READING BREAK AT WASHINGTON SQUARE
I don’t trust people who don’t read.
Both Ella Shane and her cousin Tommy Hurley say it at different times in the series, and for them, it’s a simple statement of fact.
And there’s a very good reason for it.
Ella and Tommy, like many people of their time, are self-educated, mostly through reading. Finishing high school, never mind going on to college, was only for the well-off or very lucky. A couple of poor Lower East Side kids, even extraordinarily talented ones, would never have been able to afford it.
So they read.
Their shelves are heavy on history, letters of important people like Abigail and John Adams and Abraham Lincoln, and plenty of Shakespeare. It’s pretty much all the stuff you’d expect from a Western Civilization, American History, or English Literature class in their time, probably assembled with the help of some smart librarians and booksellers.
Real life people in their time, and long after, often educated themselves through reading. My grandfather, unable to attend college because he had to work to support his family, set himself a reading course that would put any syllabus to shame. For many people, well into the 20th century, familiarity with the “important” history and literature marked someone as a properly educated person.
Ella’s well aware of this, and it’s why, in her first long conversation with the Duke in A FATAL FINALE, she makes a couple of well-placed references to Donne and Milton. The Duke’s realization that this “theatre person” is actually a very well-read lady, and Ella’s enjoyment of discussing literature with him, is the moment that their courtship starts, even if neither realizes it.
That’s also classically Victorian.
Reading and discussing good books was a very appropriate way for couples to get to know each other. Books were one of the few acceptable gifts for them to exchange; a gentleman could not give a lady any number of things without an implied insult to her virtue, but an improving or classic book was always safe.
Book talk was also useful in long-distance courtships, like Ella and the Duke’s. It’s no accident that he spends a great deal of time writing about his current reading material, and only a few lines on sweet talk. Until they’re at least engaged, and really, preferably married, no respectable couple would put too much in writing.
(Illicit couples happily put it ALL in writing – which is why returning the letters was such a thing…but that’s another post for another day!)
You’ll notice that most of Ella and Tommy’s reading is either historical or classic literature, with very little of the fiction of their time. That’s also deliberate. Part of it is simply they prefer learning to diversion.
But that’s not the only issue. There’s still a prejudice against reading novels as a less-than-serious pursuit, and our strivers would never play into that.
For Ella, there’s also something a bit darker. Many of the popular tales of the time featured poor orphans made good in some way, with florid descriptions of the sad little urchin’s suffering to heighten the joy of their ultimate success.
Ella doesn’t need to read that. She’s lived it.
So don’t expect to see much fiction on the shelves at Washington Square…with one big exception. Ella and Tommy love Sherlock Holmes…and why not?
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
Both Ella Shane and her cousin Tommy Hurley say it at different times in the series, and for them, it’s a simple statement of fact.
And there’s a very good reason for it.
Ella and Tommy, like many people of their time, are self-educated, mostly through reading. Finishing high school, never mind going on to college, was only for the well-off or very lucky. A couple of poor Lower East Side kids, even extraordinarily talented ones, would never have been able to afford it.
So they read.
Their shelves are heavy on history, letters of important people like Abigail and John Adams and Abraham Lincoln, and plenty of Shakespeare. It’s pretty much all the stuff you’d expect from a Western Civilization, American History, or English Literature class in their time, probably assembled with the help of some smart librarians and booksellers.
Real life people in their time, and long after, often educated themselves through reading. My grandfather, unable to attend college because he had to work to support his family, set himself a reading course that would put any syllabus to shame. For many people, well into the 20th century, familiarity with the “important” history and literature marked someone as a properly educated person.
Ella’s well aware of this, and it’s why, in her first long conversation with the Duke in A FATAL FINALE, she makes a couple of well-placed references to Donne and Milton. The Duke’s realization that this “theatre person” is actually a very well-read lady, and Ella’s enjoyment of discussing literature with him, is the moment that their courtship starts, even if neither realizes it.
That’s also classically Victorian.
Reading and discussing good books was a very appropriate way for couples to get to know each other. Books were one of the few acceptable gifts for them to exchange; a gentleman could not give a lady any number of things without an implied insult to her virtue, but an improving or classic book was always safe.
Book talk was also useful in long-distance courtships, like Ella and the Duke’s. It’s no accident that he spends a great deal of time writing about his current reading material, and only a few lines on sweet talk. Until they’re at least engaged, and really, preferably married, no respectable couple would put too much in writing.
(Illicit couples happily put it ALL in writing – which is why returning the letters was such a thing…but that’s another post for another day!)
You’ll notice that most of Ella and Tommy’s reading is either historical or classic literature, with very little of the fiction of their time. That’s also deliberate. Part of it is simply they prefer learning to diversion.
But that’s not the only issue. There’s still a prejudice against reading novels as a less-than-serious pursuit, and our strivers would never play into that.
For Ella, there’s also something a bit darker. Many of the popular tales of the time featured poor orphans made good in some way, with florid descriptions of the sad little urchin’s suffering to heighten the joy of their ultimate success.
Ella doesn’t need to read that. She’s lived it.
So don’t expect to see much fiction on the shelves at Washington Square…with one big exception. Ella and Tommy love Sherlock Holmes…and why not?
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
No comments have been added yet.
