Princess Napraxine Read Along
Nov. 17th, 2024 05:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34Link to Volume 3 and Reading Schedule
Chapters 37-41 pgs 115-225
Nadine and Yseulte: more than once the text compares them to Circe and Penelope, respectively (which is an interesting comparison because Penelope wins in the end, yet Ouida suggests with these comparisons that Penelope is an out-moded style of womanhood that can no longer function in this new, modern age). Nadine feels this bizarre mixture of pity, sincere admiration, and malice towards Yseulte. Yseulte is in constant fear of encountering her in society where Nadine kills her with kindness and makes her look a fool; Yseulte keeps her unhappiness a secret, but she is deeply depressed. Alain and Cri-Cri can see what's going on; while Cri-Cri thinks Yseulte has it made with a rich husband who lets her entirely alone, Alain elects to torment her.
Nadine: she only accepts flowers as gifts and lets them all die in the cold in a fit of pique (call back to Yseulte not realizing the hothouse flowers would be destroyed in the cold overnight in the church in volume one). Othmar sends her simple nosegay of flowers she wanted when faced with all the fancy ones. She's beginning to realize that she's missing something in her life, that her coldness and lack of passion are keeping her from experiencing Something More (could it be love?) (175). She mentions again her repulsion for sex and maternity (175). Othmar is her big what-if; she has started to ask herself what would have happened if she'd gone with him or at least agreed to some sort of realtionship.
Platon: tries to give Nadine a gift, and she feels a brief pang of conscience but not really.
Geraldine (Ralph): dies at 30 on an ice floe off the coast of Canada. Nadine is sorry but not deeply; she's annoyed that she'll also be blamed for his death. Her father's death is the only time she's truly experienced sorrow. She has a nightmare of Ralph's death. His sister, Evelyn, writes Nadine a pretty pointedly truthful letter about Nadine's behavior and her culpability in Ralph's death and cuts off their friendship. Nadine is somewhat sorry to lose her friendship but won't admit any guilt.
MISC: Gil Blas is a novel with content that would not have been considered suitable for children.
Chapters 37-41 pgs 115-225
Nadine and Yseulte: more than once the text compares them to Circe and Penelope, respectively (which is an interesting comparison because Penelope wins in the end, yet Ouida suggests with these comparisons that Penelope is an out-moded style of womanhood that can no longer function in this new, modern age). Nadine feels this bizarre mixture of pity, sincere admiration, and malice towards Yseulte. Yseulte is in constant fear of encountering her in society where Nadine kills her with kindness and makes her look a fool; Yseulte keeps her unhappiness a secret, but she is deeply depressed. Alain and Cri-Cri can see what's going on; while Cri-Cri thinks Yseulte has it made with a rich husband who lets her entirely alone, Alain elects to torment her.
Nadine: she only accepts flowers as gifts and lets them all die in the cold in a fit of pique (call back to Yseulte not realizing the hothouse flowers would be destroyed in the cold overnight in the church in volume one). Othmar sends her simple nosegay of flowers she wanted when faced with all the fancy ones. She's beginning to realize that she's missing something in her life, that her coldness and lack of passion are keeping her from experiencing Something More (could it be love?) (175). She mentions again her repulsion for sex and maternity (175). Othmar is her big what-if; she has started to ask herself what would have happened if she'd gone with him or at least agreed to some sort of realtionship.
Platon: tries to give Nadine a gift, and she feels a brief pang of conscience but not really.
Geraldine (Ralph): dies at 30 on an ice floe off the coast of Canada. Nadine is sorry but not deeply; she's annoyed that she'll also be blamed for his death. Her father's death is the only time she's truly experienced sorrow. She has a nightmare of Ralph's death. His sister, Evelyn, writes Nadine a pretty pointedly truthful letter about Nadine's behavior and her culpability in Ralph's death and cuts off their friendship. Nadine is somewhat sorry to lose her friendship but won't admit any guilt.
MISC: Gil Blas is a novel with content that would not have been considered suitable for children.
no subject
Date: 2024-11-17 11:51 pm (UTC)We also got a couple references to the story of Yseulte's namesake, in the context of how Yseulte herself falls short: Nadine is being compared to the sensual music of Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde, while Yseulte is compared to a Gregorian chant. An on the other hand, Baron Fritz says that Yseulte "she has no philtre of which she can make him drink" -- in the Tristan and Isolde legend Isolde carried a love potion intended for her bridegroom, but that she instead takes with Tristan (intentionally or accidentally, depending upon the version).
Good catch about the callback to the flowers dying of cold in volume 1!
I like Lady Brancepeth and hope she ges to come back into the picture, or at least that her letter will help put Nadine on a better path. And I also understand Nadine's perspective, and not wanting to admit guilt, because she's being held to an unreasonable standard by society -- she's not literally Circe, she's a 24-year-old woman.
I like what we get of Yseulte's interiority here, and the way that she judges Nadine and sees her as a monster feels very appropriate to an idealistic teenager like her.
Speculations for where this is going: I hope that Nadine will ultimately choose not to ruin Othmar's marriage. I think this will require appealing to her sense of heroism, and allowing her to feel that she's making a heroic sacrifice by giving up her own happiness for Othmar and Yseulte's. Nadine's problem with morality is that what it asks of women of her station is so boring, and I think she can be brought to do good if it is framed in a way that appeals to her (as in the case of Boganoff).
On the other hand Othmar's marriage is already in serious trouble! Given that divorce is not an option here, I think the best option for this couple would be for them to live apart for at least a few years and give the relationship another shot when Yseulte has had time to mature and Othmar has moved on from Nadine. The problem is that Yseulte is too noble and idealistic to abandon Othmar even if things were much worse than they currently are, and Othmar is too focused on playing the part of the perfect husband to realize that it's making Yseulte miserable. I think that the one thing that could get Yseulte to leave Othmar is if she felt that she had disgraced herself/her virtue had become compromised in some way such that she was no longer worthy of him -- then her sense of ancien regime nobility would make her feel it appropriate to retire to a quiet life in the countryside/a convent. Of course Yseulte would never get herself into such a situation on purpose! But I think that Alain might make trouble for her...
Nadine and Platon however would probably benefit from a more permanent separation -- in particular I think it might be good for Nadine if she were cast out from aristocratic society and left on her own to ride horses to her heart's content.
no subject
Date: 2024-11-20 12:25 pm (UTC)Platon is too good for her. LOL I agree with you that a permanent separation would be good for them both, but Nadine would never agree to that because it would be a scandal of a sort and she'd consider it vulgar.
I think that Othmar and Yseulte's biggest problem is that they never talk to each other honestly. If she could admit to him that she's unhappy and why and if he could admit to her his feelings for Nadine, I think they might lance the wound and work toward something together. Or at least if Yseulte could bring herself to confide in Fritz.
Alain is such a shit. He's so predatory and vengeful.