The Official Essex Sisters Companion Guide Read online

  The Official Essex Sisters Companion Guide

  Jody Gayle with Eloisa James

  Contents

  Introduction by Jody Gayle

  Presenting the Essex Sisters Series

  Part One—The Boundaries of a Book by Eloisa James

  In the Beginning

  On the Challenges of Writing

  The Stages of Writing a Book

  Notes for The Taming of the Duke

  Notes for Pleasure for Pleasure

  “On Marriages of Convenience, Arranged Marriages, Fake Marriages, and All Sorts of Delicious Marriages”

  On Writing Sex . . . After the Eleventh Book

  “When the Hero Puts on a Dress” by Anne N. Bornschein

  The Place of Research in Writing Historical Romances

  Editing a Manuscript

  When the Manuscript Is Finished

  The Taming of the Duke Bonus Chapter

  Introduction to Essex Sisters Series Extra Content

  A Midsummer Night’s Disgrace: A Brand-New Story in the Essex Sisters World

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Essex Sisters Family Tree

  A Final Chapter to the Essex Sisters Series

  “A Heroine Whose Story Needs Telling” by Franzeca Drouin

  Part Two—The Essex Sisters and What They Wore: A Fashion Fairytale by Jody Gayle

  Vogue by Any Other Name

  Ruffles, Ruffles, and Then Even More Ruffles!

  “Regency Fashion Categories” by Candice Hern

  Part Three—Publications by Jody Gayle

  Debrett’s Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland

  The Sporting Magazine

  General Stud Book

  Challenges and Gambling

  Depicting Life in London, with the Help of La Belle Assemblée

  Publications in Pleasure for Pleasure

  Nocturnal Revels

  Malefactors’ Bloody Register

  One Last Thought on Publications . . .

  Part Four—Attending the Theatre by Jody Gayle

  Theatre Royal, Covent Garden

  Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

  Shakespeare, My Love

  Pantomimes

  Part Five—Appendix

  Character Index

  An Excerpt from A Gentleman Never Tells

  Alternate Ending: Kiss Me, Annabel

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  References

  Additional Books

  An Excerpt from Seven Minutes in Heaven

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  About the Authors

  By Eloisa James

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Introduction

  [Rafe] had done his best as guardian of four penniless girls, and it wasn’t his fault that they had turned out to be the sort of young women who create scandals with the ease with which other ladies embroider handkerchiefs.

  Kiss Me, Annabel

  Hello! My name is Jody, and I’m the author of the Essex Sisters Companion Guide that you’re about to read, which means that I’m crazy, eccentric, and impassioned enough to think that there are other people out there like me—people who love Eloisa James’s series enough that they want to live in her world rather than their own, and think it would be fun to learn more about how Eloisa came up with the characters and what the clothes in the period were really like, not to mention read original material found only here that I either wrangled from Eloisa’s files or begged her to create!

  I’m a huge fan of all Eloisa’s books, but I chose the Essex sisters for this companion because, frankly, I adore them. I particularly love the ease with which they create scandal. To my utter dismay, I have come to realize that Trouble! would be an appropriate title for a sitcom about my life. The actor portraying me would have to play an exaggerated personality who falls into ridiculous situations of her own making. I talk a bit too loudly, my hands wildly flying, and I find nearly everything funny. Can you imagine me in a Regency ballroom?

  So, basically, I love the Essex sisters because they’re not perfect—in fact, they’re rather like me. We even have the same sort of nontraditional backgrounds. I grew up in the 1980s in a tiny town of five hundred people in northern Missouri. The walls in my house were standing due to the layers of wallpaper, and the frigid winter winds seemed to always find a home in my bedroom. Baths were taken in a metal washtub in the kitchen, with the water drawn from the well and heated on a wood-burning stove. My summers were spent running barefoot around the farm. See why I like the Essex sisters so much? We were poorer than they were . . . but still, I related so well to four girls growing up far from the glitter of London and suddenly thrust into the limelight.

  In my case, when I turned twenty, I “married up,” as they might have said in the past. I married a military officer, and moved to an exclusive area of Tampa, Florida—a city with a population of over three million. The Essex sisters went from poor to comfortable, small to large, wilderness to civilization. Me too.

  When I reread the stories of the Essex sisters, I always think about how far I have come. When I make a fool of myself or suffer through a particularly challenging day, I come home and cuddle up with a book. Historical romances are my favorite, and thank goodness there are so many of them, because I have a lot of those days! I love to escape into a different time and place.

  I think Eloisa’s books are a special treasure in the genre, because she expands and educates the reader by introducing new historical details in her stories. Regency London is my favorite setting for historical romances, and yet novels often seem trapped in a microcosm, a mini-world of Almack’s and a townhouse or two. In the Essex Sisters series alone, Eloisa mentions over thirteen actual publications from the Regency era and over sixty assorted real-life places in England. Still, every time I finished one of her novels, I wanted more: more about the characters, more about the world they live in, more about the author’s thoughts as she created the book.

