A Wish With the Candles - Discussion Thread

Emma smashes her car into Justin's Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible in the intro. I certainly don't blame her. It can be confusing driving on the wrong side of the road. Especially if you're in a car that is meant to be driven on the other side. Her little Ford Popular has got to have a right hand steering wheel and probably a left hand shift. Here she is driving on the right, instead of the left. Bound to cause the occasional mix-up. Any visitor to downtown London will notice the LARGE 'look left' signs painted at the zebra crossings for the benefit of visitors who are not familiar with a country that drives on the opposite side of the road as me. I found those signs very helpful...Emma could have used some of that same courtesy in Holland.

Emma owns a rather beguiling nightie and is woken up by a nurse to manage an operation--that's when I know that Justin will be seeing them someday (which he does when she's recovering from her appendix surgery). The Founding Betty's mother had some fetching nightgowns that she only wore at the hospital. That was back in the day when women stayed in the hospital for days and days after giving birth...Nowadays it's all lounge wear - pajama pants and tee-shirts. I sort of miss the days of having glamorous or even fetching nightgowns. I do, but my ankles don't.

Justin rebukes another doctor who swears out loud in the theatre for doing it in mixed company. Good for him.

The course of true love might have gone a little smoother if it wasn't for the threat of a large auto repair bill looming..."It didn't seem right to fall in love with someone to whom one owed money." I can certainly see Emma's point here. I would have found it awkward. Since both Dr. van der Stevejinck and I were poor starving college students, there was no worry about being in debt to one another...

A Wish With the Candles was one of Betty Neels early works. We get a glimpse at a different road The Great Betty might have traveled...but didn't. Justin unzips her from a dress (while recovering in the hospital) and then tells her to change into her nightie. She hesitates. "I can never understand why a girl can appear on a beach in next to nothing and yet be horrified at the idea of being seen in her undies." He sees her in her skivvies! We here at The Uncrushable Jersey Dress are grateful that Betty's road didn't veer off to Brighton...but it has got me thinking about memorable scenes in the Canon - scenes that could have gone on the book covers and didn't. I'm now sensing an upcoming contest...

Justin owns Gordon setters (Bess and Caesar) and Emma recognizes what they are at once. I guess that makes her a 'dog person'.

"How dreadfully English she was, she thought without humor, to fall back on the weather." When you're trying to avoid awkward silences, what's your fallback topic of conversation?