By a Lady

phrase “rule of thumb” as it applied to a case of a man accused of abusing his wife with a stick. In Chapter Ten, she is horrified to discover the quite literal meaning of “putting on the dog.” Are there other colloquialisms from the Georgian age enduring today that you know of? What are they and what are their origins?

9. “Nearly everyone here danced around his or her intentions, cloaking them in nuance, riddle, and understatement,” C. J. observes. What are the benefits of a polite society like that of Georgian Bath, where custom prevented expression of candid thoughts and ideas? Would you prefer this type of polite society, or a more liberated society where people were free to express their opinions? Why?

10. “Despite the fact that she had been arrested, imprisoned, tried, nearly committed to a lifetime of indentured servitude, publicly jilted by the man she loved, and, most recently, incarcerated in a madhouse, C. J. had come to feel, in a most inexplicable way, that she really belonged in 1801” (pChapter 26). Were you surprised at C. J.’s decision to remain in nineteenth-century Bath? Did you see her decision as a foreshadowing of the novel’s subsequent plot twist?

11. Did the book’s ending surprise you? Why or why not?

12. Who are your literary heroes? Who would you like to befriend in another life?

AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK JULY 2006

Also by Amanda Elyot

Written as a memoir, this lush, compelling novel of passion and loss tells the story of Helen of Troy and the truth about her life, her lovers, and the Trojan War. This is the tale as she would have told it—her legendary beauty still undimmed by age.

$13.95 paper (Canada: $18.95)

0-307-33860-6

AVAILABLE FROM THREE RIVERS PRESS WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD

www.crownpublishing.com

Copyright © 2006 by Leslie Sara Carroll

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

THREE RIVERS PRESS and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Elyot, Amanda.

By a lady: being the adventures of an enlightened American in Jane Austen’s England/Amanda Elyot.—1st ed.

1. Austen, Jane, 1775–1817—Appreciation—Fiction. 2. Master and servant—Fiction. 3. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction. 4. Women domestics—Fiction. 5. Bath (England)—Fiction. 6. Time travel—Fiction. 7. Actresses—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3603.A77458B9 2005

813'.6—dc22                                             2005007410

eISBN: 978-0-307-34532-5

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