It's been a great while since I've posted. I am sorry for that. Seems I get so wrapped up in other things that I just forget to make the time -- got removed from a JAFF author group just today for not making my scheduled post (I'm not upset, it was justified). Ironic thing about that is I was just thinking in the last day or two that I needed to look up what day I was to post this month (their system is every 28 days, which means the actual date changes every month, which is part of why I missed it -- I thought I had more time).
Anyhoo, I have trouble keeping up with my own blog (clearly, lol) on a regular basis, so it's no surprise I found it difficult to keep up with a group blog. Still, I do want to keep at it. I need to be better about it if I want to be a success. I'm going to work on it.
As part of those efforts, here is second part of my nameless characters series, which is long overdue. Today's book to focus on is Persuasion.
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Mrs. Smith
(Left: Polly Murch from 1971 mini-series. Right: Helen Schlesinger from 1995 film, and Maisie Dimbleby from 2007 BBC film)
Most Common JAFF Name: Unknown / My Choice: None as yet
In the novel, we — along with Anne Elliot — meet with her old school friend Mrs. Smith in Westgate Buildings in Bath. Anne knew her as Miss Hamilton when they were at school together, and the lady later married a man by the name of Charles Smith, who was fairly wealthy. Well, he was until he ran into the young and impoverished Mr. Elliot, Anne’s cousin. It is interesting to note that we are given the first name of the lady’s husband, who has died before the start of the novel and the friends are reunited, but we are never actually given her first name (although the 2007 version does give her the first name Harriet, used once by Anne before the much lamented “Bath Marathon”). I’ve not read many Persuasion variations, and those I have did not give her a first name. What could it be? Honestly, it could be anything appropriate for the era in which she was born, which would have been around 1784, as she is said to be three years older than Anne.
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Lady Russell
(Top Left: Marian Spencer, 1971 mini-series; Top Right: Susan Fleetwood, 1995 film; Bottom Left: Alice Krige, 2007 film; Bottom Right: Nikki Amuka-Bird, 2022 film)
Most Common JAFF Name: Unknown / My Choice: None as yet
In the very first chapter, we are introduced to Lady Russell as a “very intimate friend” of the late Lady Elliot, who had been expected by their mutual acquaintance to marry Sir Walter after the death of both their spouses. She never did, apparently desiring to maintain her independence (and Sir Walter remaining single “for the sake of his daughters”), though a part of me wonders if life would have been any better for Anne if she had — I daresay that at the very least, Anne would not have been walked all over by her father and sisters and treated little better than the servants. Lady Russell was very influential in the life of her god-daughter Anne Elliot, to the point of persuading her not to marry Frederick Wentworth at the age of 19, and who is still an influence on Anne some eight years later when she and Wentworth meet again. Lady Russell is another character whose Christian name can only be guessed at (as well as her maiden name, which is also never given), though the Jane Austen Wiki article on her gives her name as Anne, and notates that it was a common practice in those days to name children — gender appropriately, of course — after their godparents. Thus, it is possible her first name is Anne, though not officially so. An author can therefore give her whatever name he or she likes.
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Mrs. Musgrove
(Left: Judy Cornwell in 1995 film. Right: Stella Gonet from 2007 film.)
Most Common JAFF Name: Unknown / My Choice: None as yet
Here we come to one of the nicer characters of the story: Mrs. Musgrove, mother to Anne’s brother-in-law, Charles. She’s a kind, motherly figure with several children, of whom her son Charles is the eldest. She and her husband, as well as their other elder children, were hopeful of a match between their son and Anne Elliot, who was altogether more likable than either of her sisters, but Anne turned him down and Charles eventually married Mary, her younger sister. Neither her first or maiden name is given in the novel, though given naming conventions of the time, it is reasonable to presume her first name might have been Louisa, as her eldest daughter was named Louisa (the convention being that firstborn daughters were often named after their mothers). Of course, it could also have been Henrietta, or any other name in popular use about the time the lady was born, which we can reasonably presume was between the late 1760s and early 1780s. I’ve not read any Persuasion variations in which she is given a first name.
If anyone has any ideas what these ladies could have been called, feel free to share!