Armadale (Collins, 1866)
From Commonplace Book
- Allan's dream (vision?): Allan falls asleep and dreams of a drowning man, followed by three other visions: the shadow of a woman by a pool at sunset; the shadow of a man with a broken statue; and a man and woman passing him a glass, after which he faints.
- 155-169 "Lurking Mischief" chapter uses the technology of the penny post (from 1839 according to sutherland) to keep the plotting between Lydia and Mrs Oldershaw moving fast
- 169-70 description of Thorpe-Ambrose as specifically unromantic and not at all gothic (modern, in fact) - AA thinks it will calm Midwinter's nerves
- 169 he mentions midwinter writing to Brock - the narrative interplay between fragments (letters) and diegesis
- 178 Maj Milroy talks about the risks of advertising for a governess -- the other end of the problem of Jane Eyre (1848) advertising
- 183 the respectable middle class library: Waverly, Maria Edgeworth, Felicia Hemans
- 190 the town's sniffiness about Armadale's arrival is at least in part one between time scheme's: Allen's busy penny post modernity vs the formal slowness of town life welcoming the squire as of old
- 200-1 Allen exposes a nice vein of country petit bourgeois snobbery
- 206-8 Letters between the Milroys indicating that Lydia is inbound as governess and from Brock spying on Gwilt and Oldershaw
- fill in
- 235 Bashwood's son is Oldershaw's private investigator
- 239 midwinter's pocketbook of papers a textual model of the narrative
- fill in
- 284-5 "I have been proved not to be myself"
- then Lydia's caustic anti-bourgeois description of Allan and Eleanor, but also playing the role of dutiful daughter better than the latterj
- 302-3 Midwinter's indecision about leaving a good example of collins' focus on characterization here -- we get much less inferiority in Marian Halcombe
- 305 Allan thinks he's seeing the fulfillment of the second part of the vision as Midwinter departs
- 312 "the age we live in is an age which finds no human creature inexcusable" (abt Mrs milroy) -- unclear if this form of Victorian modernity is more or less sympathetic
- 318 an actual scene of an envelope being steamed open as Mrs milroy arms herself to take down Lydia
- 331 "I am a great sufferer" -- Mrs milroy quite a different type of invalid than Frederick Fairlie in Woman in White, more cunning, "unscrupulous ingenuity"
- 333 interesting form -- Allan talking to himself while writing a letter, the writing in prentheses
- 345 it would appear that the house where Lydia's reference was sent from is a brothel
- 348 Pedgift suggests going to the Great exhibition with Allan (and talks about dabbling in Latin "from a crib" book)