Comment on In The Beginning

  1. Watervole on Chapter 1 Tue 07 Nov 2017 07:03PM UTC

    Harry wants me to finish his story...

    I really felt Sayer's use of language in this one. Boyes felt spot on, and so did most of the other characters. Loved Boyes' inner voice - cheerfully disliked him!

    The only bit that didn't work for me was Harriet falling instantly in love with Boyes just because he he was a literary writer and wanted to talk to her. I don't see her as a love at first sight person (though that may be because of how long she held out against Peter).

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    1. Sonetka (Guest) on Chapter 1 Tue 14 Nov 2017 07:22AM UTC

      Glad Boyes's inner voice worked for you! Wondering just what exactly he was thinking the whole time was a big driving force behind writing this fic in the first place :). I wasn't thinking of Harriet's immediate attraction to Boyes as being love, precisely -- or at least, not a considered sort of love, more like that very quick, almost instinctual clicking which can sometimes happen between two people who've just met -- it's helped partially by his being a very physically attractive man and also because it's been a long time since she was the main focus of anyone's attention; of course, she has her friends, but they have their own lives going on. She's young, inexperienced, and lonely, and hasn't yet had the experience of having the rug yanked out from under her which Boyes will so thoughtfully provide later on. Rereading the book while writing this, I was struck by just how devastating an experience that would be -- not only has she been lied to, but she believes that she was being lied to during the entire relationship, right from the start, and never caught on until Philip told her. That's the kind of experience that could easily destroy her faith in her own judgement entirely, at least with regard to romance, and make her extremely cautious about seeing anyone else. After all, if she could be so badly fooled once, who's to say it couldn't happen again? It would explain why she offered to live with Peter but not marry him -- at least if he turned out to be a very different person at home, she could leave. If they were married, considering his money and status and the difficulty of obtaining a divorce, she'd be at his mercy.

      Two things that made me think pre-Philip Harriet must have been somewhat less cautious romantically were when she tells Peter in SP that she's a very cheerful person really, and used to piffle rather well (admittedly, somewhat vague, but it does suggest being more emotionally relaxed) and much later in Gaudy Night when she tells Miss de Vine that if she ever gave in to Peter, she "should go up like straw." The fact that she knew that about herself made me think that she'd experienced going up like straw before, and that the end result had not been positive.

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