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Princess Napraxine Read Along
Link to Volume 2 and Reading Schedule
Chapters 26-28 pages 207-253 and Chapters 29-31 pages 254-320
More commentary on animals: Nadine doesn't eat birds and says to do so is barbaric; this is in line with Ouida's actual convictions. Melville anthropomorphizes quails, which is a tactic Ouida uses in her non-fiction animal activist essays, and the writer whose life Nadine saves is described as being in sympathy with the poor and with animals who are suffering.
Nadine: Melville compares her to the vivisectors of the time; this is an enormous insult for Ouida who wrote numerous essays about the evils of vivisection. To compare Nadine to a vivisector, someone who performs experiments on living animals and often without anesthetic, is to highlight her cruelty. The novel draws a distinction between introspection and analysis for the purposes of becoming a better person and for the purposes of being cruel. Nadine says she prefers to wear a mask and for others to do so as well. Nadine is actually sorry and hurt at Boris's death (crying over his picture) while being angry and annoyed and refusing to accept any blame. She reflects that Othmar's suicide would have given her pleasure and pain. Nadine is described as sex-repulsed; her marriage night is painted as a "brutality of obligations" and "intolerable degradation" (251). The novel tells us she never grows to enjoy sex no matter how often she engages in it and she stops having it completely once she's got an heir and a spare. The novel even states that she hates the children she's borne of this violation. Nadine is periodically forced to return to Russia, so she goes to one of their remote estates and stays in isolation with Platon and her sons because of the whole Boris thing. Nadine believes she could be brave and self-sacrificial if she ever believed in anything, but she doesn't believe in Christianity. She doesn't believe in conscience either and makes an argument for the strength of heredity. I think at many points in the novel, Nadine just sounds depressed by our modern understanding. She can imagine a life where she spurs Othmar into ambition and great works as his wife; this is in line with Ouida's thesis that women have a great sphere of influence in the home (their husbands and sons) with which they should be doing more than they are before they start agitating for the vote. Then we get this amazing story of her flight across Siberia to save the life of a writer who has been deemed revolutionary. Through this story, Ouida champions the importance of writers and the power of poetry.
Boris: He commits suicide after losing at gambling to cover his real reason. Public opinion toward Nadine chills after this; the Empress even chides Nadine, and she claps back that her family and Platon's are older than the Empress's family and only gets away with it because she's Nadine.
Platon: Platon is very sad and blames Nadine for Boris's death. This section reveals that Platon is not as stupid as she thinks, that he understands her and has decided to accept her nature.
Sachs (age 5, Alexander) and Mitz (age 6, Demetrius)
Melville (age 60): He enjoys luxury, which the novel suggests is not incompatible with his sincere intellectual and spiritual life. Elsewhere in nonfiction essays, Ouida argues that luxury is not the problem; savoring beautiful things is just fine. It's the excess of them that becomes a problem. Nadine says she doesn't believe in happy people, and Melville counters with the story of the one perfectly happy person he's known, a servant to miserable people. This servant sticks by her employers even though they're awful to her. Nadine says she believes the story because the woman is like a snail, and Melville responds that "'a sustaining, vivifying force [exists] in duty . . . for those who accept it'" (289). Nadine counters that "'ignorance is at the bottom of all virtue'" (299).
Ralph (Geraldine): Nadine sends him home to manage his properties, cruelly telling him how much she finds him wanting. It's not evident in this novel, but this is something Ouida thinks is very important. She thinks that aristocrats spend way too much time abroad partying instead of at home managing their own estates. He ends up going to North America instead, though.
Yseulte: She has much more positive feelings about sex than Nadine. She enjoys it but also feels a sense of profanation; I think Ouida had very mixed feelings about sex, and I don't quite know how to interpret them here and in other novels. Yseulte thinks she won't change with exposure to the world (the world always means the social circles of aristocrats in Ouida's novels).
Othmar: Yseulte is his ideal. "She satisfied his taste if not his mind" (256). Othmar explains his money and power to Yseulte along with what he sees as the tainted way his ancestors amassed the Othmar fortune. He says the poor will always hate the rich, so no charity from him, but he will prevent his money from being used immorally to fund unjust wars. Othmar wishes he had the same ancestral claim to dying on the field of honor as Yseulte's ancestors, and Yseulte is happy to give it to him through their children. He's starting to get tired of being with her all the time. Othmar frames this weariness like she's so good that she makes him feel ashamed, but really he's bored and she's too young and innocent to be very interesting (not to mention he's still in love with someone else).
Misc: Revolution is in the air. Ouida, along with many other of her time, is concerned that England will follow in the footsteps of France, so she includes comments throughout all her works about the potential for lower classes to revolt against the aristocracy.
