An interview with Magnus Knightley from Seducing Mr. Darcy.
Gwyn Cready: I'm lucky to have been able to arrange an interview with Magnus Knightley, one of the male leads of Seducing Mr. Darcy-- What is it, Magnus?
Magnus Knightley: I'm a little put off by the title.
GC: Any particular reason? Seems like a great title to me.
MK: It's... You know they didn't last.
GC: They? You mean Flip and Darcy?
[MK growls.]
GC: I think we'd better clue our readers in to the fact that our heroine, Flip Allison, has a brief relationship with Fitzwilliam Darcy before she meets you.
[MK growls again.]
MK: Is it really necessary to dreg up the past?
GC: It's going to be hard to sell any books if we don't. Why don't I start with an introduction? Magnus is the Isabella W. Reed Visiting Professor of English Literature at the University of Pittsburgh, on leave from Cambridge University. He is the author of five books on early 19th century novelists, including three on Austen. His latest, Jane Austen: The Pleasantness of an Employment, has been shortlisted for a National Book Critics Circle Award. It is a truth universally acknowledged that he is the world's foremost expert on Jane Austen and her times.
Is that about right?
MK: That's it.
GC: And I, of course, am the author. We can't give away too much, of course, but what do you think Jane Austen would have to say about someone upending her story the way Flip does in Seducing Mr. Darcy.
MK: I feel certain she'd been none too happy about it. I myself was horrified.
GC: Yet it brought Flip into your life.
MK: [smiling] There were upsides.
GC: You had trouble believing her story at first, that the book had changed.
MK: Wouldn't you? Besides, she conveniently forget to mention that she'd joined the action of the story herself--although, if she had I'm sure my strong suspicion she was barking mad would have moved to full-fledged certainty.
GC: Flip Allison is an ornithologist, a tree-climbing, bird-poop-wearing field ornithologist. You're a scholar writing in a proverbial ivory tower with not so much as a particle of lint on your freshly-pressed trousers. Did the sparks fly when you met?
MK: Fourth of July on steroids.
GC: Flip berates you for your infuriating British reserve. Why makes British reserve so infuriating, do you think?
MK: By infuriating, do you mean provocative? Flip might say she doesn't care for someone else getting the upper hand but I think one would have to agree that Scrabble scene suggests a somewhat different interpretation.
GC: You do have very large hands.
MK: Hm.
GC: How would you describe Flip Allison to our audience?
MK: Gorgeous, apocalyptically maddening, stubborn, intoxicating, pliant-thighed, smart as a whip and achingly kissable.
GC: Wow.
MK: Oh, and worth fighting for.
GC: I guess so. There's a whole part of the story where you and Flip are trying to mend the relationship of the other couple whose love story is played out in the book, Lizzy Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Was that part fun?
MK: Fun? You Americans clearly have a different definition of the word than we do.
GC: Still, seeing the characters come to life you have studied for so long must have been fu--
[MK gives GC a sharp look.]
GC: Informative.
MK: I will admit it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. [templing fingers] Please God, let it have been a once in a lifetime opportunity.
GC: Any last words for our readers?
MK: Yes. If you're going to be borrowing a character for your own amusement, please return him in the same shape you found him.
GC: Thank you, Magnus. A treat, as always.
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