I'm now reading another Howells book with a pair of attached friends who met in college, so apparently college and the War were THE places to make an intimate friend you would have to shuck off a few years later in order to get married.
But yes, Howells is writing about it very openly! Is it even subtext when one of the character literally muses that the friendship is quite like a love affair"? I guess that "quite like" gives a gossamer covering of plausible deniability, but that subtext is mere millimeters away from breaking through into full text.
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Date: 2021-10-23 06:56 pm (UTC)But yes, Howells is writing about it very openly! Is it even subtext when one of the character literally muses that the friendship is quite like a love affair"? I guess that "quite like" gives a gossamer covering of plausible deniability, but that subtext is mere millimeters away from breaking through into full text.