Monday, April 23, 2012

I think it was also perfectly natural that I should damn him for grinning


SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED

First up, Mr Fairlie has a narrative and it is glorious. "It is the grand misfortune of my life that nobody will let me alone." That's how he opens his narrative! He is so put upon. Why can't everyone just leave him alone to treat his servants like furniture and damn them for grinning? Fanny, Laura's servant at Blackwater, comes with a message from Marian and Mr. Fairlie is so concerned her shoes will creak because there is a limit to his endurance. (Don't worry, her shoes do not creak. PHEW!)

What we learn from Mr. Fairlie is that he's as ridiculous and self-absorbed as ever and I'm so glad we got to listen to his ridiculousness. He is so annoyed that his brother "inconsiderately marries," dies, and has the nerve to leave his daughter to Mr. Fairlie. ALSO the Count showed up and managed to annoy him less than, well, everyone else on the planet. He also tells him he should let Laura hang out at Limmeridge but Marian is sick so don't wait up for her!

Oh yeah, Marian is seriously ill. All her ninja-ing in the rain before has caused problems. Oh noo. Now she's at the mercy of Fosco and Sir Percival AND Fosco found her diary so he knows what she knows and shit. They bring in a doctor (Mr Dawson) and the Countess gets a nurse (Mrs. Rubelle) but Marian is not getting better. Probably because she used up all her awesome powers in the last section. She's a mere mortal now. A mere mortal with typhus. Fosco and Mr Dawson do not get a long, which means you know Mr Dawson is clearly a good guy.

So while Marian is in bed trying not to die, there is no one to watch over the rest of the house to see what Fosco and Percy are up to and THEY ARE UP TO THINGS. Sir Percival fires just everyone at the house and says he's leaving. Then they do a bit of a bait and switch on poor Laura. They tell her Marian suddenly got better! but no one bothered to tell Laura but she actually decided to head out and is hanging out in London with Fosco and the Countess before continuing onto Limmeridge, and Laura should totally just go there too. She tries to make arrangements to stay with other people in London but that doesn't work and she ends up with Fosco and the Countess. But oh hey, guess what?? Marian is actually still at Blackwater in one of the rooms that Laura didn't check because Laura is not thorough.

Then Laura gets sick and weak in London and she tragically dies of some sort of heart failure. You know, like that heart problem Anne told Laura she had. The same Anne that looks just like Laura. I'm sure that's all just coincidental. Except obviously not. So when Walter is visiting "Laura's" grave a figure comes towards him and GASP, it's Laura.

When Marian got better she went back to being her velociraptor self and figured out the little switcheroo Fosco and co. did with Anne and Laura. She found Laura who had been in an asylum telling everyone she wasn't actually Anne Catherick, and obviously no one believed her. She breaks her out of the asylum because OF COURSE she does. When they meet up with Walter at the graveyard they all go into hiding in London. Marian keeps house, Walter makes money and Laura sits around. I know she was in the crazy house and the crazy houses then were not a fun place so she's been through some difficult times but Marian and especially Walter need to give her some credit because right now their arrangement reminds me of Lisa Simpsons meeting her rival's family. Especially when they tell Laura she can help earn her keep by selling her sketches except Walter's really buying them.
I have a ball. Perhaps you'd like to bounce it?
Marian and Walter are still trying to figure out how to punish Fosco and Sir Percival for what they've done but to do this they must learn Sir Percival's Secret. Walter talks to Gilmore's colleague who's taken over his work and Anne's mother to try to find the secret, but Sir Percival has people following him so it's not easy. He eventually does discover The Secret and it's.....sort of anti-climactic. Maybe not back then when it was monocle-popping shocking but learning that Sir Percival's parents weren't married is kind of eh. I know, it means he loses the Sir and people won't like him and all but still. I was expecting dead bodies in that lake. Anyway, Walter tries to get proof of this and almost does except Sir Percival sort of beats him to it! And sets the proof on fire! And also sets the vestry and himself on fire so things didn't really go as planned for Percy. So what now? Do we go after Fosco? Was that really Sir Percival in there and now a charred skeleton?

Look at everything that happened! I forgot so much of it until I started writing this thing, and then I ended up spending the whole post re-capping what happened. But seriously, there was so much. And there's still so much to happen. Plus I'm keeping my fingers crossed for bodies by the boathouse.

Title quote from page 231, location 5172

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Amazon Books, 2006. Kindle edition. Originally published 1860

Comments (16)

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WE BOTH DID SIMPSONS THINGS

"But oh hey, guess what?? Marian is actually still at Blackwater in one of the rooms that Laura didn't check because Laura is not thorough." Laura burn, dude. Laura burn.

"Sir Percival sort of beats him to it! And sets the proof on fire! And also sets the vestry and himself on fire so things didn't really go as planned for Percy." Hilaaaarious. I'm so glad this is a readalong so I can read things like this. So glad.
1 reply · active 672 weeks ago
We both did Simpsons cos we both have excellent taste.

Also, Laura really didn't think to look in more than 2 rooms for Marian? I mean when they revealed where she was I was expecting something more dramatic than "oh she was over there in that other part of the house that wasn't really used, so the perfect spot to hide someone".