  After a while, I started wondering if other readers might share my curiosity, and I got the idea of creating a comprehensive, easy-to-read guide that included all sorts of bonus Essex Sisters material, as well as historical essays on everything from fashion to newspapers.

  When Ms. James was scheduled to appear at a book signing near my home, I pulled myself together and decided to ask her if I could write a companion piece to her books. Frankly, I was petrified. Even though she is an internationally acclaimed best-selling author, she talked to me! She was so delightful and approachable. What’s more, she agreed to assist me, although she is beyond busy every moment being a writer, professor, mother, and wife.

  She even agreed to write a brand-new novella set in the Essex Sisters world, to include in my guide—and that novella eventually became two (hurrah!): A Midsummer Night’s Disgrace, which you’ll read right here in the companion, and A Gentleman Never Tells, which is being published in tandem.

 
Eloisa wrote Part One of this companion, which traces the Essex Sisters from her very first idea right through to a bonus chapter that revisits the sisters ten years after Pleasure for Pleasure. One of the most exciting moments for me, reading Eloisa’s account, was discovering that Kiss Me, Annabel exists in two versions—the published one, and another, with a very different second half. Eloisa had completely rewritten the last nineteen chapters for the published version. It took some persuasion, but you’ll find that alternate ending in the Appendix. Parts Two through Four sprang from my curiosity. As I quickly discovered, I am too curious, because it would take me a lifetime to research and discover all the little details Eloisa includes in her books. My essays look at fashionable attire, different theatres mentioned in Eloisa’s novels, and as many rich details about life in London as I could manage.

  These essays are illustrated; I looked for images from the time period, as I personally love to see an actual book or building that’s mentioned in a book. My primary objective is to add depth to the visualizations we each create while reading a novel. My prediction is that, given the growing technical advances in publishing, novels will soon include illustrations. But until that happens, here’s my gesture in that direction.

  I do have to note that some of these illustrations are very old, so images aren’t necessarily as clear as we may want. Ever since reading Eloisa’s books, I have been uncovering tens of thousands of old publications from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries now available on the Web. I’ve included etchings from those historical documents. Even when the reproductions are necessarily imperfect, I think they add to the idea of traveling back in time. The pictorial and accompanying descriptions are collected exclusively from these very old publications and Eloisa’s researcher extraordinaire, Franzeca Drouin. No Wikipedia or shortcuts. Most entries include publications or websites for you to explore further.

  The guide is designed as a great companion to pick up after you’ve read all the novels—you definitely don’t want to read the author’s notes or the final bonus chapter until you’ve finished the last page of each of the novels!

  Eloisa has been a huge help in making my parts of this companion guide a reality, and obviously, much of this book is straight from her work. I must stress that any mistakes or oversights are mine alone.

  I hope you enjoy the companion guide as much as I have loved putting it together!

  Presenting the Essex Sisters Series

  If you’ve read the series, you know the plots of the four books. But in case it’s been a while, here is a refresher on which book told the story of which sister.

  In Reading Order

  Book 1: Much Ado About You

  Book 2: Kiss Me, Annabel

  Book 3: The Taming of the Duke

  Book 4: Pleasure for Pleasure

  Original Covers:

  Much Ado About You

  Book 1 in the Essex Sisters series

  Teresa Essex has a unique lot in life. Actually . . . she’d rather prefer that lots were not mentioned. She knows far too much about playing the odds: her widowed father gambled away any spare penny owned by their family. Shillings that should have been spent on gowns and governesses for Tess and her three younger sisters were spent keeping her father’s horses in proper condition for the racetrack.

  When their father dies, the sisters become the wards of the Duke of Holbrook, who knows far more about brandy snifters than children. But Tess’s challenges have just begun. With nothing more than a horse each for a dowry, and a drunken duke as a chaperone, she and her sisters must achieve respectable marriages.

  In the manner of romantic heroines from the time of Jane Austen, Tess must make a decision whether to marry for financial, prudent reasons, or to follow her heart. But unlike those tales in which heroines prudently make the correct decision, whatever that might be, here fate steps in and Tess must learn a hard lesson: not how to play at love, but how to play at that most serious of pursuits . . .

  Marriage.

  Kiss Me, Annabel

  Book 2 in the Essex Sisters series

  What cruel twist of fate put Annabel Essex in a carriage on her way to Scotland (the place she abhors) with a penniless earl (she longs to be rich), and all the world thinking they’re man and wife? Sleeping in the same bed? Not to mention the game of words started by the earl—in which the prize is a kiss. And the forfeit . . .

  Well. They are almost married, after all . . .

  The Taming of the Duke

  Book 3 in the Essex Sisters series

  Imogen, Lady Maitland, formerly Imogen Essex, has decided to dance on the wild side. After all, she’s in the delicious position of being able to take a lover. A discreet male who knows just when to leave in the morning.

