Part Two: Chapter 9 - 12

[Marie]

Begins with year 1369.

[Marie]

PLEASE USE SPOILER TAGS WHEN DISCUSSING A PLOT EVENT

[Misfit]

We've been doing a lot of buddy reads at the Mary Stewart group, and find it helpful to say what chapter has been finished and then the spoiler tag, so members can decide when it's safe to click or not to click.

[Marie]

Thanks Misfit!

[Marie]

I finished this part.. Anyone else make it this far? I am still in love with the book..

[MaryKatherine]

I've gotten this far, Marie.I'm absolutely in love with this book!

[Lucy]

Starting chapter 11- loving this book as well:)

[C.P.]

Here is where we get to talk about Blanche, no? (view spoiler)[I was sad that she died, even though it seemed almost a necessity if John and Katherine were to get together without coming off as complete sleazes. (hide spoiler)] Such a great lady, the epitome of 14th-century chivalric love. Not quite real, maybe, but a perfect type, very sweet, and unfailingly kind to our heroine.

[MaryKatherine]

Oooh Blanche. (view spoiler)[ I couldn't help but love her character as well. Usually, overly perfect characters like hers tend to annoy me and bring out my feminist side (haha), but I think because Blanche was so wonderful to Katherine, and so selfless, she was just a very likable character. I was very sorry when she died and I had mixed feelings--I was so glad that now, finally, Katherine and John could express their love openly, but disappointed because John lost a beautiful, sweet wife whom he definitely missed...but not enough to leave Katherine alone :) (hide spoiler)]

[Kathleen]

For me, Blanche was more a symbol than a woman. Or better yet, a not so subtle contrast between arranged and true love. John loves her, but it's almost from a distance. Her pale perfection creates a distance between John and Blanche that their obvious affection cannot overcome. Personally, and I can almost hear the boos now (I feel like Simon Cowell) (view spoiler)[ I was appalled at John's near seduction of Katherine almost atop Blanche's bier. I can see it from Katherine's point, he's spectacular and she's been enduring a loveless marriage, but from his it seems a bit abrupt. Yeah, Katherine is gorgeous and his ultimate true love, but Blanche, his former true love, is barely cold! Even as a hopelessly romantic, and clueless, fifteen year old, I found it jarring. Forty years later I still think there should have been more build up. (hide spoiler)]

That being said, dear lord, how I love Anya Seton's descriptions. (view spoiler)[ The fog, the forest, the plague, the revellers, Blanche's death, John's grief, the near seduction, and the pursuit of Katherine by John's men. (hide spoiler)] So evocative and so romantic. When I read it, I'm fifteen again, and in love with the grandeur of their love.

[MaryKatherine]

I agree with you, Kathy. (view spoiler)[ I seem to remember a certain part of the book not too far ahead from this part (I can't recall a specific page) when John is musing about his relationship with Katherine and comparing it to his with Blanche. He thinks about how there was a calm politeness between him and Blanche, and how there is none of that with Katherine--it is just passionate love. (hide spoiler)]

Also, the way the entire scene is laid out (view spoiler)[ just as you described, with the yellow fog and the revelers...I read this part before and it is HAUNTING. This is the scene from the first half of the book that I remember the most clearly. Seton created an air of anarchy and desperation with her scene at the Savoy. I love it! (hide spoiler)]

[Kathleen]

MaryKate,

I knew I stole it from somewhere. :o)

I think the thing that has always bothered me about Blanche's portrayal is that it is so bland. Here was a woman loved by two of the most intriguing men of their times, yet she comes across as little more than a barely animated statue of a saint. At least to me. I understand that an author has to make choices and that this is Katherine's love story, not Blanche's, still I find myself wishing she would have given Blanche's character a little more depth.

[MaryKatherine]

I agree with you Kathy :). I actually think C.P. hit the nail on the head when she wrote, "Such a great lady, the epitome of 14th-century chivalric love. Not quite real, maybe, but a perfect type, very sweet, and unfailingly kind to our heroine." Blanche seems to be the perfect portrait of chivalric love, or a porcelain doll that is supposed to portray all that is expected of the perfect woman during that time.

[C.P.]

Blanche reminds me of Melanie, in Gone With the Wind. Either the chivalric image of a lady fits her personality, or she has internalized the image to the point where it has become her personality.

Clearly, I am no lady, ;-) because I always wanted Melanie to haul off and smack Scarlett upside the head at least once. But here I find Blanche refreshing, if bland—not least because so many of the characters are anything but kind. True for the times, I know, but Blanche made a nice change. I have the sense that she's a character you could adore rather than love, like a saint or an ideal, as you say.

[M]

C.P. wrote: "Blanche reminds me of Melanie, in Gone With the Wind. Either the chivalric image of a lady fits her personality, or she has internalized the image to the point where it has become her personality.
..."

I agree on bland Blanche. I felt that Melanie had a little more personality than Blanche, but Melanie is more present in Gone with the Wind than Blanche is in Katherine. Blanche is rather flat and seemingly without a single imperfection. I typically dislike seeing those two characteristics together because it makes her too good to be true, but it appears Blanche is supposed to be idealized by all.