Aunty is ill will a brain tumor or something, and the doctor doesn't tell her. A common trope in The Land of Neels, I wonder if The Great Betty ever aided and abetted behavior of this kind in her earlier nursing days. I once read a story about the composition of Edelweiss--the last song Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together. Oscar was dying of stomach cancer but didn't know it yet, however, Richard Rodgers was let in on the secret. Thereafter I was unable to hear the melody without thinking it had a certain poignancy wholly unattributable to looming Nazis.Our heroine has a tough time finding a job - but won't give up Horace the cat. I do not make any bones about my unsuitability as a Neels heroine. While filling the short, plump and plain bill (on occasion), I admit to being a loather of animals--a tolerater at best. Horace would be given a bowl of milk and bread to munch on while I high-tailed it after the city-bound bus.
Our plucky heroine buys some wool fabric to make a skirt, then has to hand sew it! I don't
pretend to be a great sewer--everything I know, Betty Debbie taught me--but I do know that hand sewing large items would be horribly tedious (especially if you had to keep re-fitting it) and the outcome would probably have lumps. Girlfriend needs to barter with people and cultivate a wide circle of exploitable acquaintances if she wants to keep living on the razor's edge.
pretend to be a great sewer--everything I know, Betty Debbie taught me--but I do know that hand sewing large items would be horribly tedious (especially if you had to keep re-fitting it) and the outcome would probably have lumps. Girlfriend needs to barter with people and cultivate a wide circle of exploitable acquaintances if she wants to keep living on the razor's edge.Susannah spends two days knitting like the furies. The Furies are from Roman mythology--deities of vengeance. Their heads wreathed with serpents, their eyes dripped with blood, rendering their appearance rather horrific. Sometimes they had the wings of a bat or bird and the body of a dog. But when I googled 'knitting furies' (because something about that tickled my brain) up popped references to the Madame Defarges of the French Revolution:
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
| Furies of the Guillotine (The). | |
| The tricoteuses—that is, Frenchwomen who attended the Convention knitting, and encouraged the Commune in all their most bloodthirsty excesses. Never in any age or any country did women so disgrace their sex. | |
Susannah gets to visit the Panorama Mesdag while in The Hague. Here's some sweet, sweet wiki goodness: In 1880 Mesdag was engaged by a Belgian company to paint the panorama, which with the assistance of his wife and many student painters, was completed by 1881. However, the vogue for panoramas was coming to an end, and the company went bankrupt in 1886. Mesdag purchased the panorama and met its losses from his own pocket. The panorama is now the oldest surviving panorama in its original location.. I think the operative words are 'vogue for panoramas' and 'coming to an end'. It looks like an awful lot of hassle for one painting and reminds me of my Zumba class (yes, my Zumba class.) that I tell my husband is too dance-y to be exercise and to exercise-y to be dance. The panorama is both history and art without really committing to either...
This is not a book I have come back to since reading it several years ago. Rings a bell, but don't remember it impressing me. Perhaps it's time for a second look.
ReplyDeleteYes, there are many instances in Neelsland where a character is not told of a fatal illness, from small Lisa (The Secret Pool) to a couple of late wives (not that our RDD loved her anyway by then), a friend's wife and various parents, aunts and I think an uncle. Not that I agree with it at all, except for maybe a very small child. Bah!
Thanks for the reference to "knitting like the furies!" I googled it as well and came across this rather bloodthirsty tidbit, seems to fit
"As the novel progresses, Madame Defarge moves from a relatively passive position, we first see her knitting in the wine shop she owns with her husband, to a much more active place. It is this devious needlework that often gives people the chills when they first meet her character. The reader later finds that Madame is knitting the names of all those who will be guillotined or charged with crimes in the coming Revolution."
Anxious to hear what anyone else thinks!
Betty Laurel
This is a copy of my previous post-- I wasn't sure whether it would do better there or here:
ReplyDeleteBetty Barbara here--
I reread this one last week so I would be ready for today's post.
There were several things that struck me/scenes I enjoyed:
1--What is this with not telling someone they are dying??? Poor Auntie might have wanted to vacation in Tahiti if she had known she was on her way out!
2--favorite scene is when Dr Guy B-B bandages O!Suzannah's hand and makes a total mess of it. I mean the hand does get treated--but one gets the impression that the attending houseman could have done it quicker and neater! Oh Betty, you sly thing.
3--Whilst visiting the family estate towards the end of the book, Guy B-B tells Suzannah that yes, he's getting married--
without firmly indicating to her that she is The One!! The dolt!!! So it is no wonder that our Suzannah believes Phoebe the Phibber. Sheesh.
Generally, I thought the story line was just one Peril of Pauline after the next, with Guy riding to the rescue. And you are definitely right--there needed to be more scenes of them together, because those few scenes worked well.
I don't know about the Panorama Mesdag, but I'll happily put in a plug for the restored Cyclorama at Gettysburg National Park.
ReplyDeletePeril of Pauline...that pretty well nails this one on the head. Too little interaction, too many jobs (and details about each). I like others much much better.
ReplyDelete