"The only practical thing for the world was the emancipation of woman from the thraldom of her tyrant, man."

SO MUCH to talk about in this section, so little time.* SO MUCH SCANDAL AND OTHER GENERAL SHOCKING THINGS, cue leftover WILKIE readalong gif:

 Ok, the way I sees it, there are three majorly important things to talk about from this section:

1. Lady Dedlock and her 'secret': Ok, I'm feeling totally smug about this one because GASP, Lady Dedlock is Esther's mother? WHO KNEW? Oh yeah, that was ME. Vindication feels so good. I hate that Guppy is seemingly going to blackmail her (is he, like, going to say that he'll reveal her as Esther's mother unless she makes Esther marry him? Cause how is that going to work?) and that's how we found out, but I love being right. I actually fist pumped when I read that, so yeah.
2. This weird disease: So poor, poor Jo caught some kind of strange illness, then Charley (oh! Charley. God bless Mr. Jarndyce and his wonderfulness) caught it and it's apparently going to disfigure her, and then Esther caught it and it made her blind? WHAT IS THIS, THIS IS NOT A REAL ILLNESS.** I'm assuming Esther is going to pull through the blindness because she's writing a book but who knows, maybe she's just dictating it to someone.
3. Mr. Krook spontaneously combusted: But seriously, what am I even reading?! What is this?! I think this is important, not to the plot in any way, but in knowing that Dickens was a great believer in spontaneous combustion TO THE EXTENT that he included it in his book to make a point. And I can't overstate how gross I found the whole 'the air smells fatty' thing that preceded it, because ewwwww.

And yes, it is true that these are all events from the parts of the novel I have read today, but that doesn't make them any less important. Let us also discuss the fact that, for a moment there, when she was talking about Mr. Woodcourt's mother, I thought Esther might be straight, but then she went and shattered that illusion with sentiments like this:

"I wrote her a long letter, saying that she made me anxious and unhappy, and imploring her, as she loved me, and wished my mind to be at peace, to come no nearer than the garden. After that, she came beneath the window, even oftener than she had come to the door; and, if I had learnt to love her dear sweet voice before when we were hardly ever apart, how did I learn to love it then." 

If anyone marries at the end of this book but Esther and Ada, I'm going to be so annoyed...

Right, what else is there? I think I might be in love with Mrs Snagsby just because she's an incredibly ridiculous person ('my husband is doing something I don't know about. THAT PEASANT BOY MUST BE HIS SON!' and so on), I think Hortense might be a little bit gay for Esther: "I will serve you well. You don't know how well!", and I think Mrs Jellyby needs to be slapped just a tiny bit. Or at least to go back in time and be sterilised before she had any children. WHY DOESN'T SHE CARE HER DAUGHTER IS GETTING MARRIED, YOU CAN CARE ABOUT MORE THAN ONE THING AT ONCE OMG.

Important questions:

• Will Esther ever regain her sight?
• Will Lady Dedlock ever not be bored by everything?
• What exactly is the difference between Mr Tulkinghorn and Mr Turveydrop and why do they confuse me so much?
• Will Mr Bucket come back, because I liked him and the diamond brooch he apparently wears?
• Will I even finish the chapters before Tuesday evening?

Only time will tell, dear ones!

 

*because I want to watch some Breaking Bad and other general non-Dickens things and it's already practically 10pm.
**Ok, apparently it's smallpox? Which sounds pretty nasty, glad I don't have that one. Yeah.