Even though this is a novelette, Betty Neels must have felt compelled to get as many details included as possible. Litrik takes Sarah out for a drive in his Rolls. In half a page we get:- Arnhem, including the war memorial at the Rhine Bridge, the parks, some old houses and the zoo.
- a drive through the High Veluwe national park.
- stop for coffee in Apeldoorn.
- the grounds at the palace of Het Loo.
- back in the car and drive to Zwolle for lunch.
Whew! I've been known to do some hardcore sightseeing in my time, but wow, that sounds like a lot for one morning. Of course, I'm thinking Western U. S. in terms of distance...for all I know these places are within a 20 mile radius.
Betty Keira was spot on in calling this delightful. It's like a piece of chocolate - sweet, but quickly consumed. Here are a few more of my thoughts on it:
- Litrik is adorable but his writing is abominable - as most Neels doctors are (frankly my own doctor also has horrible handwriting...) "...the writing was a scrawl; it could have been written by a spider dipped in ink." Love that line. [Betty Keira] Discretely sending a lady to the loo is a mark of high character. Good penmanship is not.
- The great-aunt. Mevrouw ter Breukel. Not only does she have an interesting taste in reading material, but she also does jigsaw puzzles in bed. ?? In bed??
- When Sarah is looking for her own job she heads right towards Betty Neels' go-to publication for jobless ladies of quality. The Lady is employed in more n
ovels than I care to count and it is doubtful that grocery store shelf-stocking is ever listed. Nannying for sadists, companioning the dotty and moving to remote areas of Scotland (provided you abandon your cat) are all to be found, however.
- Sarah gets a real wedding - and doesn't have to plan a thing. How nice would that be? Not only does she get married in a church, but instead of having to wear a wool suit with a hat, Sarah has a white dress and a veil!
- Which, described as "white dress", "very simple" and "little veil", puts me in mind of something that lo
oks like this, for some reason.
- Also, at one point when we are supposed to believe that Robert Swift has captured little Sarah's heart, Litrik assumes a bon homie that practically screams Frenchman lighting up a Continental cigar, blowing smoke rings into the air and thinking with sardonic fatalism, "C'est la vie, C'est l'amour..." Happily he pops out of that tout de suite.
Now, I'm pretty sure this expression was never used in a Betty Neels book, but the generation is about right. My ex-mother-in-law (now in her early 80s and presently in New Zealand visiting with her sister-in-law on the occasion of the latter's 100th birthday) used to refer to going to the ladies (meaning going to a public ladies' room) as "spending a penny."
ReplyDelete"We're about to leave the restaurant, so you'd better spend a penny."
I know -- it's entirely "say wha--?" material. It would seem that back in the old days (between the world wars), public toilets (again, a Brit-version of "ladies' rooms") made you pay a penny (those huge pre-decimalization pence made of some copper alloy) to open the door of the stall.
Now, for all I know, this was only in big cities like London, and Betty Neels was a nurse in a smaller hospital. But I'm sure it was a valid expression that she knew.
(And yes, my ex-mother-in-law was just a bit snobby, so I'm not sure she ever called it the loo.)
I seem to remember a couple of books where she does say "loo"...now I'll have to watch for it. Usually sending her to the loo is referred to much more euphemistically.
ReplyDeleteOh, Betty Neels would have said loo. She was definitely not as snobby as my ex-M-i-L!
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it have been lovely to have tea with Betty Neels? *sigh* I bet she had one of those high pitched British accents that always seem slightly surprising, like Queen Elizabeth's.
Part of the fun of reading Neels is getting glimpes of Betty herself. I am continually fascinated by the fact that she started writing so (relatively) late and kept it up so long.
ReplyDeleteBetty Keira and I have spent the last year or two talking about the little clues we uncover....possible fear of heights, lack of swimming prowess, ditto driving, etc.