Chapters 26-28 pages 207-253 and Chapters 29-31 pages 254-320
More commentary on animals: Nadine doesn't eat birds and says to do so is barbaric; this is in line with Ouida's actual convictions. Melville anthropomorphizes quails, which is a tactic Ouida uses in her non-fiction animal activist essays, and the writer whose life Nadine saves is described as being in sympathy with the poor and with animals who are suffering.
Nadine: Melville compares her to the vivisectors of the time; this is an enormous insult for Ouida who wrote numerous essays about the evils of vivisection. To compare Nadine to a vivisector, someone who performs experiments on living animals and often without anesthetic, is to highlight her cruelty. The novel draws a distinction between introspection and analysis for the purposes of becoming a better person and for the purposes of being cruel. Nadine says she prefers to wear a mask and for others to do so as well. Nadine is actually sorry and hurt at Boris's death (crying over his picture) while being angry and annoyed and refusing to accept any blame. She reflects that Othmar's suicide would have given her pleasure and pain. Nadine is described as sex-repulsed; her marriage night is painted as a "brutality of obligations" and "intolerable degradation" (251). The novel tells us she never grows to enjoy sex no matter how often she engages in it and she stops having it completely once she's got an heir and a spare. The novel even states that she hates the children she's borne of this violation. Nadine is periodically forced to return to Russia, so she goes to one of their remote estates and stays in isolation with Platon and her sons because of the whole Boris thing. Nadine believes she could be brave and self-sacrificial if she ever believed in anything, but she doesn't believe in Christianity. She doesn't believe in conscience either and makes an argument for the strength of heredity. I think at many points in the novel, Nadine just sounds depressed by our modern understanding. She can imagine a life where she spurs Othmar into ambition and great works as his wife; this is in line with Ouida's thesis that women have a great sphere of influence in the home (their husbands and sons) with which they should be doing more than they are before they start agitating for the vote. Then we get this amazing story of her flight across Siberia to save the life of a writer who has been deemed revolutionary. Through this story, Ouida champions the importance of writers and the power of poetry.
Boris: He commits suicide after losing at gambling to cover his real reason. Public opinion toward Nadine chills after this; the Empress even chides Nadine, and she claps back that her family and Platon's are older than the Empress's family and only gets away with it because she's Nadine.
Platon: Platon is very sad and blames Nadine for Boris's death. This section reveals that Platon is not as stupid as she thinks, that he understands her and has decided to accept her nature.
Sachs (age 5, Alexander) and Mitz (age 6, Demetrius)
Melville (age 60): He enjoys luxury, which the novel suggests is not incompatible with his sincere intellectual and spiritual life. Elsewhere in nonfiction essays, Ouida argues that luxury is not the problem; savoring beautiful things is just fine. It's the excess of them that becomes a problem. Nadine says she doesn't believe in happy people, and Melville counters with the story of the one perfectly happy person he's known, a servant to miserable people. This servant sticks by her employers even though they're awful to her. Nadine says she believes the story because the woman is like a snail, and Melville responds that "'a sustaining, vivifying force [exists] in duty . . . for those who accept it'" (289). Nadine counters that "'ignorance is at the bottom of all virtue'" (299).
Ralph (Geraldine): Nadine sends him home to manage his properties, cruelly telling him how much she finds him wanting. It's not evident in this novel, but this is something Ouida thinks is very important. She thinks that aristocrats spend way too much time abroad partying instead of at home managing their own estates. He ends up going to North America instead, though.
Yseulte: She has much more positive feelings about sex than Nadine. She enjoys it but also feels a sense of profanation; I think Ouida had very mixed feelings about sex, and I don't quite know how to interpret them here and in other novels. Yseulte thinks she won't change with exposure to the world (the world always means the social circles of aristocrats in Ouida's novels).
Othmar: Yseulte is his ideal. "She satisfied his taste if not his mind" (256). Othmar explains his money and power to Yseulte along with what he sees as the tainted way his ancestors amassed the Othmar fortune. He says the poor will always hate the rich, so no charity from him, but he will prevent his money from being used immorally to fund unjust wars. Othmar wishes he had the same ancestral claim to dying on the field of honor as Yseulte's ancestors, and Yseulte is happy to give it to him through their children. He's starting to get tired of being with her all the time. Othmar frames this weariness like she's so good that she makes him feel ashamed, but really he's bored and she's too young and innocent to be very interesting (not to mention he's still in love with someone else).
Misc: Revolution is in the air. Ouida, along with many other of her time, is concerned that England will follow in the footsteps of France, so she includes comments throughout all her works about the potential for lower classes to revolt against the aristocracy.