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Archive for the ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Category

All Roads Lead to Austen: Book Giveaway and Q&A with Author Amy Elizabeth Smith

Posted in Austenesque novels, Book review, Emma, jane austen, Jane Austen's enduring popularity, Jane Austen's World, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Popular culture, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, tagged , , on June 4, 2012| 13 Comments »

Inquiring Readers: All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith is now available through Sourcebooks. I will be reviewing this fabulous, intelligently written book later this week. Meanwhile, enjoy my interview with Ms. Smith about her Latin American adventure as she discusses Jane Austen’s novels en Español with Latin American book groups. All readers of this blog from any country can enter a contest to win a copy of this charming book. Please click on this link and leave your comment. Make sure to leave a way I can reach you. Contest is now closed!

Amy, I love that Jane Austen, a spinster who didn’t travel far or frequently in her lifetime, is so beloved the world wide over. Which country surprised you most in terms of her popularity there and why?

I found translations of Austen left and right in bookstores in Argentina. I met plenty of people there who’d read Austen and liked her or who’d seen film adaptations of her novels and enjoyed them. And the Jane Austen Society of Buenos Aires was the first Austen society in South America. But sometimes it’s hard not to be influenced by stereotypes about people — I’d heard that Chileans were “the English of South America,” so somehow I thought Austen would be popular in Chile. But when I was living in Santiago, the capital (which I absolutely loved), a number of people told me Austen’s not very well known in Chile.

As for Argentineans, I’d heard over and over from people in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, and other places that Argentineans are, well, pretty arrogant. Other latinos kept passing on jokes like, “When Argentineans see lightening, what do they think is happening? They think it’s God, taking their picture!” So, I guess I got the idea that Argentineans might think Austen was stuffy or old fashioned or some such thing. But she’s popular, at least in Buenos Aires, according to my experiences.

What aspects of that particular culture do you think Jane would have enjoyed the most?

Bookstores, bookstores, bookstores. I had great experiences in bookstores all over Latin America, but Argentina — and Buenos Aires specifically — really is the bookstore capital of South America. It’s so easy for us now to take for granted that we can get our hands on just about any book we want, any time. We’ve got access to bookstores, next-day delivery with websites, and good public libraries. And electronic readers have made it easier than ever — just order whatever book you want, wherever you are on the planet! But imagine what it must have been like for an imaginative, inquisitive reader like Austen — how often did she ever set foot in a bookstore? How often could she afford to pay for books from a circulating library? How many books did her family or friends or neighbors actually own? I think Austen would have fainted from sheer pleasure at the sight of bookstore after bookstore on Avenida Corrientes in Buenos Aires.

Librerias Libertador: One of my favorite bookstores on Corrientes, in Buenos Aires

Jane Austen fans cross all religious boundaries. Can you identify any characteristics that Janeites share across the world, besides their obvious love for Jane Austen’s novels?

I honestly can’t speak for many places beyond Latin America (although I might try a next project in some other interesting countries!). But I suspect that there’s a kind of optimism that people — especially women — love about Austen. Her leading ladies find love, not in spite of being strong and intelligent, but because of it. That’s a pretty appealing idea in a world were, in many places, women are still told they’d better not appear too smart, or they’ll scare men off.

What were some of your most memorable experiences in writing this book?

I actually started the book while I was still traveling, although I didn’t finish it until after my trip was done. I wrote the first portion on Guatemala while I was living in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I was living well away from the tourist area, renting a partially-finished house that had glass in only one or two windows, so it was pretty noisy — street vendors would cruise by with loudspeakers, selling ice cream, vegetables, you name it. The people across the street had a huge bird caged outside their house that shrieked and chattered like a demon. And animals would wander in at will — there was one very persistent cat that kept making me jump out of my skin by appearing under my writing table with no warning.

There were animals all over the place in that neighborhood — no leash laws for dogs, and some of the neighbors had roosters and other farm animals. When I wanted a break from writing, I’d wander out to buy groceries or take my clothes to the laundromat. I always carried them in a plastic bag, and there was this goat a few houses down from me that was only tied up about half of the time. When it was loose, it usually ignored me, but when I had that plastic bag with laundry, it would come bolting after me — maybe its food came in a plastic bag, and it thought I had something good to eat? Or maybe it knew I had laundry and really wanted to eat my socks. Who knows. Sometimes I actually miss that goat — laundry day’s not the same without it.

