7 Respostas2026-03-19
Just here to read comments. Still trying to process the entire series myself which I finished last week. Some of these analyses are really great, especially in terms of how they approach thematic closure. I’ll probably just read everything and then form my own solid opinions on everything later.
3 Respostas2026-03-15
There is a lot of debate on this issue, but in terms of storyline for ‘Courting Miss Lancaster’, a traditional Regency romance would end with the two main characters having a ‘scene’ where all is cleared up and they declare their love for each other. The story would then end with them possibly getting married and ensuring the heroine’s happiness and the ‘reformed’ rake’s happiness too. I have a play with an unexpected match in it too – ‘You’ve Got the Wrong Woman, Mr. Lance’. This plays with mistaken identity but in a very different, chaotic, modern way. The female lead in this play was accidentally hired as a fake girlfriend by the grumpy CEO of the company she’s been hired by his company to work for. The resulting storyline follows the two of them and their absurd, chaotic, annoying and charming interactions, culminating in forced cohabitation and lots of bickering but also lots of accidental charm.
2 Respostas2026-02-21
After 300 pages or so of this novel, in which Colette has created her own life from scratch and been so meticulous in forging documents and copying her sister’s handwriting to a tee, she gets hit with karma in the most understated of ways. Her ‘niece’ (the daughter of the woman she married before switching identities with her sister) recognizes her from an old lullaby that Colette used to sing to her. There are no villains, no arrests. The novel ends with Colette parked outside her ‘niece’s’ school in her car. She is weighing up whether to get back in the car and go home, or whether to go in and introduce herself. The ending is brilliant for a number of reasons. Firstly, it mirrors Colette’s original choice to create a new identity for herself and leaves her at another crossroads in her life, this time with the weight of adulthood on her shoulders. Secondly, it’s left with the engine of her car running, literally and metaphorically.
3 Respostas2026-01-13
At the end of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall the two stories that have comprised the novel of Helen Greaves as mysterious Tenant of Wildfell Hall and as diary-writer of her own devastating past are perfectly merged in a highly successful climax to the plot. The legal bars to freedom removed by Arthur Huntingdon’s death, it is left to Gilbert Markham to win Helen to marriage as a partner in every sense of the word, full recognition of her own great intellect and of the traumas she has undergone. And in the final drawing of the two of them together while their little son plays about in the background, Helen Greaves the woman and artist of deep power, is conquered and remains to conquer. Her art is her own.
8 Respostas2026-05-31
Someone should write up the visual symbolism of the final chapter of our story here. Rather than recapping the plot, one could focus on how the artist handled the ‘loss of genius’ to our protagonist. As his memories fade, the artwork surrounding him shifts in subtle but telling ways. Lines that were once excessively detailed and hard to the point of being almost grotesque, now are ‘softened.’ Panals that once were overcrowded with hyper-clarity and minute detail to the point of being almost cartoonish are now less crowded. And instead of the technical diagrams for building, he’s shown in simple environments with a focus on the human in front of him. The expression in his eyes, which were always excessively focused in an unnatural way, are now simply tired but peaceful. All of this to say that the ending is good. The artwork sells the moment as being quietly melancholy but hopeful.
5 Respostas2026-03-25
I spent ten minutes or so staring at the wall after finishing The Comfort of Strangers. That ending is dreadful, but in a very specific and painful way. Robert’s obsessive desire for Colin is finally fulfilled in a murder of unforeisclosed kind (is it a knife? hands?) but it is the fate of Mary that is perhaps most disturbing. Is she dead or not? She seems completely broken or resigned but you can’t quite tell. What is disturbing and even horrible about this is how believable it all is. Any of us could take a wrong turn and end up here.
10 Respostas2026-07-26
It totally depends on the edition. My copy of Thrift Edition (Dover) is 96 pages thick. Barnes & Noble Classics Edition, for example, is roughly 160 pages in length due to the additional essays and introductions, usually included in B&N editions. So if you are buying this for a class, please check the ISBN with your professor to avoid referencing wrong page numbers for rest of the semester.
Short but powerful. The intensity of the book outweighs its small physical size. You can finish it in a day or two but it will linger with you for weeks.
12 Respostas2025-12-19
None (I probably would've hated the ending anyway). I stopped reading somewhere in the 80% range of completion. The angst in this book is SOOOOOO good, but then the mystery starts to unravel and I just KNEW he was going to get forgiven for SOME noble reason or another. And I don't want to read a rejected mate story where the heroine gets forgiven by her mate for his mistakes. No. I want her to find another, better, mate. Or for her to be stronger than that and end up thriving on her own, without any male influence in her life whatsoever. This book didn't quite go that route, I felt it was going to end up with a lot of reconciliation in the end, so...no. Just not my flavor of polite, nice-y-nice romance. I'm sure others will enjoy it, though.
8 Respostas2026-01-13
For me, the end of the book was surprisingly cold. I was expecting some kind of scene or reveal but instead, the novel just sort of meandered to a close. Antoine’s confessional to his wife didn’t have the kind of impact I felt it needed to after the long build up. His admission to walk into the storm seemed to be a moment that was going to be particularly powerful given how the rest of the novel has explored his anxious head, but in reality it was kind of a non-event. The novel was a slow, psychological burn but it seemed to fizzle out rather than have some kind of revelatory moment or dramatic confrontation. It would have been interesting to read more of the wife’s reaction to the impossible knowledge that Antoine had shared with her. As it was, the novel sort of cut away from the scene and we were left in the dark as to how she really felt. It was a disappointment. The rest of the book was excellent but this conclusion did not have the same impact on me as it seems to have had on many other readers.
9 Respostas2026-03-19
I haven't finished mine yet. I'm currently reading the part with the big council meeting. As I'm trying to avoid spoilers in this minefield of a thread, I can only rely on the reactions here. Apparently, it’s either going to be a masterpiece or a letdown – no in-between, it seems. I’m very fascinated by the passion of both camps. For now, I’ll just read on and see where I end up. The journey so far has been very good anyway.