PL of Chapter 18 is ok.
Jesamine might be rich but has little choice.
COMPLETE: A Superfluous Woman by Emma Brooke - jo
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Sunrise2020
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Susanne
Susanne
Chapter 19 is ready for PL.
This chapter brings back childhood memories. The area of Canada where I grew up had a lot of Scottish immigrants. Every summer, some little communities would host their versions of "Highland Games" — very like the festival in this chapter, and we would watch the caber-toss and shot-put contests, etc.
Some Scottish vocabulary for the chapter:
canny = wisely cautious, careful
fey = behaviour that is wild, crazy (with a superstitious tradition that such behaviour was an omen of impending disaster)
greeting = crying
This chapter brings back childhood memories. The area of Canada where I grew up had a lot of Scottish immigrants. Every summer, some little communities would host their versions of "Highland Games" — very like the festival in this chapter, and we would watch the caber-toss and shot-put contests, etc.
Some Scottish vocabulary for the chapter:
canny = wisely cautious, careful
fey = behaviour that is wild, crazy (with a superstitious tradition that such behaviour was an omen of impending disaster)
greeting = crying
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Sunrise2020
- Posts: 1008
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Thanks for those translations from the Scottish!
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Susanne
Susanne
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Sunrise2020
- Posts: 1008
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PL of Chapter 19 is ok.
I listen attentively and you don't make mistakes
Easy job for me.
I listen attentively and you don't make mistakes
Easy job for me.==========
Susanne
Susanne
Chapter 20 is ready for PL.
Jessamine goes visiting. I guess she's curious about what things are like in the McGillivray home. Interestingly though, she chooses to do this when she knows Colin isn't home; some distance is growing between them, privately in her mind.
Jessamine goes visiting. I guess she's curious about what things are like in the McGillivray home. Interestingly though, she chooses to do this when she knows Colin isn't home; some distance is growing between them, privately in her mind.
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Sunrise2020
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PL of chapters 20 and 21 is okay.
I enjoyed the visit of Jessamine with Colin's father. What a mutual "checking out" it was and from what varying perspectives.
I enjoyed the visit of Jessamine with Colin's father. What a mutual "checking out" it was and from what varying perspectives.
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Susanne
Susanne
Chapter 22 is ready for PL.
Today's Scottish vocabulary lesson:
whiles = sometimes
wanchancy = bad luck (i.e., bad omen; for example, the traditional superstition that spilled salt means bad luck)
I have to admit that I find it hard to accept one of the details in this chapter. The narrator informs us that an "unusually strong" aspect of Jessamine's passion is the way she "longed definitely and deeply after motherhood" and that this yearning "colored all her love for Colin." My reaction to that is sceptical; I think, "Really?! Maternal instinct is a big part of her passion? Since when?"
As far as I can see, there have only been two hints of such a thing. The very first was not until chapter 17, when she spontaneously hugs the little toddler who was born out of wedlock. The other was in chapter 18, when she fantasizes about a future life in which she bravely announces to society that she has a child but no husband. But any maternal feeling in that fantasy is undercut by the suspicion that she's mainly thinking about the impression she'd make. She likes people to pay attention to her.
Now, in the final chapters that are coming up, "motherhood" is indeed going to be an issue, and I can see that it would sharpen the impact if we did believe that maternal instinct is strong in Jessamine. But it feels as if the author is just inserting a few references to try to convince us — maybe too little, too late? — rather than consistently weaving it into Jessamine's character.
Today's Scottish vocabulary lesson:
whiles = sometimes
wanchancy = bad luck (i.e., bad omen; for example, the traditional superstition that spilled salt means bad luck)
I have to admit that I find it hard to accept one of the details in this chapter. The narrator informs us that an "unusually strong" aspect of Jessamine's passion is the way she "longed definitely and deeply after motherhood" and that this yearning "colored all her love for Colin." My reaction to that is sceptical; I think, "Really?! Maternal instinct is a big part of her passion? Since when?"
As far as I can see, there have only been two hints of such a thing. The very first was not until chapter 17, when she spontaneously hugs the little toddler who was born out of wedlock. The other was in chapter 18, when she fantasizes about a future life in which she bravely announces to society that she has a child but no husband. But any maternal feeling in that fantasy is undercut by the suspicion that she's mainly thinking about the impression she'd make. She likes people to pay attention to her.
Now, in the final chapters that are coming up, "motherhood" is indeed going to be an issue, and I can see that it would sharpen the impact if we did believe that maternal instinct is strong in Jessamine. But it feels as if the author is just inserting a few references to try to convince us — maybe too little, too late? — rather than consistently weaving it into Jessamine's character.
