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fabiadrakeI wore myself out with some personal accountancy this morning and remedied myself by taking a break from G. to read Miss Pym Disposes. I don’t think the ending need be taken as quite so damning of [likely culprit] as it is written.
It’s the third Tey novel I’ve read; The Daughter of Time is still my favourite. I’d forgotten she wrote The Franchise Affair, which I liked less. That society looks unkindly on older women remains true and is an interesting foundation for a detective novel; what Tey overlooks — and replicates — is that society also looks unkindly on teenage girls. (Misogyny: damned if you do and damned if you don’t.) Betty Kane is seen entirely through the eyes of other characters, mostly men. It would be a more interesting and intelligent novel if both sides of this equation were taken into account, and if Betty were treated with the same interest and compassion that Marion is. Sarah Waters’s article on the novel is interesting. For similar reasons, I think, Betty is the character that stays with me: for all that her accusation is the catalyst for the story, she is a character without a voice.
Miss Pym Disposes is far more female-centric than either The Franchise Affair or The Daughter of Time. There is a vaguely hinted at romantic relationship between two of the students. Personally I found myself reading Lucy, who is an enjoyable protagonist, as a lesbian; I don’t claim this as canon. (Lucy/Catherine, though; can I interest anyone?)
The weather remains horrible, apart from our February allowance of one fine day (yesterday), and is blowing up a gale outside (“a fresh breeze”, as the weather forecast always has it). I shall make some lunch for tomorrow and possibly put my hair in rollers.
It’s the third Tey novel I’ve read; The Daughter of Time is still my favourite. I’d forgotten she wrote The Franchise Affair, which I liked less. That society looks unkindly on older women remains true and is an interesting foundation for a detective novel; what Tey overlooks — and replicates — is that society also looks unkindly on teenage girls. (Misogyny: damned if you do and damned if you don’t.) Betty Kane is seen entirely through the eyes of other characters, mostly men. It would be a more interesting and intelligent novel if both sides of this equation were taken into account, and if Betty were treated with the same interest and compassion that Marion is. Sarah Waters’s article on the novel is interesting. For similar reasons, I think, Betty is the character that stays with me: for all that her accusation is the catalyst for the story, she is a character without a voice.
Miss Pym Disposes is far more female-centric than either The Franchise Affair or The Daughter of Time. There is a vaguely hinted at romantic relationship between two of the students. Personally I found myself reading Lucy, who is an enjoyable protagonist, as a lesbian; I don’t claim this as canon. (Lucy/Catherine, though; can I interest anyone?)
The weather remains horrible, apart from our February allowance of one fine day (yesterday), and is blowing up a gale outside (“a fresh breeze”, as the weather forecast always has it). I shall make some lunch for tomorrow and possibly put my hair in rollers.
