Whatever Happened to Mrs. Gardiner?
The world of Jane Austen is not so different from the media worlds of romance and intrigue today, with the protagonists cast as the single young men and women, and the community around them as supplementary, though important, to their journey to marriage and rest from the bustling, often dangerous world of possibilities--for everyone knows that, once married, possibilities are limited and life gets safer. It's a trope due its truthfulness; the settled of society are the safest of society. But the difference between the fictional worlds of Ms. Austen and the fictional worlds today found in TV Series and film, is not found in the protagonists (you will find the same fresh-faced innocents, capable middle-aged romantics, and seductresses should you turn on the tube today), but rather the difference is in the lack of their married counterparts (minor and yet vital players in the bloody field of romantic conquest and adventure). In Austen's world, before rampant industry