Regina Jeffers
Writing about “passion” comes easily to Regina Jeffers. A master teacher for thirty-seven years, she has passionately taught thousands of students English in the public schools of West Virginia, Ohio, and now in North Carolina. Yet, “teacher” does not define her as a person. Ask any of her students or her family, and they will tell you Regina is passionate about so many things: her son, children in need, words, music, dance, the theatre, pro football, classic movies, the BBC, track and field, books, books, and more books. Holding multiple degrees, Regina often serves as a Language Arts or Media Literacy consultant to surrounding school districts and has served on state and national educational commissions.
A Time Warner Star Teacher and Crystal Apple Finalist, as well a Martha Holden Jennings Scholar, Jeffers is relatively new to the publishing realm although this is not her first piece of writing. “I have written all my life,” she says, “except it was not always in this format. When I write now, I write as I used to choreograph routines for my dance teams; I write the scene in my head like a movie. Usually, it plays there for several days being tweaked and rewritten, but, eventually, I put it to paper. Generally, it does not change much from there because I have completed several mental rewrites before the pen and papers are included.”
The story of Fitzwilliam Darcy is one most women know. “It has fascinated me for years so while teaching Pride and Prejudice at school, a student challenged me to write this book. His challenge became an obsession. Whereas most female writers can relate to the strong, independent Elizabeth Bennet, my friends will tell you my voice comes out of Fitzwilliam Darcy’s mouth. Like Mr. Darcy, I have by observation and by practice learned to say and do the proper thing, but I cannot say I ever knew what feelings were expected of me.”
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Behind the Book (Darcy’s Passions):
Fitzwilliam Darcy in the original Pride and Prejudice is a very major “minor” character. He, obviously, is the hero of the tale, but the reader never really knows how he creates the changes we accept as part of his personality all along.
He is a man who has lived his whole life among strangers; he has never felt he belonged. He has a respected position, and he has done all the things to be counted as a success in the world, but he possesses an emptiness, which Darcy cannot define.
We never see his vulnerability, his loneliness, and his passions. In the year from the time Darcy first meets Elizabeth Bennet until she accepts his second proposal, he is only in her life for a little over three months — from Michaelmas in late September to the Netherfield Ball in late November, for a fortnight at Rosings, and less than a week at Pemberley.
What did he do during those separations to replace his desire for Elizabeth? How did he complete his transformation? What occupied his time? To whom did he turn for comfort and support? How did he become the hero and not the villain of the tale?
Darcy’s Passions takes Fitzwilliam Darcy from his initial meeting with Elizabeth Bennet through the many misunderstandings, which define their relationship, eventually leading through her acceptance of his proposal. Unlike Austen’s summary, the courtship, the honeymoon and the marriage become part of Darcy’s transformation as the book takes the reader back to Pemberley, showing Elizabeth claiming a “niche” in the estate’s history while Darcy learns love and control are not the same thing.
When he nearly loses her for good, Darcy gives up the standards he has known all his life and accepts that the Pemberley of old cannot survive unless it has Elizabeth. The first few months of Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage highlight what every reader of Jane Austen wants to know about “happily ever after.”