Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

I’ve long been fascinated with the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle ever since I read a blog post by author Janet Mullany at the History Hoydens blog several years ago.  For a while I even contemplated trying to fictionalize the story.  So I was very excited when I heard that she was going to be the subject of a major motion picture.  This film opened in the US in limited release last Friday, and since delayed gratification isn’t really my thing, I went to see the film on Sunday at one of the only two movie theatres showing it in the city. However, before seeing the film, I picked up a copy of Paula Byrne’s new book entitled Belle: The Slave Daughter and the Lord Chief Justice.  Although Belle’s name is in the title, the book is more about her great uncle Lord Mansfield and the era in which she lived than it is an actual biography.  The reason being that very little is known about Belle.   The simple facts are these:  She was born someti...

Title:   The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things Author:   Paula Byrne Publisher:    Harper Collins Publication Date:   1/29/2013 How Acquired:   Through the Publisher What it’s about:   I came to Jane Austen relatively late in life it feels.   I didn’t read Pride and Prejudice until my senior year of high school.   As a moody teenager, I reveled in the gothic novels of Emily and Charlotte Bronte.   It was actually the film version of Pride and Prejudice starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson that got me interested in reading the book.   I found the movie so delicious and fun that I had to read the book.   Since then I’ve read Northanger Abbey, Emma and Persuasion and I’ve seen almost every single adaptation of all the books.   I’ve even read several biographies but I’ve never really felt as if I knew who Jane was.   She certainly wasn’t the character played by Anne Hathaway in BECOMING ...