Am I wrong to hear echoes of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in the first chapter of The Sugar Camp Quilt?
You are absolutely correct, and it’s a relief to know that someone other than my sister (a librarian and former English teacher) was able to recognize it. Jane Austen is my favorite author, and I was inspired to pay homage to her in The Sugar Camp Quilt after discovering that she, too, was a quilter. In a May 1811 letter to her sister, Cassandra, Jane Austen mentions collecting scraps of fabric for “the patchwork,” and a quilt that Jane made with her sister and mother hangs in her former bedroom in the Jane Austen Museum in Chawton, Hampshire, England. This was the first time I included a literary homage in any of my books, and I realize that not everyone “gets it,” but most readers, fortunately, recognize it as a time-honored literary technique. Please don’t write to me in a tizzy if you disagree.