  But Lady Maitland is still under the watchful eye of her former guardian, the wildly untamed Rafe, Duke of Holbrook. She laughs at the idea that someone so insufferably lazy and devoted to drink can demand that she behave with propriety.

  It’s Rafe’s long-lost brother, Gabe, a man who looks exactly like the duke but with none of his degenerate edge, who interests Imogen. To Imogen, he’s the shadow duke . . . the man who really ought to hold the title.

  But when Imogen agrees to accompany Gabe to a masquerade, whose masked eyes watch her with that intense look of desire? Who exactly is she dancing with?

  The duke or the shadow duke?

  Rafe . . . or Gabe?

  Pleasure for Pleasure

  Book 4 in the Essex Sisters series

  Pleasure for Pleasure’s heroine, Josephine Essex, is quick of wit and lush with unfashionable curves.

  Nicknamed the “Scottish Sausage” within a week of her debut on the marriage market, her chances of matrimony look dim. So Josie does what no proper young lady should—she challenges fate. She allows the scandalous Earl of Mayne to take her under his tutelage, discards her corset, and flirts outrageously.

  Shakespeare’s play title Measure for Measure refers to a person receiving the punishment he deserves.

  In this novel, Josie gives precisely what she deserves: Pleasure for Pleasure.

  PART ONE

  The Boundaries of a Book

  by Eloisa James

  When Jody first approached me with the idea for an Essex Sisters companion consisting of historical essays addressing various aspects of the novels, I imagined contributing a couple of pages. But once we began discussing possibilities that went beyond historical investigation, my contribution grew to include an original novella, extra material that had previously been published only on my website, and this narrative essay, which traces my initial idea for the quartet to an “extra” chapter set a decade after Pleasure for Pleasure, the final book in the series. While Jody and I quickly agreed to include material already available to readers, the really crucial question for me had to do with Kiss Me, Annabel, which exists in sharply different versions.

  The original plot of Kiss Me sprang from the fact that my husband is an observant Catholic, whereas I was introduced as a child to a confusing medley of religions, from Lutheran to Buddhist, none of which I now practice. I wanted to write a novel in which hero and heroine are not of one mind with respect to faith.

  My editor at the time found the second half of the novel far too dark. The change she requested required me to cut the last nineteen chapters and rewrite them. As it happened, I was reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books aloud to my daughter at the time; I credit those books with inspiring me to reshape my overly dark story into a lighthearted road trip (with a detour into the mysteries of butter churning).

  The two endings are so different that I don’t think it’s possible to say that one is “better” than the other. Reading the original draft all these years later, I love the focus on Ewan’s faith, as well as all the drama. But I might as well add that when I recounted the original plot to my current editor, Carrie Feron, her eyes grew round and she said that she likely would have found the story a bit dark.

  For me, inc
luding the original half of Kiss Me, Annabel here definitively transformed this companion from a bunch of complementary essays to something that questioned our conception of a genre novel. Why shouldn’t a book exist in two different versions, as long as each ends happily? Why shouldn’t a reader be able to follow—and take pleasure in—two completely different paths by which the same characters end up in the same place?

  Once I accepted that, the temptation to meddle with other parts of the series was irresistible. As I again immersed myself in the world of the Essex Sisters, I found loose ends in Pleasure for Pleasure that, interestingly enough, all had to do with bullying. The novel is a reader favorite, not least because Josie’s experience of being labeled with the horrid nickname the “Scottish Sausage” resonates with so many readers. What happened to the other girls mentioned in the book, who were ostracized along with Josie? What about the young lady deemed unmarriageable because her brother was “silly,” leading everyone to assume that her children would be cognitively impaired? Or the “Wooly Breeder,” so named because she had unruly, curly hair and a father who owned many sheep?

  Part of the reason this companion took two years to assemble was that I found myself writing new, discrete novellas to answer those questions. A Midsummer Night’s Disgrace, included here, tells the story of the sister of “Silly Billy,” and her recognition that she was tired of being shunned; instead of silly, she chooses to be scandalous. A Gentleman Never Tells, another new novella, is being published in tandem with the companion; it answers the question of what happened to the “Wooly Breeder,” while also considering the long-term consequences of bullying on the bully. I hope readers will be happy to see that Josie and her husband, the Earl of Mayne, make a brief appearance in the companion, and then reappear in company with their daughter in A Gentleman Never Tells.

  In the Beginning

  To my dismay, I am not a fast writer. I spend a lot of time thinking about a new series before I pitch it to my editor. With her input, I may throw around ideas for as long as a year before writing the first chapter. In the case of the Essex Sisters series, I sent an initial letter to the editor I had at the time, while I was in the midst of writing my previous series. The letter below was written just after Fool for Love, the second book in the Duchess in Love series, was printed. I had two more novels in the Duchess series to go, but I was already thinking out the plot of the Essex Sisters.