Victorians! discussion

Welcome to Section 4 of our read, which comprises the following chapters:

Mrs. Milroy,
The Man is Found,
The Brink of Discovery,
Allan at Bay,
Pedgift's Remedy,
Pedgift's Postscript,
The Martyrdom of Miss Gwilt,
She Comes Between Them.

Note that, according to our slightly adjusted schedule, we will read "She Knows The Truth" in the next section.

We now find out a bit more about Mrs Milroy and her bitter past and present life. Collins brings her in at this point to act as a catalyst and move the story on, pushing Allan into further blind bumbling.

Pedgift Senior also takes on a greater protagonism as he attempts to rescue Allan from the clutches of Miss Gwilt. Few of you will have failed to identify Columbo's forebear in the description of "Pedgift's Postscript":

"when the lawyer suddenly checked his exit at the opened door; came back softly to his chair, with his pinch of snuff suspended between his box and his nose; said, "By-the-by, there's a point occurs to me;" and settled the question off-hand, after having given it up in despair not a minute before."

In "The Martyrdom of Miss Gwilt", we are given a more detailed description of our mysterious villainess - I will try to post some links for 1850s hairstyles and clothing in the Background Info thread for those who are interested. An unlikely pair of partners in crime is set up by bringing the hapless Bashwood under the influence of Miss Gwilt.

Finally - alas! - what we feared might happen, happens: Armadale and Midwinter argue bitterly, the statuette of the second vision is smashed and another premonition is realised. Collins ends the chapter "She Comes Between Them" with another of his superbly atmospheric cliffhangers: As Allan bursts into tears, unable to cope with the final nail in the coffin of his friendship with Midwinter,

"The moments followed each other, the slow time wore on. Little by little the signs of a new elemental disturbance began to show themselves in the summer storm. The shadow of a swiftly deepening darkness swept over the sky. The pattering of the rain lessened with the lessening wind. There was a momentary hush of stillness. Then on a sudden the rain poured down again like a cataract, and the low roll of thunder came up solemnly on the dying air."

What a great final chapter to this section! So emotional and fraught with premonition. I can't believe how completely Midwinter seems to be taken in by Lydia. Allan, yes. Allan needs a keeper. He is such a big puppy as someone said in a previous post. But Midwinter has seen so much more of life and of devious doings. His falling for her is so much more painful.

Yes, I loved Pedgift senior and his snuff box. Especially knowing that he was truly finished when he put it away. Such s great, funny, human detail.

I think, perhaps, that Midwinter lets himself be taken in because he recognises a kindred spirit; he seems to have a soft spot for a truly awful sob-story. Bear in mind that he also takes a liking to Bashwood where Allan doesn't, purely on the basis of hearing about his tragic past.

Just finished this section. What a ride :D I'd wondered awhile back about how crazy it would be if Midwinter ended up falling for Lydia G., because it seemed natural for two characters with shady pasts to feel some kinship and camaraderie. But I didn't expect Lydia to fall for him, as well.

I loved how Midwinder just wantered off to take a walkabout in the English wilderness for a couple weeks, saying he needed to get away from Lydia. That was the main reason for his going away, but there was also this sense of him struggling with the two sides of his nature. The roughing it and the wilderness represented his past, his fate and everything else he couldn't escape from and just leave behind, I thought. Then, also on the outskirts of the respectable town, in the darkness, he meets Lydia and fulfills his destiny.

Pedgift and Columbo. Missed that, but you are right. It is a perfect vignette.

The MOOC on the Country House, and especially the part on close readings, has got me hunting down passages in Armadale. A close reading of the chapter "Mrs. Milroy" has many, as, seemingly, do many others. In the chapter "Mrs Milroy" the paragraph beginning "The assistance of the nurse ... " is, to my mind, fascinating. The repetition of the word "greed" the use of the word "feed" to echo it, the juxtaposition of the words "ugly" and "fine" the assonance of the letter "s" and other bits turn the rather short paragraph into a delightful, if distressing, character analysis of the nurse and Mrs. Milroy.

Sorry, but I'm a Luddite and don't know how to import material from texts into my comments.

Peter - I've been using the Project Gutenberg website to copy and paste text from Armadale to my comments. You can find it here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1895/1...

If you want to put that text in italics, you just type an "i" (for italic) enclosed in < > at the beginning and "/ i " (meaning "stop italics") also enclosed with < > at the end. No quotation marks.

Your textual analysis is wonderful. I often wonder how much of this type of language use is intentional and previously thought-out by authors, and how much just happens because they are naturally good writers. With poetry, I would assume it's all entirely intentional, since poems are such intense and economical pieces of text. But with lengthy prose à la Collins?

Bashwood is an interesting character, somewhat of a poor man's Allan.

I keep picking up references to Lydia Gwilt as snake-like. In "Pengift's Postscript" we are told that Gwilt's anger is "of the cool, still venomous kind". Gwilt certainly holds Dashwood under her power.

In the chapter "The Martyrdom of Miss Gwilt" she turns her charms and attentions towards Midwinter. "The woman who had tyrannized over Bashwood was gone" writes Collins "and the woman who had tossed the spy's hat into the pool was gone. A timid, shrinking, interesting creature filled the fair skin, and trembled on the symmetrical limbs of Miss Gwilt."

