The Perpetual Curate

[osprey_archer]

I finished Margaret Oliphant’s The Perpetual Curate, so three cheers for that! All in all, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Miss Marjoribanks, in large part because the eponymous curate, Frank Wentworth, is not nearly as taking a character as Lucilla Marjoribanks. In fact, by the end of the book I felt quite aggravated with him.

The plot relies heavily on that deeply aggravating plot device - which is, unfortunately, very common in nineteenth-century novels - wherein the hero is accused of some crime (absconding with a shopkeeper’s niece Rosa, in this case) and indignantly refuses to even try to exculpate himself, because how DARE they even suspect him!

Of course Wentworth is innocent (the hero is always innocent; it's always terribly unfair that he's suspected). But it’s hard for me not to imagine a guilty person taking refuge in the same rhetoric about how his accusers are IMPUGNING his HONOR as a GENTLEMAN by even suspecting that he would make off with a shopkeeper’s niece, and using this as an excuse to undermine the investigation at every turn.

And there's a nasty undercurrent of impatience in Wentworth's attitude toward Rosa's disappearance: it's not just that he's annoyed to be suspected, which is fair enough, but he clearly doesn't care very much that Rosa has disappeared and is irritated that he's being forced to pay attention to something so unimportant. She might be dead in the canal for all he knows. But then, she's just a shopkeeper's niece.

Moreover, I don’t think the shopkeeper would have clung so tenaciously to the accusation that Wentworth had made off with Rosa if Wentworth hadn't been such an asshole about it. If he expressed sympathy and concern and tried to help inquiries (by clearing his own name, for a start, so they could start looking for the real culprit), then I think his troubles could have been over by lunchtime on the day of Rosa's disappearance. But no. As far as he's concerned, the smear on his reputation is far, far more important than the safety of some missing shopgirl, and he won't so much as give anyone an account of his movements on the night of her disappearance.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a jerk! Makes me wonder if Oliphant kind of *wanted* him to be unappealing?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I kind of doubt it. She clearly knows he's not a saint, but I think she sees him as basically a solid, stand-up guy.

[littlerhymes]

Hmm, perhaps I won't try the others in the Carlingford books! Or at least I'll leave them for later.

Next on my Oliphant list (meaning: perhaps I'll read it in the next year or two) is Kirsteen, or possibly Hester. Basically I'm shooting for the ones named after women lead characters.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think that's a good plan. I feel like the heroines of nineteenth century novels turn out to be accidental assholes far less often than the heroes do.