When Humans and Damned Collide

There is nothing better than a country dance especially if the you dance with a vampire, then enjoy a bit of lusty lounging afterwards. Amongst the secluded alcoves and rooms, Jane’s dear friends and relatives succumb to the overpowering allure of the Damned. And these vampires don’t even need to sparkle to blind the Regency ladies into such compromising positions. Exposed bosoms! Drooping stockings! Sexual delight! OH, my…. 

When Jane Austen’s world of quiet and reverie collides with the Damned (again), she is in danger of losing her humanity(again). Supposedly cured, Jane fights with all of her will and a bit of help from her creator not to become Damned again. She says her prayers, goes to church, ignores her natural or unnatural feeding time. Essentially, she wants no part in the Damned’s eternal place in history or Chowton’s society. But there is only one problem…

The Damned don’t let go of their own so easily. Or their human toys for that matter.

Or even better, they find former Damned and get them to do the really hard stuff like go to the enemy camp, carry loaded pistols for killing other rogue vampires(because what’s a good vampire story without few wayward eternal bloodsuckers, right?). While it is commendable that Jane wants to save her human family, she allows herself to be drawn ever closer to her Damned-self again. Secretly, I think she misses the lustiness, the vixen qualities of being drop dead gorgeous, and her over-eagerness shows that she wants a taste of this world again. Of course, this would mean her human family’s horror and reproach for joining with those things again(at this point in the book, I wanted to bitch slap her mother and sisters). Being Damned helps Jane be more fully woman–sexual, desired, and non-respectable spinster.  And it troubles Jane that she enjoys it.

What do you think? Does Jane secretly love her Damndeness?

 Photo credit: Kendall and Flickr Creative Commons

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