A friendly neighborhood rooster from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Thank you, Amy, for your wonderful insights and good luck with your book. (I just love the cover!) Is there anything else you would like my readers to know about All Roads Lead to Austen?

Amy Elizabeth Smith

I had two main sources of inspiration for this book — Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, and my own Jane Austen students at the University of the Pacific, in California. Readers can enjoy All Roads as a fun opportunity to sit back and be an armchair traveler, but I’d also love it if the book inspired some other international journey I could sit back and read about. Austen in China? Turkey? Belgium? Bora Bora? I’d love to see somebody else take on a journey like this with Jane. Even if they don’t want to write a whole book about it — I’d love to have people share reading-on-the-road stories on my website (http://allroadsleadtoausten.com/). Consider that an official invitation! And thanks so much for letting me visit here at Jane Austen’s World!

To Enter the Contest: Please make sure to leave your comment on Jane Austen Today at this link. The first two comments left on this post will be included in the random number generator drawing at midnight EST USA time on June 11. Please leave all other comments on Jane Austen Today. Make sure to leave a way I can reach you. 

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18th Century Visitors and Benton Seeley’s Guidebook to the Great Gardens at Stowe

Posted in jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Pride and Prejudice, Regency gardens, Regency Life, Regency style, Regency Travel, Regency World, tagged , , , , on October 26, 2011| 9 Comments »

One of the most pivotal decisions in Pride and Prejudice was when Elizabeth Bennet agreed to visit Pemberley’s gardens and grounds with the Gardiners, only to suddenly encounter Mr. Darcy, who was not slated to return until the next day.

Such a visit to grand estates by the well-heeled and more common folk like Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle were quite common in the 18th century. They would have purchased an inexpensive guide book at a local inn or town, and read information about the paintings and objects inside the great houses, and a description of the gardens and their rustic buildings and ornaments.

Prospect of Stowe House by Benton Seeley

Stowe in particular was a destination point for visitors. Its magnificent gardens and grounds were a model and inspiration for other gardens of the Romantic era, which echoed the movement’s reverence for nature and aesthetic ideals. The blog of the current Duke of Buckingham and Chandos contains this passage:

“The house and gardens at Stowe, my family seat, were tourist attractions from around 1724, when my ancestor Lord Cobham set out the gardens. People came to visit the gardens and house, sometimes invited, often not. Topographical notes and poems were written. And in 1744 the first full guidebook to the house and grounds was published by Benton Seeley, a writing master in Buckingham. The guidebooks continued for a further 70 years and Seeley went on to become a printer and publisher, founding a business that wound up only in 1978.” – Duke of Buckingham and Chandos 

Seeley's plan of the house and gardens at Stowe.

Benton Seeley’s guidebook, Stowe: A Description of the Magnificent House and Gardens of The Right Honourable Richard Grenville Temple, Earl Temple… Embellished with a General Plan of the Gardens, and also a separate Plan of each Building, with Perspective Views of the same, was published in the same year that Elizabeth Montague described Stowe’s gardens as “beyond description, it gives the best idea of Paradise that can be.” Visitors came away from viewing Stowe’s natural gardens inspired to implement changes to their own grounds. Seeley’s guidebook helped to spread Stowe’s influence throughout the 18th century as the model for the ideal English garden. (Today the original guidebook sells for close to $2,000.)

Thomas Jefferson owned at least two of Seeley’s guidebooks. In fact, Stowe’s reputation as a gardening attraction had spread beyond the British Isles:

“When well-heeled Americans traveled to England in the late eighteenth century, they often sought out famous gardens to inspire their own designs at home. As Benton Seeley’s Stowe: A Description of the Magnificent House and Gardens shows, the gardens at Stowe were particularly large and ornate, featuring temples, pavilions, and statues strewn about the grounds. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams visited Stowe together in 1786 in what Abigail Adams called their “journey into the country.”- Better Homes and Gardens, Stanford University

Corinthian Arch

Seeley’s Guide Book became historically significant. It went through seventeen editions between 1744 and 1797, continually undergoing improvements and revisions. The book’s influence was such that it helped to make the Stowe gardens among the most publicized and copied of the English landscape model. However, Seeley’s was not the only guidebook written for the famed Stowe gardens. In 1732 Lord Cobham’s nephew Gilbert West wrote a lengthy poem The Gardens of the Right Honourable Richard Viscount Cobham that is actually a guide to the gardens in verse form. Charles Bridgeman commissioned 15 engravings of the gardens from Jacques Rigaud, and these were published in 1739 (Wikipedia), five years before Seeley’s guide.

