Mr Bennet’s Dutiful Daughter Cover Reveal & Giveaway

Hello dear readers

Today I bring you a very special post! Along with 9 other wonderful bloggers, I’m happy to reveal to all of you the cover for Joana Starnes newest book, Mr. Bennet’s Dutiful Daughter!

Along with the cover, I would like to share with you some fun facts I discovered while doing my research for this post, the book blurb and…a giveaway sponsored by Joana Starnes.

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Joana’s new book has a very beautiful portrait on it’s cover, it is titled Portrait of Miss Frances Vinicombe, date unknown, and it’s an oil on canvas that measures 92×71 cm painted by John Opie, a Cornish historical and portrait painter.

He painted many great men and women of his day, including members of the British Royal Family, and others who were most notable in the artistic and literary professions. One of the people he painted was Mary Wollstonecraft who was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children’s book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

Wollstonecraft died at the age of 38, eleven days after giving birth to her second daughter, leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts. This daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, became an accomplished writer herself, as Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

I believe Mary Wollstonecraft’s life story and beliefs would make her a perfect Elizabeth Bennet, but John Opie painted her in a later stage of her life so the person on Joana’s book cover is not Mary Wollstonecraft but Miss Frances Vinicombe.

I tried to obtain more information on her, but I couldn’t find much. I know she was born in Devon, England ans she was painted in mourning clothes but everything else remains a mystery. I guess that is a good thing isn’t it? We will not have any prejudice concerning the cover as we will be left with only our own imagination and creativity. Every time we look at Mr. Bennet’s Dutiful Daughter we may imagine what type of live that beautiful woman may have had.

 

But I’ve been talking and talking (or writing) without even showing you the cover, and I would by no means suspend any pleasure of yours, so you can find the cover below:

What do you think? Miss Frances Vinicombe was a better choice for the cover wasn’t she?

I am very intrigued by the painting on the cover, especially by the clothes Miss Vinecombe is wearing. Why is she wearing black? Where was she when this portrait was painted? Who ordered this painting, and where was it kept? I’m not sure if I will ever know the answers to these questions, but at least some might be answered if I ever visit Russia. And, no, that was not a mistake, the painting is currently on display at The Hermitage Museum in Russia, so if you ever visit St. Petersburg, you’ll have a chance to look at the intriguing Miss Vinecombe.

You can also find in this museum paintings of some of my favorite artists such as Van Gogh, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, and Alfred Sisley, but also from Degas, Gaugin, Renoir, Monet, Picasso, , Kandinsky and so on.

Isn’t this a major enticement to visit St. Petersburg? Not that I needed another excuse to visit one of the most beautiful cities in the world 🙂

 

 

But I’m digressing and by now I already spoiled who Mr. Bennet’s Dutiful Daughter is, but in case you are still wondering why Elizabeth Bennet is a Dutiful Daughter, please read the book blurb.

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***Book Description***

When Colonel Fitzwilliam’s disclosures are interrupted by the bearer of distressing news from Longbourn, Miss Elizabeth Bennet is compelled to consider an offer she would have otherwise dismissed out of hand. An offer of marriage from the all-too-proud Mr Darcy.

Yet how is she to live with a husband she hardly knows and does not love? Would she be trapped in a marriage of convenience while events conspire to divide them? Or would love grow as, day by day and hour after hour, she learns to understand the man she married, before she loses his trust and his heart?

Available at: Amazon.com

***Author Contacts***

Facebook: All Roads Lead to Pemberley/ Joana Starnes Facebook Page

Twitter: Joana Starnes/ Twitter

Goodreads: Joana Starnes Goodreads Author Page

Amazon:  Joana Starnes Amazon Author Page

 

 

***Blog Tour***

This book will go on a tour, don’t miss the several stops to find out more about it, and have an extra chance at the giveaways!

 

November 17/ My Jane Austen Book Club/Launch Post & Giveaway

November 18/Pemberley to Milton/Book Review & Giveaway

November 19/Obsessed with Mr. Darcy/ Book Review & Giveaway

November 20/ A Covent Garden Madame Gilflurt’s Guide to Life/Guest Post

November 21/ Margie’s Must Reads/ Book Review & Giveaway

November 22/ Babblings of a Bookworm/ Book Review & Giveaway

November 23/Diary of an Eccentric/Book Review & Giveaway

November 24/ Happy Thanksgiving

November 25/ So Little Time… So Much to Read/ Excerpt & Giveaway

November 26/ Just Jane 1813/Interview with Joana Starnes

November 27 / My Kids Led Me Back to Pride and Prejudice/ Guest Post & Giveaway

November 28/ More Agreeably Engaged/ Vignette & Giveaway

December 2/ Austenesque Reviews/ Excerpt & Giveaway

 

***It’s giveaway time***

 

Joana Starnes would like to offer our readers 3 copies of Mr. Bennet’s Dutiful Daughter. One reader will receive a paperback and two will receive an ebook copy. They will also receive assorted Austen-related mini-gifts. The giveaways are open to international winners.

Also, as a special bonus, all Rafflecopter entrants will receive an exclusive excerpt of the book that will not be included in the Amazon sample.

To enter the giveaway, just click here.