Blast!

[ithildin]

I can't use 'Plain Jane' or 'Snowballs' chance in hell'. Plain Jane is from 1910, and Snowball's is from 1931. Real bummer too, since those are the sorts of expressions you can just imagine Grisham using.

[sighs dramatically]

(and totally unrelated: where is everyone today?)

Comments

[mzlizzy.livejournal.com]

The Spanish were very proper in Spain, but if you look at letters of the period you'll see that they didn't expect the same sort of behavior away from Court.

Tessa keeps her respectability because of having Marta there to be her maid/chaperon, and when she's in public she is often in the company of married women who, regardless of their age, are de facto chaperons. She is also never alone with a man who's reputation would put her at risk.

While Dr. Helm lives alone it would be perfectly consistent with his character for him to have a local woman come in and clean for him, and do his laundry. Even if he is capable of taking care of himself this is a way for him to help out at least one individual without it being outright charity.

I'd have him insisting that his sister have a maid both for respectability and as a way to help out a local girl. His sister might see it as a drain on his pocket as well as a leash on her behavior and so argue against it.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

There was an essay I came across a few weeks back called Women and Power in Alta California. It mentioned how shocked men coming form Europe were to see women riding like men and herding cattle on their ranches. Women in the west in general had more freedom than their counterparts in more 'civilized' areas.

[mzlizzy.livejournal.com]

Exactly why some women preferred the freedom of the 'uncivilized' areas -- not nearly as many constraints on their behavior!

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I'd be there! My great grandmother was the first white woman to settle in the Bulkley Valley area of Northern B.C., so I hope I'd be as daring as she was in similar circumstances [g]