I think Collins's use of the phrase "interesting creature" is important. Lydia Gwilt seems to be able to change shape and dimension at will. Almost like Darwin's cryptic colourization, Gwilt can both blend in and be bold within her environment. She is both an interesting and a dangerous creature.

Pip wrote: "Peter - I've been using the Project Gutenberg website to copy and paste text from Armadale to my comments. You can find it here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1895/1...

If you want t..."

Thank you Pip for the information. I do appreciate it. The fact that I'm using a computer rather than a quill pen is one giant leap for humankind. Someday perhaps I'll take the next step ;-)

Peter wrote: "The fact that I'm using a computer rather than a quill pen is one giant leap for humankind. Someday perhaps I'll take the next step ;-)"

I'm sure you'll appreciate this then: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-Sj...

Pip wrote: "Peter wrote: "The fact that I'm using a computer rather than a quill pen is one giant leap for humankind. Someday perhaps I'll take the next step ;-)"

I'm sure you'll appreciate this then: https:/..."

Pip

This is much closer to the truth than you might believe. ;-)

I forgot to comment earlier in this thread about the chapter "On The Brink Of Discovery" and in particular about the description and inhabitants of the premises in Pimlico occupied by Mrs Manderville (Oldershaw) and Doctor Downward.

"Buildings have their physiognomy—especially buildings in great cities—and the face of this house was essentially furtive in its expression. The front windows were all shut, and the front blinds were all drawn down. It looked no larger than the other houses in the street, seen in front; but it ran back deceitfully and gained its greater accommodation by means of its greater depth. It affected to be a shop on the ground-floor; but it exhibited absolutely nothing in the space that intervened between the window and an inner row of red curtains, which hid the interior entirely from view. At one side was the shop door, having more red curtains behind the glazed part of it, and bearing a brass plate on the wooden part of it, inscribed with the name of "Oldershaw." On the other side was the private door, with a bell marked Professional; and another brass plate, indicating a medical occupant on this side of the house, for the name on it was, "Doctor Downward." If ever brick and mortar spoke yet, the brick and mortar here said plainly, "We have got our secrets inside, and we mean to keep them."

We already know something of Mrs Oldershaw from her correspondence with Miss Gwilt. Mrs O was probably based on the real-life Madame Rachel - a con-artist who ran a beauty salon for high-ranking and high-paying ladies of the day. For basic background info see here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah... but if you Google Madame Rachel, there's a wealth of information on her.

Doctor Downward is a newcomer to the story; did everyone else also assume he was an abortionist? The description of him, the description of the building from which he operates and of course the name itself leave only a little to the imagination.

What a pair.

Pip wrote: "I forgot to comment earlier in this thread about the chapter "On The Brink Of Discovery" and in particular about the description and inhabitants of the premises in Pimlico occupied by Mrs Mandervil..."

The interplay of real people, blurred into fictional characters, is always fascinating to me. One of the joys of reading the Victorian authors is the fact that the 19C was the first century where notes, records, newspapers and the like still survive in great abundance and thus allow researchers the opportunity to have a field day mining all the corners of the century. 21C readers get to enjoy the facts and esoteric bits and pieces that the 19C authors incorporated into their work.

I'm sure somewhere there is a university student/professor searching for who Collins was thinking about or reading about who then became Dr. Downward.

Yes, I definitely got that impression of him. Also, quackery. I suspect he has not graduated from a medical school.

Peter wrote: "I'm sure somewhere there is a university student/professor searching for who Collins was thinking about or reading about who then became Dr. Downward."

No doubt whatsoever! I did find a lengthy extract in Google Books about Victorian doctors in fiction, which I will quote at a later date in order to avoid potential spoilers. Lydia Gwilt is also thought to be based on a real person, but I'll save that til the end for the same reason :-)

Renee wrote: "Yes, I definitely got that impression of him. Also, quackery. I suspect he has not graduated from a medical school."

LOL! Downward MD. Probably not.

I love the term "quackery" and "quack doctor" but had never researched the etymology until you brought it up.
Wikipedia says: "The word quack derives from the archaic word quacksalver, of Dutch origin (spelled kwakzalver in contemporary Dutch), literally meaning "hawker of salve". In the Middle Ages the word quack meant "shouting". The quacksalvers sold their wares on the market shouting in a loud voice."

Of course, detractors would say that Wikipedia itself is "quack knowledge", but the above sounds likely. If my Oxford Dictionary of Etymology says anything radically different, I'll get back to you once I've been bothered to heave it off the shelf.

Also, I think "kwakzalver" is going to be my new superior person's insult. It sounds shockingly worse than it actually is.

Pip wrote: "Peter wrote: "I'm sure somewhere there is a university student/professor searching for who Collins was thinking about or reading about who then became Dr. Downward."

No doubt whatsoever! I did fin..."

I imagine Collins and his good friend Charles Dickens had a field day as they moved in, around and about their rich variety of friends and acquaintances. Then, rubbing their hands and sparking their brains, out came such wonderful "fictional" characters.