tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post4348141094538902981..comments2024-03-25T09:03:39.020-07:00Comments on The Uncrushable Jersey Dress: Three for a Wedding--1973Betty Debbiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16446092401692468002noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post-11493707274391605252022-11-20T17:17:10.927-08:002022-11-20T17:17:10.927-08:00Thank you!! Guess I got my mitles tixed up, cuz I...Thank you!! Guess I got my mitles tixed up, cuz I read them both recently. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post-30214270227853675152022-11-20T01:10:45.480-08:002022-11-20T01:10:45.480-08:00There is an Oom Domus in The Mistletoe Kiss. Only ...There is an Oom Domus in <b>The Mistletoe Kiss</b>. Only nameless uncles in <b>Winter Wedding</b>. &#128512Betty Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12196924805687069270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post-12214593506055141202022-11-20T00:35:10.669-08:002022-11-20T00:35:10.669-08:00Good point!Good point!Betty Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12196924805687069270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post-54241160601326944292022-11-18T11:50:28.885-08:002022-11-18T11:50:28.885-08:00It’s me again, Anonymous Betty. The reason this bo...It’s me again, Anonymous Betty. The reason this bothers me so much is because a little motherless boy has been psychologically abused by his governess, and for a long time, while his gullible guardian is clueless and thus useless. To me, Neels missed the point entirely. It’s not about whether the doctor loves the governess (so let’s not say anything bad about her), or whether the nurse loves the doctor (who just wrongly accused her of kidnapping, so in a huff she decides to keep mum), or even about the poor puppy (well, it’s about him, too). But first, it’s about poor Paul. Nothing else should matter to Phoebe but exposing that poisonous witch. I wonder how Neels could not see this?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post-78645368789406471142022-11-18T11:06:28.422-08:002022-11-18T11:06:28.422-08:00Ugh. Now, nearly at the end, when Paul starts to m...Ugh. Now, nearly at the end, when Paul starts to mumble the truth to Lucius about why they went to Nanny’s house, she tells him to be quiet, it doesn’t matter, it won’t help. … So let’s just enable this pyscho Maureen even more. Ugh. What was Neels thinking?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post-84041857929995965802022-11-18T10:44:48.961-08:002022-11-18T10:44:48.961-08:00“She felt partly to blame because she hadn’t told...“She felt partly to blame because she hadn’t told Lucius about the beating Rex had had.” This comes at the end, when she is helping Paul free the dog from the shed and escape to Nanny. She should feel to blame. Dumbo.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post-70657822627202999552022-11-18T10:41:25.770-08:002022-11-18T10:41:25.770-08:00I see that Oom Domus exists in this book, too — pr...I see that Oom Domus exists in this book, too — pretty sure he was the kind uncle in Winter Wedding.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post-81668381462278856702011-01-07T06:29:51.472-08:002011-01-07T06:29:51.472-08:00I like this book a lot more than you did -- both b...I like this book a lot more than you did -- both because the Evil Stepson isn't as bad as the kids in <i><b>Sun and Candlelight</b></i> and Maureen (who is right up there in the running for Most Malignant Antagonist in The Canon) is more credible as the reason Paul does what he does, but also because there are some of my favorite bits.<br /><br />I love the reminder Lucius makes in his notebook (although The Great Betty should have put his writing the note to himself in the first chapter so that when Phoebe asks him about it in the final scene we're not all "Hunh? What notebook? What note?" -- the notebook is mentioned in the scene where they meet, but only as it goes from the desk to his jacket pocket), but I love even more how selective his dimness is. He knows the moment he meets Phoebe that she a) is not Sybil, b) looks like Sybil only older, and thus c) must be Sybil's older sister, named Phoebe.<br /><br />As someone who's just written a twins-switching-places plot -- <i>may I experience a fraction of the success of a Disney story!</i> -- I can foresee all sorts of problems having to do with the fact that their first names are entirely different. But then I recall that in the UK, people can be known solely by their surnames. (Betty Henry was a patent agent in London for over 20 years. He said he had a client for almost that entire time and they never got to first names. Here in the US, it rarely takes us more than 20 seconds to get past the Mr. X and Ms. Y stage!)<br /><br />It also has one of my favorite bits in the entire Canon. At the end, Phoebe is in a department store in Delft, hiding from Lucius. When he finds her, <i>[a] tide of feeling rushed over her; it was ridiculous that his presence beside her should have the power to melt all her carefully built-up resentment, her unhappiness even; to give her an overwhelming desire to cast herself into his arms, whatever he thought of her. Unable to bear it a moment longer, she snatched up a saucepan and studied it with all the interest of a good housewife on the lookout for a bargain.</i> I love that image, of her pretending to care about the saucepan. (A moment later, she lifts the lid and peers inside. Like it matters... He takes the pot away from her.) It's all what might be called in the theater "a nice bit of business."<br /><br />Also, Phoebe's pretty and knows it but not in a boastful way. Mostly it means that the housemen flock around her and she's learned to deal with that. But she doesn't assume her looks will help her with Lucius. Confident but not boastful: I like that.<br /><br />A solid boeuf en croute for me!Magdalenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11551590278859598110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post-9367823428802531872010-10-25T12:56:52.859-07:002010-10-25T12:56:52.859-07:00Oh blarg. I've been reading a couple of books...Oh blarg. I've been reading a couple of books at the same time so that I can get ahead for when we are in Hawaii next week. Must have muffed them. <br /><br />I'll change it.Keirahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12334172370385784966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-931981138747432610.post-61989020957812459342010-10-25T08:02:15.884-07:002010-10-25T08:02:15.884-07:00Betty Barbara here--
Betty Keira--who is Charles? ...Betty Barbara here--<br />Betty Keira--who is Charles? I thought his name is Lucius....<br />And you are right, the Maureen story line needs a better wrap up.Barb in Marylandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11374278685536530837noreply@blogger.com