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Sunrise2020
- Posts: 1008
- Joined: August 28th, 2020, 5:41 am
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PL of chapter 22 is ok.
Thanks for the vocabulary! Most useful
I agree that the story so far has given little indication of the importance of motherhood for Jessamine. The question of marriage and once place in society has had a more consistent presence.
Thanks for the vocabulary! Most useful
I agree that the story so far has given little indication of the importance of motherhood for Jessamine. The question of marriage and once place in society has had a more consistent presence.
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Susanne
Susanne
Chapter 23 is ready for PL.
This is a very important chapter: the passion of Jessamine and Colin reaches its crisis, and this becomes the major turning point of the whole story. The chapter plays out at night, and notice how it often sounds like a dream.
Jessamine has decided to make a move forward in the relationship, and she realizes that this means leaving behind all the "civilized" "society" forms of life in her past. I love the apocalyptic imagery here: she flees "an old world in collapse, with faint thunders of falling cities growing less and less in her ears."
It is a crisis of passion, of her sexual being. For Victorian authors (and their editors), this is dangerous territory: they generally have to carefully and indirectly talk around the experience, rather than laying it out explicitly, as we would expect in a modern writer. This author definitely pushes those boundaries. As Jessamine hurries through the night to her meeting with Colin in the barn, we gather that she is breathlessly racing towards what she expects will be a sexual encounter. (Probably that "motherhood" idea was supposed to give the author some cover. The Victorians fetishized motherhood, so if we really believe that that's what's going on, there's a bit of excuse for Jessamine's impulse. But really, her feverish hurry doesn't seem to be maternal yearning; it's an erotic quest.)
Quite often, the Victorian solution to the problem of such scenes is to leave out a crucial bit of information, expecting readers to figure it out for ourselves. (It's common for inexperienced readers, hitting one of these omissions, to say, "Hey! What just happened there? Did I miss something?!") This chapter has a classic example. In the barn, Colin gathers Jessamine in his arms and suddenly feels that he has to speak promptly, in response to a "sweet confession which had fallen from Jessamine in the moment that he raised her in his arms." But what was that "sweet confession"? We're never told; we can only infer. Unless I'm completely mistaken in my reading of the chapter, Jessamine has, in whatever words, signalled to Colin that she's ready for a carnal relationship right now. Colin feels that he has to hurry with an answer, and his answer is to reassure her that she won't have long to wait: he can arrange for the wedding and living quarters by the end of the month. And with religious fervor, he fiercely declares that he would never treat her dishonorably.
That's not the answer she wanted to hear.
This is a very important chapter: the passion of Jessamine and Colin reaches its crisis, and this becomes the major turning point of the whole story. The chapter plays out at night, and notice how it often sounds like a dream.
Jessamine has decided to make a move forward in the relationship, and she realizes that this means leaving behind all the "civilized" "society" forms of life in her past. I love the apocalyptic imagery here: she flees "an old world in collapse, with faint thunders of falling cities growing less and less in her ears."
It is a crisis of passion, of her sexual being. For Victorian authors (and their editors), this is dangerous territory: they generally have to carefully and indirectly talk around the experience, rather than laying it out explicitly, as we would expect in a modern writer. This author definitely pushes those boundaries. As Jessamine hurries through the night to her meeting with Colin in the barn, we gather that she is breathlessly racing towards what she expects will be a sexual encounter. (Probably that "motherhood" idea was supposed to give the author some cover. The Victorians fetishized motherhood, so if we really believe that that's what's going on, there's a bit of excuse for Jessamine's impulse. But really, her feverish hurry doesn't seem to be maternal yearning; it's an erotic quest.)
Quite often, the Victorian solution to the problem of such scenes is to leave out a crucial bit of information, expecting readers to figure it out for ourselves. (It's common for inexperienced readers, hitting one of these omissions, to say, "Hey! What just happened there? Did I miss something?!") This chapter has a classic example. In the barn, Colin gathers Jessamine in his arms and suddenly feels that he has to speak promptly, in response to a "sweet confession which had fallen from Jessamine in the moment that he raised her in his arms." But what was that "sweet confession"? We're never told; we can only infer. Unless I'm completely mistaken in my reading of the chapter, Jessamine has, in whatever words, signalled to Colin that she's ready for a carnal relationship right now. Colin feels that he has to hurry with an answer, and his answer is to reassure her that she won't have long to wait: he can arrange for the wedding and living quarters by the end of the month. And with religious fervor, he fiercely declares that he would never treat her dishonorably.
