COMPLETE: A Superfluous Woman by Emma Brooke - jo

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
beeber
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Post by beeber »

Chapter 12 is ready for PL.

It's a strangely beautiful and poetic chapter, and it centres on the theme of "the road" or "the path". Early in the chapter, Mrs. McKenzie looks at the changed appearance of Jessamine and (almost with clairvoyance) sees that "a way" has opened out in front of Jessamine — the "Way of Love" — and, in her maternal, caring way, she regrets that she can't help her, that Jessamine must follow that path "alone and unaided".

Our attention is repeatedly drawn to the curling path that winds through their neighbourhood, and Old Rorie, Colin's father, comes down that path. It's an eerie moment, as he has an "ancient and uncanny air." The children are instantly frozen in their play, and Jessamine has a strange misgiving and suddenly feels ill. There's something mythic about Rorie, as he carries a staff which he repeatedly "smites" upon the ground (language which seems biblical, as if he is an ancient prophet or figure of doom).

Shortly after that, the narrator embarks on a philosophical reflection about how the road of life is always mysterious and unknown to us. To Jessamine, thoughts of her future on the path feel ominously tainted by the thought of Old Rorie, in some way that is beyond rational explanation. And then Colin comes down that same path, locks eyes with Jessamine, but there are no words between them and he is called away by the voice of Rorie.

It all feels like a dream.
beeber
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Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Chapter 13 is ready for PL.

This tiny chapter introduces the idea of "white heather". Heather was, of course, easily found in Scotland, but it was mostly the purple variety. White heather was relatively rare and treated as a good luck symbol, particularly luck in love and marriage. Sprigs of white heather were used in floral arrangements for weddings, and in the bride's bouquet and clothing.
Sunrise2020
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Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Post by Sunrise2020 »

PL of chapters 12 and 13 is ok.

Where do your insights come from? I'm so grateful to be able to read them before I listen to the recordings and wish future listeners would have the same chance!
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Susanne
beeber
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Post by beeber »

Sunrise2020 wrote: July 17th, 2021, 8:29 amWhere do your insights come from?
Uhhhhh... well, I guess after years of being interested in 19th century novels, I've read enough of them to have an eye for what might matter. And to know when there's something I don't know and should probably look up (like the white heather)!
beeber
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Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Chapter 14 is ready for PL.

Now here's a little patch where some knowledge of the cultural context at the time may help. For about 5 minutes in the recording (from around 11:30 to 16:15) the author goes into a discussion of how hard it is for us to break free of "habit and familiarity" and from our "inherited traits". She really gets going on "atavism" — the "reversionary principle" that makes us tend to regress back to the behaviours of our ancestors.

All this may not seem that special to us, but for educated people of her time, she has landed on a really "hot button" issue. Remember that Darwin's work on evolution came out in the 1850s, so it was a relatively new and fresh field. There had been a lot of talk about how we "evolve" from our ancestors. That discussion included recognition of "atavism" as a contrary principle: we evolve forward, on the one hand, but the roots of the older organisms are still within us, waiting to drag us back to more ancestral behaviours. (There's a kind of tug-of-war going on inside us, and that was really interesting to the Victorians. Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came out in 1886, had huge sales, and its handling of the "inner tug-of-war" theme was discussed in churches and newspapers.)

Biologists were fascinated by the vestigial organs and body forms — in humans, plants, and animals — that are the "left-overs" of evolution, and the new fields of developmental psychology and criminology probed how it is that people regress to primitive behaviours.

And for this author (as for Dr. Cornerstone), education is critical in preparing people to fight off atavism. For this, the child needs to be grabbed as soon as possible and set into the proper habits of mind.
knotyouraveragejo
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Post by knotyouraveragejo »

I too have to say that I have been enjoying reading your running commentary, Bruce! :)
Jo
Sunrise2020
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Joined: August 28th, 2020, 5:41 am
Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Post by Sunrise2020 »

PL of Chapter 14 is ok.
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Susanne
beeber
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Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Chapter 15 — another tiny chapter — is ready for PL.