The Stowe gardens and grounds were extensive, offering planned vistas along a winding path, parterres, canals, large swaths of meadows, places for isolation and retreat, rustic buildings, and an emphasis on natural grandeur over formal symmetry. The 4th Baronet, Viscount Cobham, who married a rich brewery heiress, implemented the garden changes at Stowe in 1711. By 1724, the gardens rested on 24 acres and required the labor of 30 men. Garden maintenance cost the family 827 pounds in 1749-1750. Multiply that amount by 50, and you gain a quick idea of the cost in today’s terms. This sum represented almost all the spare money Lord Cobham could afford on the house and grounds.

The grotto was originally designed by William Kent in the late 1730s as a symmetrical, freestanding structure decorated with flints, colored glass, and shells. Soon covered over with earth, it was then described as a “romantic retirement.” By the 1780s, it was more deeply buried, resurfaced with tufa, and planted with vines and conifers for a cavernous effect.- Romantic Gardens: Nature, Art, and Landscape Design, 2010, The Morgan Library Museum

In “A fine house richly furnished: pemberley and the visiting of country houses,” Stephen Clarke, a London lawyer and architectural historian discusses the kind of information a guidebook owner could expect. A New Description of Blenheim by Mayor, 1811, offered the following General Information in its preface:

“BLENHEIM may be seen every afternoon, from three till five o’Clock, except on Sundays and public Days. On Fair days at Woodstock, likewise, it can be seen only by particular permission.

COMPANY who arrive in the morning may take the ride of the Park, or the walk of the Gardens, before dinner, and after that visit the Palace.

The CHINA GALLERY, PARK, and GARDENS, will, on proper application, be shewn at any hour of the day, except during the time of Divine Service on Sundays.”

In 1776, the Wilton visitors book showed 2, 324 visitors in the last year.

The housekeeper guides Elizabeth and the Gardiners through Pemberley's interior

As discussed on this blog in another post, The Housekeeper as a Guide to a Great Country Estate, housekeepers and other servants stood to make a great deal of extra money from tourists.

“The rapacity of housekeepers-and, in the larger houses, of the other staff–was a common complaint. At Blenheim during his tour of 1810-1811, Louis Simond was required to pay the porter at the gate, the woman showing the china collection, the woman showing the theatre, the woman showing the pleasure grounds, the gardener showing the park, and the upper servant showing the house–at a total cost of 19s. (qtd. in Ousby 81). There are similar complaints of Woburn, Chatsworth, and other great houses. Horace Walpole wryly remarked that he should have married his own housekeeper, who had grown rich on showing Strawberry Hill, as the only way of recouping some of his expense on the house (Walpole Correspondence 33, 411) –

At most houses, the traveller would send in his name to the porter or housekeeper to request access–at Hagley in 1800 Mrs. Lybbe Powys, (5) a perceptive visitor of country houses, noted that “we sent in our names for leave to walk round Lord Curzon’s [actually Lord Lyttelton’s] grounds, and he desired we would go into any part of it we chose, without being attended by his gardener” (Lybbe Powys 339). Elizabeth and the Gardiners were of course accompanied by the gardener in the park at Pemberley, as was normal. – A fine house richly furnished: pemberley and the visiting of country houses, Stephen Clarke

In the YouTube video below, one can get a sense of Stowe’s grounds and gardens in the first 3 ½ minutes. Enjoy the tour!

More on the topic:

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A Day Out in Brighton

Posted in Architecture, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Popular culture, Pride and Prejudice, Regency Life, Regency Period, Regency style, Regency World on June 6, 2011| 11 Comments »

By Tony Grant. All rights reserved

Jane Austen knew Brighton. In Pride and Prejudice it is the place Lydia Bennett rushes off to, enamoured of the regimental officers who had inhabited Meryton for a while before being moved to Brighton, especially Wickham. It is the place she elopes with Wickham from.

