I have only read one Zola book, Germinal, but it also had the odd characteristic of being stuffed full of characters who are just awful and yet in some odd way I rooted for them too. (Well, Catherine isn't awful. But pretty much everyone else is.) Someday I should read Nana too.
I can only assume that Richard is super good-looking in a way that has blinded poor Hetty to all his other poor qualities. I sort of hope she remains in the dark, because it doesn't sound like it would be pleasant to wake up to the realization that one's spouse is a humorless late-Victorian prude who is convinced his insecurities are secretly virtues. Unfashionable virtues, to boot. He sounds completely armored from ever realizing that he might be in the wrong or need to change in any way.
He is completely armored, poor thing. Hetty likes him in part because he's so different from her, because she feels like maybe he can teach her something, and she's been raised to believe that marriage is a good way for girls to learn new things. And his nerdiness is appealing, too: Hetty's always a little torn between being horrified at his willingness to kill butterflies for his collection and impressed that he knows so much about nature. He has all these interests that her family doesn't have. But they just don't understand each other. Hetty keeps trying to do nice things for him and accidentally offending him instead. Poor Hetty. :(
Hey! What did you think of The Automatic Detective, speaking of detectives who aren't human in the traditional sense? I hope you've had time to relax a little in the midst of everything else.
Not much time, lol!! I had to finish up The Night Circus (library book), but I have just gotten back to TAD and I'm LOVING it! :D He just visited his shrink at her apartment and is weighing what he can and cannot do at this point. It is a fun read - thank you so much for sending it to me! :D
The vampire's name is Sally. No further spoilers, I won't even tell you which book. ;-) And yes, he does give them all jobs. Partly, though, it's a sneaky move, such as giving Reg Shoe a job when he comes to complain about treatment of zombies... Afterwards, guess who complains about HIM?
Aww, I'm so glad you liked Feet of Clay! It is great in so many ways & I'm happy to hear you thought so too. (I like the Patrician patiently waiting for Vimes to get to the solution to the mystery even though he's already worked it out.)
And Equal Rites will be a serious come-down from a middle-Pratchett; you might get whiplash. If you do, don't blame me, I said you don't really need to read that one first at all, just Wyrd Sisters. ;-p)
Aww, but I want to meet your Granny for the first time! Anyway, the library had neither that nor Wyrd Sisters nor Jingo, so I'm reading The Fifth Elephant instead.
When Vimes burned down the vampire genealogy library, I was like, but VIMES, genealogy isn't NECESSARILY a tool of social and political domination, what about lost_spook's newspapers?? But I saw his point all the same.
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I can only assume that Richard is super good-looking in a way that has blinded poor Hetty to all his other poor qualities. I sort of hope she remains in the dark, because it doesn't sound like it would be pleasant to wake up to the realization that one's spouse is a humorless late-Victorian prude who is convinced his insecurities are secretly virtues. Unfashionable virtues, to boot. He sounds completely armored from ever realizing that he might be in the wrong or need to change in any way.
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Read Nana! It's not long.
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And Equal Rites will be a serious come-down from a middle-Pratchett; you might get whiplash. If you do, don't blame me, I said you don't really need to read that one first at all, just Wyrd Sisters. ;-p)
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When Vimes burned down the vampire genealogy library, I was like, but VIMES, genealogy isn't NECESSARILY a tool of social and political domination, what about lost_spook's newspapers?? But I saw his point all the same.
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