Skip to main content

Beauty, Mistress Anne

After my rushed and crude day I came needing repair, not believing. I would not have known ten minutes later my novel would make me blush. A novel has never made me blush. I have read some torrid novels, never blushed.

But this Temple Bailey novel is so kind-hearted. It is a novel in which gentlemen declare their intentions.

This chapter has some interesting references. One is the mention of drug abuse. I was really surprised. I didn't know the word was around then to describe controlled substances, but from what I can tell of the context it means mood-altering substance abused.

The other is Tabasco sauce. Beulah asks the others at dinner if it seems particularly hot?

I wish I could copy/paste things. I want to find an eBook reader that will let me do that.

So I will describe the scene as best as I can.

Geoffrey is a writer at a boarding-house and Anne is a school teacher at the same boarding-house. She has bought some silk she is making into a dress, and he reads her chapters of his book every night while she sews. With the book's advance he has bought her pearls for the ball to make her costume complete (she is recreating her grandmother's portrait gown), and declares his love. She is shocked (dumb) and rejects them (wrong) because her mommy's boy's mother gave her pearls that some day HE will give to his bride. Never mind that Geoffrey bought her pearls with his own poor writer's earnings, and Richard (mommy's boy) knows nothing about any of it. She wants to wear the pearls Richard's mother gave her. Sigh. I don't know if my blush was for the declaration of love or for horror. I think both. Unfortunately I read ahead and know she ends up with mommy's boy in the end, and Geoffrey gets paired off with someone in a very unconvincing scene.

Well, I know the Victorians felt getting along with the MIL was preeminent. Also, Geoffrey's behavior is subtly unacceptable. He has tried to buy Anne and Beulah wine at dinner (the author avoided even mentioning the word), also he's spending every evening with her in her room, at his initiative. It's really interesting the way the author introduces these subtle breaches in conduct. I would never have the self-control to force my characters to obey such a rigid social code, or face the consequences.

Does this post even make sense anymore? I better just go buy my ivory twill.

Popular posts from this blog

The secret to a happy home

I finished Marion Harland's guide tonight and I wonder ceaselessly at two things. 1. She is so down on America! Even more than I am. She complains of things in which I am so well-steeped I could not see them for what they were. In particular, American style and cookery. It is true that our food, which we count as so much more generous in portion than the overseas counterpart, is as coarse and indecorous as it is plentiful, but as an American woman I cast up my hands and declare I would rather spend my time on something else. She makes an interesting point about American women's fashions. In France women wear what looks good on them, and in America women wears what comes off the manufacturing line in the latest style. It is very conformist, and I have to admit I feel it in myself, for I would be embarrassed to wear something that is "out" even if it flattered me better. 2. Harland's other point I feel clearly from last night's experiences. I looked in my journ...
more &

Helen Keller

Reading this Women of Influence book is causing me to remember another of my great childhood loves -- "The Miracle Worker," the story of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller. It was Anne Sullivan I really loved, and still love -- it always made me heartsick to think of her sacrifice, devoting every waking minute to another human being, with almost no life left to herself, until she died in old age, and Helen Keller required another translator. But God -- she must have known it -- that's the best way to live -- it is to have every moment of your life swallowed in supreme goodness and satisfaction. No wonder I loved her, and no longer do I feel sorry for her -- I envy her. I thought of her today perhaps because when I was around eight or nine I grew aware that she and I shared the same initials "AS." Today is the first day that I am Amanda Monteleone at work, and I have written my initials "AM" dozens of times already. It's strange, but the satisfaction of...
more &

Sprouts

Sprouts Originally uploaded by ladyhildegarde . I am getting sprouts. Hopefully they are carnations. It is such a beautiful spring day. It's good I'm taking the chance to come outside: I have craved a moment to reflect on something beautiful.
more &