Brighton as it looked in Jane Austen's day. Charles Richards

It could be interpreted that Brighton is Jane’s symbol of profligacy and impulsive actions. It could be argued that this was so especially as the Prince Regent used Brighton in this way. The regiment Lydia has gone to be near is there to defend the coast against invasion. This is the time of the Napoleonic Wars when invasion is a threat and the total disruption of the world Lydia, the Bennet sisters and Jane herself knew.

Brighton Beach, John Constable, 1824

Brighton was also a new type of place. Jane begins to explore the development of seaside resorts in her unfinished novel Sanditon. It was the sort of place that people came from far afield and from various points of the compass, strangers, to be thrown together for short periods of time. It is interesting to see Jane begin to explore the loosening of moral codes and social rules within this sort of setting. Beau Nash invented his own code for these places at Bath and Tunbridge Wells. He had to invent a way for people to socialise.

Brighton Museum, The Pavilion Stable Block. Image @Tony Grant

Lydia Bennet has been shopping in the scene where Brighton is introduced in Pride and Prejudice and has obviously come back from her expedition with something not at all suitable.

“ Besides, it will not much signify what one wears this summer, after the — shire have left Meryton, and they are going in a fortnight.”

“Are they indeed?” cried Elizabeth, with the greatest satisfaction.

“They are going to be encamped near Brighton: and I do so want papa too take us all three for the summer! It would be such a delicious scheme, and I dare say would hardly cost anything at all. Mamma would like to go too of all things! Only think what a miserable summer else we shall have!”

“Yes,” thought Ellizabeth,”that would be a delightful scheme, indeed, and completely do for us at once. Good Heaven! Brighton, and whole campful of soldiers, to us, who have been overset already by one regiment of militia, and the monthly balls of Meryton.”

Brighton Pavilion close up. Image @Tony Grant

So it appears that Lydia wants to go to Brighton and Elizabeth does not. In each case, to be fair to Brighton, their reasoning comes from a consideration of the military presence there. Lydia wants to go because of the regiment she has become acquainted with near Meryton and Elizabeth doesn’t want to, because of the same reason. Their views are not formed here by Brighton itself. At this time Brighton was becoming a very popular seaside resort frequented by no less a profligate person as the Prince Regent himself.

The Pavilion, Brighton by Westall

There he built a magnificent palace called The Brighton Pavilion. As for Jane Austen’s personal opinion we can only conjecture. She liked fun and dancing. Brighton had an abundance of these. She also enjoyed the seaside. The Austens visited Lyme and other seaside places in Devon and Cornwall and possibly South Wales.

The stable block from the Pavilion. Image @Tony Grant

Brighton Pavilion was begun in 1787. It was a farm house which the Prince Regent bought. There, he could have liaisons with Mrs Fitzherbert, his secret lover, away from the glare and attention of London. He got the architect Henry Holland, who had designed Carlton House , to develop it for him.

Brighton Beach today. Image @Tony Grant

Between 1815 and 1822, the designer John Nash redesigned and extended the Pavilion. It is the work of Nash which we see today.

On bank Holiday Monday, 30th May, Marilyn, myself, Emily and Abigail drove down to Brighton from Wimbledon. It was a lovely sunny day. Brighton sea front was a little breezy and the water was too cold to go in for a dip but it was one of those bright sparkling days fresh and invigorating
and to be in Brighton was glorious. We went into the Pavilion to explore the magnificent interiors.

Dining table at Royal Pavilion. Image @Stay in Sussex

Photography is not allowed inside the pavilion. They are very strict about this. We saw some professional photographers, who queued at the entrance in front of us, turned away amidst quite a hullaballoo. They said they had received permission to come and photograph the interior of the pavilion. The security people argued they had not been informed and had no paper work to confirm their assertions. When we got inside, I had put my DSLR safely away in its bag and zipped it up firmly.