That's not the answer she wanted to hear.
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knotyouraveragejo
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Incidentally, notice that chapter 24 is another scene pointedly set at night, but a very different kind of night from the night in chapter 23. This one is awash in urban artificial light — gaslight and the very new electric light. It is, in its own way, a kind of dream: notice the crowd of poor people who stand outside the door, watching in quiet awe as the rich people arrive for the evening party, as if for some kind of religious ritual.
Inside, the house is fantastically overflowing with flowers. Now these flowers are definitely "beautiful" — the word is used may times in this chapter — but there's a point here that the modern reader might miss. Nineteenth-century writers (at least, the British ones) were sometimes sensitive to the difference between "natural" plants — the ones that grow naturally, like the white heather that Colin picked for Jessamine — and plants that are forced to grow in greenhouses or in big commercial enterprises to supply the demand for decoration in wealthy people's homes and on their bodies. This latter type of flower sometimes shows up as a symbol of things that are deceptively beautiful, or artificial.
Similarly, the people at that party are "beautiful" (except for the sadly out-of-place Carteret), but this, we are told, is a trick of the lighting.
Inside, the house is fantastically overflowing with flowers. Now these flowers are definitely "beautiful" — the word is used may times in this chapter — but there's a point here that the modern reader might miss. Nineteenth-century writers (at least, the British ones) were sometimes sensitive to the difference between "natural" plants — the ones that grow naturally, like the white heather that Colin picked for Jessamine — and plants that are forced to grow in greenhouses or in big commercial enterprises to supply the demand for decoration in wealthy people's homes and on their bodies. This latter type of flower sometimes shows up as a symbol of things that are deceptively beautiful, or artificial.
Similarly, the people at that party are "beautiful" (except for the sadly out-of-place Carteret), but this, we are told, is a trick of the lighting.
Last edited by beeber on August 7th, 2021, 6:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Sunrise2020
- Posts: 1008
- Joined: August 28th, 2020, 5:41 am
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I'd miss so much of the story without your explanations!
PL of chapters 23 and 24 is ok.
PL of chapters 23 and 24 is ok.
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Susanne
Susanne
Chapter 25 is ready for PL.
I admit that I become impatient when Dr. Cornerstone and his little sermons take up our time, but he does have his purposes in the novel — three purposes, I think.
1. He is a stand-in for the author. He speaks for her, I guess, when he lays out some basics of 19th-century socialism; for example, the idea that the overall well-being of a society depends not on the well-being of the most fortunate, but on how successfully that society is able to raise the conditions of its least fortunate members. This kind of thinking appealed to both the labor movement and the women's movement. This author was active in both.
2. He is a stand-in for the reader. As readers, we observe and interpret Jessamine, but that's also what Dr. Cornerstone does, so his thinking shapes our own judgements. In this chapter, we hear that he is essentially optimistic, always believing that improvement (for individuals and for society) is possible, once humans set our minds and "Will" to work on problems. That's a core Victorian belief, so we can assume lots of the original readers would readily agree. That optimism will be tested in the next chapters, when the doctor and the readers see what has become of Jessamine.
3. In terms of literary types, he has been a kind of "Prince Charming" or "knight-in-shining-armour", coming to rescue the princess from captivity. He did that in the opening chapters, and Jessamine now calls for him to do the same again.
I admit that I become impatient when Dr. Cornerstone and his little sermons take up our time, but he does have his purposes in the novel — three purposes, I think.
1. He is a stand-in for the author. He speaks for her, I guess, when he lays out some basics of 19th-century socialism; for example, the idea that the overall well-being of a society depends not on the well-being of the most fortunate, but on how successfully that society is able to raise the conditions of its least fortunate members. This kind of thinking appealed to both the labor movement and the women's movement. This author was active in both.
2. He is a stand-in for the reader. As readers, we observe and interpret Jessamine, but that's also what Dr. Cornerstone does, so his thinking shapes our own judgements. In this chapter, we hear that he is essentially optimistic, always believing that improvement (for individuals and for society) is possible, once humans set our minds and "Will" to work on problems. That's a core Victorian belief, so we can assume lots of the original readers would readily agree. That optimism will be tested in the next chapters, when the doctor and the readers see what has become of Jessamine.
3. In terms of literary types, he has been a kind of "Prince Charming" or "knight-in-shining-armour", coming to rescue the princess from captivity. He did that in the opening chapters, and Jessamine now calls for him to do the same again.