The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

XLI. GATHERING CLOUDS.
XLII. THE STORM BURSTS.
XLIII. CYNTHIA'S CONFESSION.
XLIV. MOLLY GIBSON TO THE RESCUE.
XLV. CONFIDENCES.

I'm really disappointed in Cynthia, who is taking advantage of Molly's good nature and helpfulness, and then pressing her to do still more. Cynthia seems to have turned her manipulative talents on Molly to a surprising extent.

Cynthia is in a certain way quite careless. I was also a little angry at her due to the way she gets Molly involved in this whole affair.

I will post my comments tomorrow or the day after due to being so busy at work. Sorry.

As innocent as Molly is, she was quite cunning in getting Preston to do what Cynthia had been unable to accomplish despite all her winning ways. Kudos to Molly!

Yes, kudos to Molly. The threat she hits on is clever, and Molly does not realize it is working. This scene shows Molly as a blend of intelligence and naivete. She has some awareness that meeting Preston this way is "improper," but is concerned about how it looks without thinking about any potential danger to herself.

I'm assuming there is more to Cynthia's story than we are told? If not, then I'm a bit disappointed in the scandal. I was expecting much worse. Actually, no, I wasn't. I know that it was very easy for a woman to behave scandalously back in those days, particularly with jerks like Mr. Preston on the loose.

Have a pretty good idea of how things will turn out now for the principles, but I'll keep those to myself.

Osborne's state of health is becoming increasingly worrisome. I wonder what health issue he is supposed to have?

Actually I feel rather sorry for Cynthia, selfish though she is; it's clear that she was vulnerable to Mr Preston's advances because she had no mother around, and he gave her the attention and interest she was lacking. And she hasn't dared cut off Mr Preston at least partly because she cares for her mother, and doesn't want her to see the derogatory things she wrote about her in her letters; "I was quick enough to all her faults," says Cynthia, "and hardly understood the force of her temptations."

As for Mr Preston, he's far more manipulative than Cynthia is. Her story of how he won her round with gifts and flattery sounds like a modern case of grooming. Possibly he started out with purely kind intentions, but I suspect not.

Osborne's condition is a bit vague. I've been assuming consumption (TB) since it was so common at the time.

Here are some of my notes on these chapters:

Cynthia's story is in a certain way sad. As you, Emma, mentioned she was very young and lacked maternal and paternal guidance. Her mother did not even care about her during the holidays and went off by herself. Due to the lack of a father the attention of a man was probably even more exciting and especially longed for. So she was definitely vulnerable to his advances. Then in addition she felt a certain obligation to please him due to her borrowing 20 pounds from him.

Mr Preston, on the other hand, might have had a certain attraction to girls/ young women, which made him manipulative to get what he desired. It is though interesting that he seemed (at least) to have waited for her return and still wants her despite other / maybe more fortunate opportunities. I think he is under a certain spell by Cynthia or does he only want to own her as a trophy?

Mrs. Gibson continues to be vexing, but she is probably the character who is developed and depicted the most. As already discussed previously she has a lot of irritating characteristics which show itself almost in every chapter again. She is among others:
- materialistic without gratitude
(" Mr. Gibson's poor present of ten pounds shrank into very small dimensions compared with all this munificence.")
- uncaring
("I had not time to read it [the letter] in London; so I put it in my pocket, and read it in the coach coming home ...") or when leaving her daughter behind during the holidays
- scheming - the engagement to Roger is not an engagement, at least not acknowledged all of a sudden, due to her still looking for a better match, e.g. in form of Mr Henderson - later she even speaks of her feeling that the relationship between Roger and Cynthia will lead to nothing, then she is bringing up Osborne again
- irritating with her long, useless and unimpressive speeches
- seems dissatisfied with her current life and then mourns over the death of her first husband (as if it had just happened) without any gratitude for the things she has now compared to her life when having to take care of other people's children in order to make a living, which she hated as well.
- hypocritical by calling herself an affectionate sensitive nature (only with regards to herself ;-))
- feels easily offended e.g. the situation at the Miss Brownings' when she thought she was accused of not taking care of Molly as a mother
and then accuses others to be the cause of her being reproached/ talked of badly
- kind to poor people - I was a little surprised about that, it is her first positive characteristic - I think, but it is not dwelt upon so much more.

