule
Check out the other stops on the blog tour, particularly if you'd like to win one of the ebooks of Two More Days at Netherfield that Quills and Quartos are giving away on the blog tour - visit them all and maximise your chances!
Many thanks to Heather Moll for her wonderful guest post, Quills and Quartos for putting on this blog tour and providing the giveaways and to Christina Boyd of the Quill Ink for organising the blog tour.
* * *
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Thanks for visiting Heather! I want to play the game too:
ReplyDeleteI love my love with a B because he is brave. I hate my love because he is boastful. I took him to Bristol to the sign of the blackbird. I treated him with beer and his name is Benjamin.
Thanks for hosting me today. I’m glad you’re playing the game too! Hopefully we make it to Z!
DeleteI love my love with a C because he is cute. I hate my love because he is cunning. I took him to Canterbury to the sign of the Constitution. I treated him with Cannock and his name is Colin.
ReplyDeleteThanks for playing! I hope you enjoy the book :)
DeleteI love my love with a D because he is delightful. I hate my love because he is difficult. I took him to Denmark to the sign of the Declaration. I treated him with disdain and his name is David.
ReplyDelete"treated him with disdain" lol love it!
DeleteI love my love with a(n) _E__ because he is _eccentric__.
ReplyDeleteI hate my love because he is _evasive__.
I took him to _England__ to the sign of the _equestrian__.
I treated him with __espresso__ and his name is _Edward__.
I would love someone to take me to England and treat me with espresso. Good luck in the giveaway :)
ReplyDeleteI love my love with a F because he is friendly.
ReplyDeleteI hate my love because he is fickle.
I took him to France to the sign of the fox.
I treated him with falafel and his name is Frank.
We’re all set to entertain ourselves if the power goes out. Thanks for playing!
DeleteI love my love with a G because he is good.
ReplyDeleteI hate my love for he is grouchy.
I took him to Greece to the sign of the goat.
I treated him with gyros and his name is Garcy ;)
I love my love with a G because he is good.
ReplyDeleteI hate my love for he is grouchy.
I took him to Greece to the sign of the goat.
I treated him with gyros and his name is Garcy ;)
Garcy lol Love it!
DeleteI love my love with a H because he is handsome. I hate my love for he is hairy. I took him to Hungary to the sign of the horse. I treated him with hors d'oeuvres and his name is Henry.
ReplyDeleteHors d’oeuvres is clever :)
DeleteI love my love with an F because he is fine. I hate my love because he is freckled. I took him/her to Florida to the sign of the frankfurter. I treated him with French fries and his name is Francis.
ReplyDeleteI read and enjoyed this book.
DeleteI want to see the sign of the frankfurter. Thanks for reading the book Sheila!
DeleteA frankfurter is another name for a hot dog. "Frankfurter, also called wiener, or (in the United States) hot dog, highly seasoned sausage, traditionally of mixed pork and beef. Frankfurters are named for Frankfurt am Main, Ger., the city of their origin, where they were sold and eaten at beer gardens."
DeleteOh, I know what it is. I just thought it would be an amusing sign hanging outside a pub :)
DeleteGlad to hear you enjoyed the book, Sheila! I noticed on twitter yesterday that Heather has an exclusive epilogue to Two More Days at Netherfield for people that sign up to her newsletter, which you can do here, if you'd like to read more! https://mailchi.mp/29e95d3a1e94/subscribeheathermollauthor
DeleteOr it could be one of those fast food joints. We have several hot dog specialty shops in our area. They are both popular.
ReplyDeleteYocco's The Hot Dog King, Allentown, PA
ReplyDeleteAllentown! I went to a college near to there, but if you're affiliated with the other one I had better not say which one I went to ;)
DeleteI love my love with a(n) H because s/he is happy go lucky. I hate my love because s/he is hostile. I took him/her to Helsinki to the sign of the Hedgehog. I treated him/her with hummus and his/her name is Hadley.
ReplyDeletethanks for playing!
DeleteWe have two Fs and two Hs. I think some players have to pay a forfeit ;)
ReplyDeleteMy father-in-law graduated from Lehigh and is in their Hall of Fame. My second daughter, Heather, and her husband graduated from Lehigh also. My son and daughter-in-law graduated from Moravian College. I earned my El Ed Teaching Certificate from Moravian. We live very close to De Sales Univ. and to Lehigh.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of connections to Lehigh. I went to a different school on a different hill. On that head, therefore, I shall be uniformly silent ;)
DeleteDon't be shy - Lafayette. I worked in Easton for many years and we live almost next to the playing fields so when there is a game our roads are crowded. Stabler Arena also attracts hosts of visitors. And then there is the Wind Creek Casino nearby.
DeleteThe Lehigh Valley is a lovely area. I haven't been back in years but you've got me feeling nostalgic. Go Leopards!
DeleteIf you ever do decide to visit we must meet and have lunch.
Deleteit's a date :)
DeleteI have a comment from Eva:
ReplyDeleteThe information about parlor games was new and fascinating. So, do Elizabeth and Darcy kiss as a forfeit during a parlor game? Thank you for the giveaway.
Hi Eva! I'm glad you liked hearing about the games. You'll have to read the book to see if any kissing happens during any of the games. Good luck in the giveaway!
DeleteI like learning the old games and traditions!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it fascinating? I wish my kid, did, too. I tried to get him to play I Love My Love with an A, but he was more interested in his Switch!
DeleteI like learning things like this too, NovElla! With the rise of the TV, things like this have gone by the way.
DeleteWhat fun!!
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you liked it! Can’t just play whist all the time ;)
DeleteGlad you enjoyed the post, Becky!
DeleteI found the information on parlor games interesting.
ReplyDeleteI love my love with an I because he is intelligent. I hate him because he is indecisive. I took him/her to Iceland to the sign of the Icicle. I treated him/her to ice cream and his/her name is Ichabod.
Thank you for playing the game :) Good luck in the giveaway.
DeleteGlad you enjoyed the post, Deborah Ann!
DeleteI love my love with a J because he is jocular. I hate my love because he is jealous. I took him to John O'Groats to the sign of the Judge. I treated him with jam and his name is James.
ReplyDeleteThanks everybody for playing along, and thanks to Heather for this interesting post on parlour games!
ReplyDeleteI noticed yesterday that Heather is giving away an exclusive epilogue for Two More Days at Netherfield for those people who sign up to her mailing list, which you can do here: https://mailchi.mp/29e95d3a1e94/subscribeheathermollauthor
Thanks for letting me know about the epilogue. She also has another book being posted chapter by chapter on Mondays.
ReplyDeleteNo problem! It occurred to me that you might not see that there was an epilogue available so I wanted to let you know :)
Delete