The retiring room after dinner. Image @Tony Grant

However, I slipped a small SONY digital camera inside my sleeve just in case an opportunity to snap a furtive, clandestine picture arose. There are a lot of security cameras around the pavilion so I had to position myself out of view of the cameras to take the pictures I did take. Some are blurred because of my hurried attempts. A person near me was asked to put their camera away but I escaped notice.

Upstairs inside the Pavilion. Image @Tony Grant

I think the city council of Brighton and Hove, who own the pavilion, don’t want some plastic copy of the pavilion ending up as a casino in Las Vegas. Ha! Ha!

Car parking. Image @Tony Grant

Brighton today is a glorious mixture of the brash, the tacky, and the brilliant. It has a very special feel to it like no other place. You can feel a very creative energy about the city.

Church Street. Image @Tony Grant

There is some magnificent graffiti , great restaurants and pubs and a whole community of new artistic entrepreneurs starting businesses connected with fashion, music, art and theatre.

Cafe society. Image @Tony Grant

I found one piece of graffiti that made my heart beat that little bit faster. Compared to most graffiti in Brighton it looked understated but I think it must be an original Banksy. Nobody has ever interviewed Banksy and obviously that is not his real name. Nobody knows what he looks like. He is
a mystery to the public. Since the 1990’s, from his first wall cartoons in Bristol where he originates he has made social , religious and political comments through his art. His graffiti appears in the most unusual places. He has had books of his work published and art galleries show his work all over Europe.

Banksy's Mods Reduced. Image@Tony Grant

So I had found an iconic Banksy!!! Across the road and down an alleyway from a café we were having a cup of tea in. It shows some Mods. The Mods were a subculture of youth that originated in the early to mid sixties. They wore smart clothes with military style parkas and RAF, red, white
and blue roundels on their backs.

Mod on his bike

They rode motor scooters, Vespas and such like. They listened to Pete Townsend and the WHO. The Who were a MOD group and their lyrics reflect the MOD culture.

Smart MODS and their scooter

They were working class youth, factory workers, with their girlfriends, who challenged society in their own special way through clothes, music and lifestyle. Brighton and Margate were two coastal resorts they frequented, especially on Bank Holidays and weekends in the summer.

MODS and the police

They would gather in their thousands. In opposition, the Rockers, leather clad and motorbike riders who rode BSA and Triumph 650’s, another sub culture of the time who listened to Elvis music, would come and challenge them on the beaches of Brighton and Margate. There would be pitched battles on the beach at Brighton using, stones, chains, knives and deck chairs.

MODS deck chairs

Deck chairs were always readily at hand on the beach. People would end up in hospital. The WHO film, Quadrophenia, is about one such MOD group coming to Brighton. A pitched battle on the beach is portrayed in the film and of course the music is The Who. So you can imagine my excitement seeing a real Banksy recalling those times and the meaning it has for Brighton.

Brighton has other memories too. Our political parties have a conference every year to discuss any progress made, to air views and opinions and to announce new policies. The conferences are held at the major seaside resorts around the country, Blackpool, Brighton and Bournemouth. Each political party takes it in turn to congregate in each resort.

The Grand Hotel. Image @Tony Grant

You might remember on the 12th October 1984 at The Grand Hotel in Brighton, The Provisional IRA blew up the Conservative Party. Margaret Thatcher was working late in the hotel when the bomb went off. They wanted to assassinate Thatcher. They failed to kill any government minister
but Norman Tebbits wife was crippled for life. Some other officials were killed and thirty four were badly injured and rushed to hospital. The Grand Hotel has been rebuilt and extended and presents a magnificent structure right on the seafront.

Theatre Royal. Image @Tony Grant

Brighton is famous as a film set. Apart from The Who’s Quadrophenia, some minor B comedy movies from the fifties were filmed there starring Norman Wisdom. Oh What A Lovely War, directed by Richard Attenborough used Brighton Pier extensively and just recently the dark and sinister,
Brighton Rock starring Helen Mirren, based on Graham Greens novel of the same name is set there.

Brighton. Image @Tony Grant

Some film clips:

Brighton shop, 1930z styles. Image @Tony Grant

Purple Heart. Image @Tony Grant

The Sussex. Image @Tony Grant

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Review: The Truth About Mr. Darcy, by Susan Adriani

Posted in Austenesque novels, Book review, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Mr.Darcy, Popular culture, Pride and Prejudice, Regency Life, tagged , , , on May 17, 2011|

From the desk of Shelley DeWees…The Uprising.

