Lauren Willig: The Temptation of the Night Jasmine
Book Club Guides
May 21, 2009. Lauren Willig chats with Queenie C about her recent novel,
The Temptation of the Night Jasmine.
Book Club Guides: Interview with Lauren Willig
The
story starts with Eloise and Colin and then focuses mainly on Charlotte and Robert. What was the importance of Eloise and Colin to the story?
I
like to claim that without Eloise there would be no story, since, in my fictional world, the historical story emerges entirely from the research
Eloise, a modern PhD student, is conducting as she delves into the archives. We get the historical story refracted through Eloise's imagination
as she reads through the original documents, a conceit which provides a great excuse for dropping in the odd anachronism here and there. For example,
the hero in Night Jasmine sarcastically comments that he may have gone to the Hellfire Club, but he didn't inhale.
I also like to use the Colin and Eloise plot to signpost the major themes in the historical story. In Night Jasmine, Charlotte, my historical
heroine, needs to learn to distinguish between the imaginary fairy tale version she has constructed of Robert and the real man before they can achieve
their happy ending. Eloise finds herself grappling with a similar problem in the modern chapters, struggling to detach fact from fancy in her
dealings with Colin as she tries to figure out whether Colin could really be a spy--and whether she wants him to be.
Book Club Guides: Interview with Lauren Willig
I
wanted to know more about Eloise and Colin, why didn't you write more of their story?
Remember
those old coffee commercials where the couple conducted their romance in two minute increments, commercial by commercial? I think of Colin and
Eloise as my Taster's Choice couple, proceeding by limited segments, book by book. Keeping their story short helps keep them fresh (like good
coffee!). Since they show up in every book, only giving Eloise and Colin six chapters means that we don't see so much of them that we get sick of
them. The other big reason for keeping their part of the narrative short is a purely logistical one--since the historical segment of the story is
a full book length by itself, if I let Colin and Eloise have more room, the manuscripts would billow out to Gone With the Wind proportions.
My editor would not thank me for that.
I do have some ideas about giving Colin and Eloise a book of their own in the future, without historical interruptions. It would be interesting
to see what would happen if they were given a full book in which to develop and mature, where they get to be the main action, rather than their
current limited role as narrators and foils to the main historical story.
Book Club Guides: Interview with Lauren Willig
"Charlotte
breathed in the library smell like a tonic, the comforting scent of fresh leather bindings and decaying old paper." Only a true book aficionado
could describe the comfort of old books in that way. What are some of your favorite old books?
The
smell of old books gets me every time, bringing with it memories of the wonderful old school library where I discovered many of the authors who
are still my favorites. Among the treasures I stumbled upon in their cracked bindings were Dumas' The Three Musketeers, Mary Stewart's Nine Coaches
Waiting, Robin McKinley's Beauty, Anne-Marie Selinko's Desiree, and a large chunk of the oeuvre of Jean Plaidy/ Victoria Holt. I still re-read
most of those regularly.
Book Club Guides: Interview with Lauren Willig
I
loved the air of mystery and adventure that was in the story of Charlotte. Do you enjoy writing that as much as the standard fiction scenes?
Going
back to the whole bibliophile thing, I'm addicted to both mystery novels and old-fashioned swashbucklers. I had such fun melding elements of both
in Charlotte's story, from the High Drama of the Hellfire Club scenes to the mystery novel conventions underlying Charlotte's attempts to ferret
out the truth behind the mysterious behavior of George III's physician. Above all, I love taking classic elements from various genres and twisting
them to suit my characters, often with comic effect. In this instance, Charlotte's final show down with the bad guys afforded me a great deal of
amusement as I tried to figure out just how someone who preferred books to action would deal with tackling a band of villains.
Book Club Guides: Interview with Lauren Willig
"...to
trust is to render someone worthy of trust." Whom do you trust in your life?
Like
Charlotte, I tend to work on the assumption that most people are worthy of trust until proven otherwise. I've been extremely fortunate in having
a family who are always there when I need them and good friends who have stayed constant over a very long period of time. I've known some of my
best friends since we were five years old, and we still serve as each others' props and guides, even though the topics of discussion have changed
from sticker trading to Deep Life Issues along the way. In that sense, Charlotte was a very easy character for me to write, since her worldview
was so very similar to my own.
Book Club Guides: Interview with Lauren Willig
Can
you share with us anything about what you are currently writing?
Right
now, I'm just finishing up the sequel to Night Jasmine, which follows Charlotte's troubled friend Penelope to India after her hasty marriage
to Lord Frederick Staines. Penelope couldn't be more of a contrast to Charlotte--let's just say that Charlotte's theory about trusting people
rendering them worthy of trust makes Penelope emit loud snorting noises. Defensive, prickly, and self-reliant, Penelope finds herself in the midst
of dangerous intrigue at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad. A continent away from her friends, Penelope must rely on her own cunning--and the
reluctant aid of local British official Alex Reid--to thwart the evil designs of the spy known only as the Marigold.
Book Club Guides: Interview with Lauren Willig
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