The Indian wife of Dubois and her two sons are the true tragedy of this book. Fortunately they get away with the murder scot free, as far as I can tell? The murder mystery aspect of the book was rushed.
Your journey with Dr. Harpe, from an impression of tacit approval to NOPE, is more or less the journey that I took over the course of the book. Quite possibly Lockhart meant us all to be going NOPE throughout, though. The abortion is probably meant to be just as morally damning as robbing an etherized patient and framing a girl for murder out of petty spite.
Whether or not we're meant to be going on a journey, I did think that Dr. Harpe's character hung together well: we know from the start that beneath her breezy charm she's incompetent and unscrupulous, a chancer (simply on a smaller scale than Symes), and the revelations of her less appealing qualities feel natural. One might have wished a book from 1912 to buck expectations with a more positive lesbian character, but at least she does feel like a real person.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2022-08-31 08:07 pm (UTC)Your journey with Dr. Harpe, from an impression of tacit approval to NOPE, is more or less the journey that I took over the course of the book. Quite possibly Lockhart meant us all to be going NOPE throughout, though. The abortion is probably meant to be just as morally damning as robbing an etherized patient and framing a girl for murder out of petty spite.
Whether or not we're meant to be going on a journey, I did think that Dr. Harpe's character hung together well: we know from the start that beneath her breezy charm she's incompetent and unscrupulous, a chancer (simply on a smaller scale than Symes), and the revelations of her less appealing qualities feel natural. One might have wished a book from 1912 to buck expectations with a more positive lesbian character, but at least she does feel like a real person.