Post by p***@gmail.comSo, I'm reading Renee Patrick's "Dangerous to Know" and find out that beautiful actress, Hedy Lamarr was a blooming genius! She invented Spread Spectrum Technology, used with Allied torpedoes in WWII and led to GPS and Wi-Fi. She also solved Howard Hughes problem with his airplane wings.
Dang, a woman has to appreciate brilliance in a woman who is also stunningly beautiful!
Pam J
I recently finished reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (1859).
The prime narrator (one interesting thing [of many] about this novel
is the use of multiple narrators), Walter Hartright early on describes
two half-sisters whom he has been contracted as drawing master. The
first one that he meets is Marian Halcombe, whom he describes as
dark-haired and good-looking until you get to her face, which is ugly.
But then she speaks and the intelligence, wit, sympathy and personality
emerge. The reader immediately feels engaged by her. Hartright does
not get to meet the other sister, Laura Fairlie, until the next day as
she is not feeling well when he arrives. When he does meet Laura, she
is blond and beautiful, but oh is she so weak. She lacks all of the
strengths that Marian has. Emotionally, she is a wreck just like all
the other Fairlies in the story. As the plot moves along, Hartright and
Marian conspire to keep bad news from Laura. At a critical point early
on, when given a chance to get out of marriage that she does not want,
she cannot even choose to act.
And, of course, like Ivanhoe, Hartright falls in love with the ditzy
blonde. But Collins is not content with this state of affairs. He has
Laura state, repeatedly, that she cannot live without Marian. And
indeed, she cannot. She is little more than a facade. Even Hartright
cannot achieve his objectives without Marian. She is the substance.
While the reader can only feel sympathy for Laura, love is not possible.
She would drive anyone crazy. Marian, on the other hand, is not just
likeable, but lovable.
By making them half-sisters, Collins may be playing with words.
Together, they may form his idea of one perfect woman: intelligent,
strong, personable, and beautiful, if, that is, you combine the
desirable aspects of each.
The Woman in White is a very interesting work. Predating The Moonstone
by 6 or 7 years, I would describe it as Jane Eyre meets the suspense
thriller, with international intrigue and all. It is not a mystery
novel, though there are mystery elements in it. On the domestic level,
it is a put-down of the arranged marriage concept. On the thriller
level, it is good on suspense, though thin on the intrigue.
One curious sidelight. When Hartright, an artist (painter) is
frustrated in love, he goes off on an expedition to Central America.
When Evelyn Waugh wrote Brideshead Revisited (1945), he has his
protagonist, Charles Ryder, also a painter, go off to Central America
when he is frustrated in love. I rather think that Waugh did that as a
silent tribute to Collins.
Francis A. Miniter