Molly is getting more believable and stronger as a character - I believe:
She is partially sarcastic towards her stepmother.
She feels that something is wrong with Cynthia/ that Cynthia was withholding some secret.
She is concerned about Roger's sickness in contrast to Cynthia and her mother and even wonders whether the Squire might know about the possible sickness of his son, which shows her care.
Molly remembers and sighs over the day when Roger was reproached for calling at odd hours - a sign of her deep attachment to him.
And, of course, the way she handles Cynthia's tasks and how she stands up to Mr Preston and in the end reaches her goal is impressive.

Roger Hamley is really rising in his position and might be able to achieve a good social position through his scientific successes as well. Who knows he might in the end become worthier/ wealthier than Osborne.

Osborne's state of health is somehow alarming as he himself feels it. It is interesting that he sees Molly also as a sister and confides in her related to his wife and child. I think he might have some heart disease - it was mentioned earlier that it might be an aneurism of the aorta.

Gossip in Hollingford:
Molly had heard about Mrs Goodenough's rumour related to Mr Preston and Cynthia.
Now Miss Browning is thinking of her and Mr. Preston and the encounter of her with Mr Preston by Mr Sheepshanks might only encourage the already ongoing rumours. Sheepshanks has probably also heard about these as he calls their encounter a "tete-a-tete".
Poor Molly might get into an unpleasant situation.

Sorry for this incredibly long post ... I had just so many things in mind, I guess.

Great summary Hedi.

I feel somewhat sorry for Cynthia, for I think she realizes that she was led astray at a young age and also realizes ( as I believe she has mentioned several times earlier in the book) that it was for lack of proper guidance such as she sees Molly receiving from her father and from the kind women in the neighbourhood (particularly the Miss Brownings) who appeared to take her under their wings when her mother died.

While at this point it would be easy to envy Cynthia her beauty and tremendous attractiveness to others, I suspect she has long envied Molly and others like her who had parents who cared for them and didn't shunt them off to schools and abandon them at holidays. I think it speaks to the goodness and good character of both young women that they are so attached to each other despite the fact that in lesser characters there would instead be resentment and jealousy.

Thanks, Frances!

I wrote in an earlier thread..."But is there still nothing positive to say about Mrs. Gibson?"

Aha! I found something! In Gathering Clouds, it states, "Mrs. Gibson was always kind to the poor people, and she immediately got up and went to her stores to search for the article wanted." I knew there had to be something.

I think there was something about Osborne's illness that suggested aneurysm of some kind. I was surprised by this because I couldn't imagine it being diagnosed so early in the 1800s, and without benefit of MRIs and CAT scans, etcetera. So I looked it up and found symptoms like dropping eye, headaches, lethargy, and so forth. Although, I'm unsure about the oncoming manifestation. He does seem to be wasting away rather than in peril from impeding aneurysm. Maybe, Gaskell wanted to have it both ways. (And, also, I don't know enough about the disease to know if her descriptions are flawed.)

Obviously, I am woefully behind and trying to catch up. Honestly, I needed a break from Mrs. Gibson by the midway point in the book. I did feel for her position as a widow of little means at one point, and tried to excuse her rampant selfishness as a symptom of her fears... But, really, she's just awful. I have a vague recollection of Francesca Annis tearing up the role in the episodes I saw, and look forward to watching the tv version now that I have the book in mind.

“There's no place like home,' as the poet says. 'Mid pleasures and palaces although I may roam,' it begins, and it's both very pretty and very true.”

Undoubtedly, Dorothy had this read poem. Or at least Frank Baum did.

If the aneurysm was abdominal it could be felt on exam if large enough. If it was in the heart it might be heard as a murmur. He could be going into heart failure if it was somehow affecting the heart valves, or getting anemic if it was leaky. In any case, as Dr Gibson said, it was one of those things that might rupture with exertion, so truly a bit of a time bomb.

The description of how Osbourne's health was failing sounded to me like congestive heart failure. I don't know if an aneurysm in the heart would produce those effects, but I suspect it might.