This book is clearly wonderful but I don't think it would have been 1/2 as good without this readalong. Cos this is the best book club
Ohhhhhh, so Percy is all illegitimate rather than just being a complete imposter? I get it now! Laura is so so condescended in this bit, and hence I've kind of gone back to finding her irritating for letting that happen to her. And can I just say that if *Laura* was ill and they moved her, Marian would so have found her. WHY IS LAURA SO USELESS?!

And Mr Fairlie=win. I love him so. And bodies by the boathouse=yes please! ALL THE THINGS YOU'VE SAID ARE THE BEST!
2 replies · active 672 weeks ago
Yeah he's all bastard-y and whatnot and THE HORROR. Him being an imposter would even be more interesting because then where is the REAL Percy?

How could Laura not check a couple more doors? is that really too hard? I mean I'll give Laura credit for realizing she was being useless and wanting to help out and pay her way. she loses points for not realizing Walter is buying all her drawings.

Mr. Fairlie is all kinds of amazing and I know his narrative doesn't really advance the plot but it does kick all kinds of ass.
Marian would've been like "I DON'T CARE IF MY SKIRTS'LL GET DIRTY -- YOU HAVE A SUSPICIOUS FACE. LET ME IN."

Poor Laura.
Ugh, Marian never would have made such a rookie mistake. LOOK IN ALL THE ROOMS, LAURA!

The whole "oh, your drawings are so fantastic that you're making us all this money" made me really dislike Hartright again for a minute. Laura may be all out-of-wack and brainwashed from the Asylum or whatever, but you don't need to treat her like a child, Walter. Sheesh.
1 reply · active 672 weeks ago
Marian would never have been fooled out of the house by such a simple ruse as "oh don't look in those rooms".

I get Laura is frail right now but did Walter have to be so patronizing?? "Yes your drawings sure are pretty. That will be how you help us!" Jerk
I sort of almost wrote the exact same paragraph as you about Mr. Fairlie. I PROMISE I DIDN'T EVEN READ YOUR POST BEFORE WRITING MINE. This is poor timing, with that whole plagiarizing scandal going around.

Do you think the evil duo were using Mrs. Rubelle to KEEP Marian sick? I've been wondering, because she seemed to be getting better...and then, all of a sudden, TYPHUS. There are all kinds of underhanded things afoot that no one even knows about. I bet Fosco will fill in the gaps for us. He does enjoy hearing himself speak.
1 reply · active 672 weeks ago
It's ok because where Mr. Fairlie is concerned it's easy to see how awesome it is and gush about it.

I never thought about Mrs. Rubelle keeping Marian sick but it would make sense! Because Fosco's all "I bet that's typhus, yup toootally typhus" while the doctor keeps telling him he doesn't know what he's talking about. A few days and Fosco's doc later and then oh hey Typhus. Dun dun duuuuuun.

Can't wait for the Fosco section.
Yeah, Marian's superpowers do go out in a whoosh, don't they? And she didn't even have typhus. That is just what Fosco said to discredit the doctor. So she was just sick with unnamed sickness.

I didn't really connect the heart thing with figuring out it was Anne right away. I must have been reading too fast to stop and think about it. :)

Oh yeah, the drawings thing is just so infantilizing. I'm not sure if Walter and Laura can be romantically involved after this. He keeps talking now about being like a father/brother to her, which is certainly the appropriate way to be treating her in her current condition, to be sure, but once done, seems hard to undo?
2 replies · active 672 weeks ago
I thought she did have typhus, once Fosco brought in that other doctor. I think I like Meg's suggestion that Mrs. Rubelle got Marian sick when she started to get better. It also suggests why Fosco guessed it was typhus before there was any indication it was typhus.

Yeah, it's creepy that Walter keeps talking about her as a sister/daughter to think of him still being romantically in love with her. I wouldn't put it past him though.
It's hard to keep track of all the deceptions and lies and convolutions sometimes. I did suspect them of making sure Marian stayed sick longer.
Laura is a baby. Or at least she is treated like one: It pretty much appears to me that in their new lives as a family Walter is the father, Marian the awesome velociraptor mother and Laura the toddler who has to be kept quiet and ignorant.
Considering that she is pretty much the character this book IS ALL ABOUT she does remarkably little...

But a yay for Mr. Fairlie's narrative! The Big Brother house, I'm telling you. He's born to be bothered by all living creatures in front of cameras!
1 reply · active 672 weeks ago
It's so sad that Laura is so weak. I really thought she had this hidden strength in that scene where she stood up to Percy but guess not. Or maybe she actually isn't as dim and weak as Walter describes. Maybe if we saw those scenes from Marian's PoV it would have been much different?

It's really odd that there's no narrative from Laura's point of view. wtf?
I thought Laura was going to become strong and awesome after standing up to Percival on the signing thing but no whe's weaker than ever.

I actually think his Secret is pretty big. Mainly cause of the fraud thing. Sir Percival committed fraud so his punishment would be to be shipped off to Australia as a convict where they have to travel on old slave ships for months and heaps of them die of diseases along the way and then many more die in Australia of various things. Definitely something to scare the crap out of an uptight British dude.
1 reply · active 672 weeks ago
I fully agree the repercussions for his Secret were big and scary. But the secret itself was so eh. And again, I know this is because this is a different time and blah blah blah. But really? That's it? Your parents weren't married? No bodies in the lake or mysteries love children? Bah

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