The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

We meet some new characters in this section. Who are they and what do you think of them? Do you relate with any of them?

How does Clarence's attitude change toward his friends? And how do Belinda and his former friends react?

We get multiple perspectives on how Lady Delacour feels about her child and why she won't see her. What do you think is the truth?

What are Belinda's and Clarence's plans regarding Lady Delacour? Are those plans compatible and will they work?

Has your opinion on any of the characters changed?

In this section I felt the author was sometimes manipulating the reader in awkward ways. Dr X— is about to receive a key revelation from Hervey and is about to give a key revelation to Lady Delacour, but instead he runs off to the side of another patient and disappears evidently for weeks, leaving the reader hanging. The author could follow Hervey on his visits to Windsor but chooses not to. I kept muttering, “I see what you’re doing there.”

Belinda begins to be seen as a compulsive fence-mender. It’s an interesting position for a heroine. If, as I believe, the social-comedy fiction of this era has its roots in comic theater, it ought to be a figure standing outside of the romantic couple who reconciles all conflicts, a wise fool type of character. So to have one of the romantic couple engaged in this onerous and unceasing work is a little disorienting to me. It makes her in some ways a more interesting character—she reveals that she’s capable of maneuvering and manipulating people in a good cause—but it dilutes the romantic suspense. I get the sense that Edgeworth doesn’t care all that much about the path of true love and its potholes, but delivers them in a pro forma way—which makes me more interested in Maria Edgeworth as a person than in the characters.

Hervey, I must confess, is bugging me a bit. Sure, he’s an elegant courtier and handsome and relentlessly knowledgeable; sure, he’s better than the obviously named Sir Philip Baddely and his damned damns; but from a reader’s perspective he’s so inconsistent! One moment he’s Mr. Macho Take Any Dare, then he’s the wilting lover, then he’s all hot to reform Lady Delacour, then he has a suspicious tress, then he disappears. In a way, this approach is realistic—in the society being described, women can only know of men what they happen to reveal in random social encounters. But an all-seeing novelist has greater access, and Edgeworth has availed herself of it to reveal some aspects of Hervey, so she ought to be able to show us a more coherent picture, regardless of what the heroine knows.

Speaking of Sir Philip, modern readers might not know just how shocking those written-out damns were in 1801. Nowadays, crudities like f**k are more shocking than casual blasphemy, but in those days the d word was taken much more seriously. Jane Austen has only two characters I can think of who routinely damn, the odious John Thorpe and Fanny Price’s vulgar father, and their damns are rendered in dashes. For a female author of novels to publish her work under her own name with all this damning would have put her beyond the pale of most polite society. Good thing she lived sequestered in Ireland!

So far, I am starting to like Lord Delacour a bit. Was he drinking out of misery because he loves his wife so much and was driven mad with jealousy? That doesn’t really accord with the way his character was set up at the start, marrying her for her fortune etc. But then, his character was initially explained to us through Lady Delacour’s narration.

I was wondering about the names. Baddley is obvious, but also does Mrs. Stanhope "stand in hope" about her niece's future? Is Harriot Freke a "freak of nature"? Mme Delacour is a very French name and literally means "of the heart", which could refer to the importance of love affairs and her actual wound/illness.

Good points! “Freke” is pretty blatant, certainly. As for Delacour and Hervey, they are both Norman-derived and therefore carry connotations of hereditary aristocracy in addition to any relevant literal meanings. “Clarence” seems a bit ironic so far, considering how opaque he is.

I quite like Dr X, particularly when he replies to Hervey's poetical musing on Belinda's perceived coldness ...by and by we hall find beautiful flowers spring up from beneath the snow with ...but in judging of the human character, we must not entirely trust to analogies and allusions taken from the vegetable creation.

Abigail, I am also starting to tire a bit of Hervey's having to win every challenge or argument or game (including almost drowning to do so) and that he is such a paragon of skill in everything.

So Dr X (according to my notes) acknowledges that Lady Delacour fears breast cancer and considers an operation possible if this is in fact what she has, and again my notes say that the operation would be a radical mastectomy, which Fanny Burney underwent in 1811, and which would be a horrendous surgery to undergo at that time of no anaesthesia.

Yes to all that about Dr X—. However, there’s that “if this is in fact what she has” caveat. Loved the bit of dry wit you quoted!

I was also amused by the names, and Dr. X (I wonder why Edgeworth didn't just give him a name).

That was a little weird—maybe she feared that London readers might assume he was a particular person?

Abigail wrote: "That was a little weird—maybe she feared that London readers might assume he was a particular person?"

That's what I'm guessing. And maybe he really was based on a particular person.

The chapter with the competitions reminded me of The Pickwick Papers. One of the characters there is always bragging about how good he as at athletic pastimes, but he is actually terrible.

I am getting tired of Hervey and his success in all the competitions as well. Dr. X told him to put his talents to use in some type of profession instead of just fooling around- and I agree!

Rosemarie wrote: "I am getting tired of Hervey and his success in all the competitions as well. Dr. X told him to put his talents to use in some type of profession instead of just fooling around- and I agree!"

Yes, he is exhausting sometimes!