If Elizabeth had not known better, she would have sworn he was deliberately throwing himself in her way, but she did know better. Whenever they were in company together, Darcy was usually cool and aloof, yet he chose to stare at her constantly, and with a level of intensity that had begun to make her uncomfortable. Sure such a handsome, wealthy, intelligent man, who was used to nothing but the very finest in society, could not deign to look upon a woman of her inferior station and circumstances in life unless it was to find fault; and, indeed, she knew he had found fault with her, almost from the very first moment of their acquaintance at the assembly in Meryton some weeks ago.”

A departure from P&P while still calling itself a re-telling, The Truth About Mr. Darcy is a middle-of-the-road revisit to the beloved land of Jane’s Hertfordshire….it’s not stupendous, it’s not terrible. It starts slow. It ends slow. But the middle is a moderately interesting take on Darcy and Elizabeth’s path to matrimony, with all its major ups (money money everywhere) and smallish downs (minor disagreements followed by make-up sex).

The back of the book poses a question to Mr. Darcy. Should he tell the truth about his old nemesis George Wickham in order to protect the good citizens of Meryton from Wickham’s lies and secrets? Well, in a word, yes. He should. And does within the first two chapters, employing a moment of self-truth that would, had it occurred in the original P&P, caused all measure of heartache and sadness to be averted. What to do now? Especially since Elizabeth immediately follows suit in working out her out neurosis with prejudice right away, denying his first proposal but agreeing to a courtship that she reasons (admirably and in a drastic departure from Ms. Austen’s typical character attributes) will help her actually know this guy, this supposed husband/lover/friend/parent/guardian person she’s to spend her life attached to. Thus, the relationship begins, burgeoning passions ensue, then the wedding, and before you know it the book is over.

It’s a lovely story in all actuality, and Adriani tells it well. There seem to be a lot of modern flavors working here, including the aforementioned “let’s get to know that dude over there before agreeing to marriage” thing and the departure from the “let’s not have any sexual contact before the big day” thing. Having always suspected that many people in Regency England were guilty of violations of propriety in the name of love and/or passion, I found that rather refreshing and, frankly, long overdue in Austen spin offs. That Adriani should take a modern view of relationships and graft it onto Darcy and Elizabeth I found impressive and inspiring! Go you, Ms. Adriani! The courtship is honest and communicative, and paves the way for many heartfelt conversations and even more heartfelt turns in the sack (which were all super sexy but got to be little gratuitous by the end).

Spoiler Alert in this paragraph:

The rest of the experience in The Truth About Mr. Darcy was good-ish, not great, not horrific. There was, however, one moment where my hand went to my forehead, accompanied by an outspoken “Oh come ON!” and an exasperated sigh when Mr. Wickham’s nature was explored. Not only is he a debt-ridden scoundrel mired in controversy, he’s a near-rapist, and one sly wink away from a serial killer. Really? I mean, he’s a snotty spoiled dandy, but a rapist? It seemed like the dichotomy of good vs. bad was just a wee bit overused, both with Wickham and with Mr. Collins, whose refused proposal sparks a deluge of conceit and even revenge. In The Truth About Mr. Darcy, it seems as though you’re either a shining paradigm of virtue or the scum on the bottom rung of the ladder of humanity. A little bit of creative character development would’ve been a better choice.

Still, Susan Adriani’s debut novel is not entirely without success. It’s well written and fairly engaging, sexy, and compelling in a conventional sort of way. Those of you gentle readers whose hearts go aflutter at the notion of revisiting P&P won’t be disappointed. If you’re on the fence about these sorts of things, you might be better off skipping this one.

Be aware that this book is for mature readers only.

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Sneak Peek of Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition

Posted in Austenesque novels, Book review, jane austen, Jane Austen Novels, Pride and Prejudice, tagged , on September 14, 2010| 14 Comments »

Coming in October is the new annotated edition of Pride and Prejudice by Patricia Myer Spacks. Here’s a peek I took for you of this beautifully illustrated and informative book.

Click here to view this blog listed at Harvard University Press. I’m chuffed!

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