Skip to main content

Femslashing Dickens: I refuse to acknowledge romantic friendship as a thing

Obviously I picked up The Mystery of Edwin Drood again. Obviously.

I'm not very far in (that'd be crazy) but since I know the whole story anyway, I skimmed ahead to see if Helena Landless, Indian (India-Indian) and twin sister of Neville Landless (who I think figures largely in Drood), is in fact a character in the book, or just made up for the musical by Mr. Rupert Holmes because he is awesome.

And she is totally in the book! And the FIRST thing I found for her was a scene at Rosa Bud's boarding school where I guess they're rooming together. Rosa Bud is engaged to Edwin Drood and has been since childhood. Because of the childhood thing, they're not so into each other, and eventually become more like BFFs. So there's that. Here Helena and Rosa are settling down for the evening and fricking Dickens writes this:
"I can answer for you," laughed Helena, searching the lovely little face with her dark fiery eyes, and tenderly caressing the small figure. "You will be a friend to me, won't you?"



It's immediately followed up by Rosa agreeing, but saying she is surprised Helena wants to be friends since the latter is "so womanly and handsome." Mhm.

This was written in 1870. The rather sapphic Woman in White by Dickens's best friend (and our fearless but dead leader) Wilkie Collins was written back in 1859. I'm admittedly going off Wikipedia, but on 'romantic friendships', it says "in the second half of the 19th century, expression of this nature became more rare as physical intimacy between non-sexual partners came to be regarded with anxiety."

So what is Dickens up to? Maybe he was stuck in the past. Maybe he thought Helena's nationality would somehow bar it from being seen as a Thing. Maybe he and Wilkie had some weird contest that involved writing about lesbians — I don't know what those guys got up to in their spare time. 


Oh, this thing, also found while skimming for Helena:

I don't even know where I am anymore

Drood isn't mentioned in Emma Donoghue's Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature (did you know that Emma Donoghue is a woman of many facets?), but Miss Wade in Little Dorrit is, and she seems to be more of a clear-cut case. Little Dorrit was published in its entirety in 1857, which tallies much more nicely with my Wilkie contest theory, but having written the latter 13 years prior, I see no reason why he'd take a step backwards with Drood.

Basically I'm writing this at midnight because I was feeling shippy about Rosa/Helena anyway due to Betsy Wolfe and Jessie Mueller who play them on Broadway, and then it turns out, oh, hey book. Look at you. With your words.

I blame you two dorks

Maybe actual context will change eeeverything. Oh, but wait, Rosa has a panic attack in the first 70 pages and this happens: 
With one swift turn of her lithe figure, Helena laid the little beauty on a sofa, as if she had never caught her up. Then, on one knee beside her, and with one hand upon her rosy mouth, while with the other she appealed to all the rest, Helena said to them: 'It's nothing; it's all over; don't speak to her for one minute and she is well!'
Damnit, Dickens. Why don't you just go write Goblin Market.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't

How to Build a Girl Introductory Post, which is full of wonderful things you probably want to read

Acclaimed (in England mostly) lady Caitlin Moran has a novel coming out. A NOVEL. Where before she has primarily stuck to essays. Curious as we obviously were about this, I and a group of bloggers are having a READALONG of said novel, probably rife with spoilers (maybe they don't really matter for this book, though, so you should totally still read my posts). This is all hosted/cared for/lovingly nursed to health by Emily at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads) because she has a lovely fancy job at an actual bookshop ( Odyssey Books , where you can in fact pre-order this book and then feel delightful about yourself for helping an independent store). Emily and I have negotiated the wonders of Sri Lankan cuisine and wandered the Javits Center together. Would that I could drink with her more often than I have. I feel like we could get to this point, Emily INTRODUCTION-wise (I might've tipped back a little something this evening, thus the constant asides), I am Alice. I enjoy