Bruce
Sunrise2020
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Post by Sunrise2020 »

beeber wrote: July 18th, 2021, 7:48 am Chapter 15 — another tiny chapter — is ready for PL.

Bruce
PL of chapter 15 is ok. And the white heather made another appearance. Will it be of consequence?
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Susanne
beeber
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Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Sunrise2020 wrote: July 19th, 2021, 4:22 amPL of chapter 15 is ok. And the white heather made another appearance. Will it be of consequence?
Well, I think it hardly needs to return. It has done its symbolic work. By Colin offering it to her, he has offered his love; by Jessamine accepting it, she has accepted his love.

Note that this simple and sincere communication has the blessing of nature: its vehicle is a simple flower of the field, and there is the little warm touch of their hands.

I suppose this contrasts with how Lord Heriot tried to offer his version of "love" back in Chapter 3. He tried to clamp onto her wrist an expensive jewelled bracelet in the form of a snake. That gift felt like a manacle, symbolizing enslavement, and Heriot's touch made her skin creep.
beeber
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Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Chapter 16 is ready for PL.

This is a dense chapter, a challenge unlike any of the chapters so far. Jessamine spends the whole chapter in one room, trying to think about what to do with her life. The author's task is to capture the tortured twists of Jessamine's reflections.

The basic contest, of course, is between the "code" of behavior that Jessamine's upbringing has drilled into her versus the new, human, natural passions that are sweeping over her. And she is hampered by the fact that her upbringing has failed to give her any truly deep or meaningful guiding principles or virtues — other than "do it because this is what society expects you to do." She realizes that she actually can't "think" for herself. It's a pretty serious and depressing indictment of the upbringing of society women.

(Incidentally, in terms of symbolism, we should maybe keep an eye on that tree that keeps throwing a shadow through the window. The persistent mention of the tree's shadow makes it feel as if there's something ominous happening there. One possibility is that it's a reference to the Tree in the Garden of Eden; Jessamine is even referred to as "Eve" in this chapter, as she has been before. We have already been warned to watch out for snakes — i.e., society snakes like Lord Heriot.)
Sunrise2020
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Joined: August 28th, 2020, 5:41 am
Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Post by Sunrise2020 »

PL of Chapter 16 is ok.

I could almost feel a cold draft move move around me when Jesamine spoke of society and its expectations.
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Susanne
beeber
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Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Chapter 17 is ready for PL.

We see the thinness of Jessamine's education/preparation for life when she watches a poor old woman and child. When she hears the child's situation, she is surprised — as if peeping into a strange and unknown world —  that there is such a thing as happy life outside wedlock. This little nugget becomes one of the thoughts she is going to carry around with her.

Language note: I hope listeners don't have a problem with some of the Scottish dialect that gets used. "Bairnie" (= "child") is probably well known, but listeners might be puzzled when Colin calls her "my wee bonnie do'e." "Do'e" is a contraction of "dove" and is pronounced "doo". Similarly in later chapters, we'll run up against the word "lo'e," pronounced "loo"; it's a contraction of "love."
Sunrise2020
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Joined: August 28th, 2020, 5:41 am
Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Post by Sunrise2020 »

PL of chapter 17 is ok.

I didn’t know these expressions but from the context and intonation I’d take them as terms of endearment. I think the listeners will be fine.
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Susanne
beeber
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Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
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Post by beeber »

Chapter 18 is ready for PL.

This is another chapter in which Jessamine tries hard to think, and the Tree in the Garden of Eden — the tree that offered Adam and Eve "knowledge of Good and Evil" — makes a symbolic appearance. She heads out to the biggest nearby tree, one set apart from the others, and explicitly thinks of Colin and her as being like Adam and Eve, and forces herself to think through what her future might look like.

Alas, she is still not a great thinker, and the narrator gently suggests that she has forced her thoughts into too narrow a path. When she finally articulates her vision of what will happen in her future, we too probably find it disappointing.
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