Aaahh, this sounds lovely. I adore the first quote you give, very nice. And the one of Jubilee with the violin--beautiful!
It's wonderfully written! All of Garfield's books have been good at period language, but this one is particularly exuberant. It dives in and out of poetry and gossip. I wish I thought the paperback were likelier to turn up in used book stores.
Why was Young Nick concerned about a dowry for his sister when she was only nine?
The received wisdom of the adult world has gievn him to understand that it's something to worry about and no ten-year-old thinks of themselves as a child. Jubilee has gold rings in her ears; they were a present from a traveller woman who called them her dowry. "Husbands is like trout, so you'll need to bait your hook with something tasty and bright!" Young Nick has fretted ever since that the meager gold of the earrings won't be enough to compensate for Jubilee running wild without cooking or sewing or reading or writing, whence much of the impetus for an education in the first place. The novel notices the attitudes that children absorb from adults, the phrases or ideas that they are exposed to and echo, or sometimes learn to reject. Young Nick has a lot to disentangle.
(Love "The Rigs of the Time," too. Good song.)
I am pretty sure I learned it from Bellowhead, who almost certainly learned it from Bellamy. Relevant since the eighteenth century!
no subject
It's wonderfully written! All of Garfield's books have been good at period language, but this one is particularly exuberant. It dives in and out of poetry and gossip. I wish I thought the paperback were likelier to turn up in used book stores.
Why was Young Nick concerned about a dowry for his sister when she was only nine?
The received wisdom of the adult world has gievn him to understand that it's something to worry about and no ten-year-old thinks of themselves as a child. Jubilee has gold rings in her ears; they were a present from a traveller woman who called them her dowry. "Husbands is like trout, so you'll need to bait your hook with something tasty and bright!" Young Nick has fretted ever since that the meager gold of the earrings won't be enough to compensate for Jubilee running wild without cooking or sewing or reading or writing, whence much of the impetus for an education in the first place. The novel notices the attitudes that children absorb from adults, the phrases or ideas that they are exposed to and echo, or sometimes learn to reject. Young Nick has a lot to disentangle.
(Love "The Rigs of the Time," too. Good song.)
I am pretty sure I learned it from Bellowhead, who almost certainly learned it from Bellamy. Relevant since the eighteenth century!