New D. K. Broster writings on the website

[regshoe]

Christmas Day in a Little Hospital, a descriptive piece about Christmas on a children's hospital ward.

Northern Spring, a description of spring in the Perthshire Highlands.

The Swiss Ambassador and Mme de Vérans's Fan, a slightly mysterious unfinished short story. (Challenge to the fandom: write an ending for it!)

Charon's Coward, a French Royalist story featuring the return of Fortuné de la Vireville. (But no spoilers for Sir Isumbras; it can be read independently.)

And a newspaper obituary of Broster, including a description of her funeral alongside a summary of her literary career.

I've also collected and typed up The Happy Warrior, Broster's short-story-length partial biography of Ange-Achille-Charles Brunet de Neuilly, a minor figure in French Royalist history; pending permission from St Hilda's, I hope to publish this as a mini-ebook on Gutenberg.

Comments

[luzula]

Oooh! Looking forward to reading these, especially the one with Vireville! Thank you for your service to the fandom. : )

[regshoe]

:)

It's an interesting story, with some, er, fun literary commentary—I hope you enjoy it!

[sovay]

New D. K. Broster writings on the website

Nice! I love that you are curating all of this material.

("Charon's Coward" is a hell of a title.)

[regshoe]

Thank you!

La Vireville doesn't understand the classical reference when it comes up, and I'm afraid I don't really have the context either, but it's something Broster is clearly good at.

[luzula]

I have now read The Swiss Ambassador and Mme de Vérans's Fan! It is mysterious, I agree, and I can't see how it's supposed to end.

Various questions:
1) What is the reason for the enmity of the other men towards d'Avricourt? The only reason I can think of is jealousy over Madame de Véran. In any case I suppose there must be a plot connection of some sort between Granson and the duel, and Madame de Véran and the fan.
2) Is d'Avricourt's second correct in his speculations, or was there another reason for Granson's manipulating him into a duel? The only clue I can find is the "extraordinary gleam" that comes into Granson's eyes when the little girl asks d'Avricourt to come and see the fan. That doesn't sound like a man who drew the short straw and was forced to duel.
3) What was the insult that Granson gave d'Avricourt?
4) What is d'Avricourt's actual relationship with Madame de Véran? In the beginning he is said to have scarcely looked at her through dinner. She has to send someone to make him attend her, begs a compliment from him, and assumes he's behind the fan even though he never says so (though we do know that he's seen it before). This sounds more like she's in love with him than the opposite (which I suppose would be a reason for jealousy from the other men).

Also, what is d'Avricourt writing at his desk in such a hurry when his second comes in?

[regshoe]

:D It is a fun puzzle! Some thoughts...

1) That does seem like the obvious reason... It could be some kind of political backstory (what was d'Avricourt doing in 1815?), but there's nothing in the story to suggest that. Or perhaps there's something more specific about his relationship with Mme de Vérans than just 'she's in love with him and the other men are jealous'? Otherwise that does seem like a pretty small thing to form a conspiracy to kill d'Avricourt over (but perhaps that's what Broster means in the last line).

2) Granson clearly knows something about the significance of the fan (which must relate to the reason the conspirators dislike d'Avricourt), and I think the combination of that with 'he willingly took part in the conspiracy, and was motivated to kill d'Avricourt even if the only reason it's actually him provoking the duel is because he drew the short straw' makes sense as a motive.

3) I think the reason for the oddly-formatted censorship of Granson's insult is that it's censored for being a spoiler/to avoid giving away the mystery (rather than because it was unprintably rude). We know from Granson's preamble that it that sounds like 'a trifle—a jest', but it's actually terribly significant—so something connected to whatever this mystery is, but that doesn't otherwise sound like a grievous insult. I think it must be some insinuation about his relationship with Mme de Vérans, and again, I think something quite specific—I don't know that 'you're having an affair with her' would be scandalous enough in 1819 to provoke that strong a reaction.

4) Perhaps he was not looking at/talking to her in order to avoid arousing the jealousy of the other men, or because there is something more specifically secret/potentially scandalous about their relationship. But OTOH he's quite happy to flirt with her over the fan when 'more than half a dozen' other people are in the room.

The hurried writing: well, if he thinks he's about to fight a duel in which he could be killed, there might be any number of reasons for needing to write to someone in a hurry!

Knowing Broster's style, I suspect she would have gone for some significant repetition of the 'cost a life to give it' line when the duel took place...

[luzula]

Well, how about this: Mme de Véran is actually in a relationship with Charlotte, d'Avrincourt's sister. d'Avrincourt is uncomfortable with this, thus why he avoids her at dinner, but Charlotte and Mme de Véran have made him promise to flirt with Mme de Véran as a distraction from their relationship (maybe there was some gossip about them?). The other men dislike him because Mme de Véran shows him favour, but Granson knows/suspects the truth, and what he said was something along the lines of "Not even if I called you a substitute for your sister?", which sounds innocuous enough if one didn't know what he meant by it.

: D

[regshoe]

Oh, that's ingenious! I love it :D

...So I suppose d'Avricourt was writing to Charlotte, in the vein of 'look what a mess you've got me into, what are we going to do now???'. Ooh, and then perhaps she, alarmed for her brother and feeling responsible for it, hurries down from Paris and proposes disguising herself as Laurent to fight the duel in his place?

[luzula]

Oh, that's a nice continuation! Of course one would want Charlotte to appear on page as well. Of course Laurent wouldn't consent to it, but perhaps she nevertheless appears at the duel and derails it?

I told Garonne to read the story without looking at the comments first, btw, and see what she came up with...

[garonne]

Oh, thanks for these! I look forward to reading them. (Luzula just told me I should read the "Swiss Ambassador" story before reading your discussion of it.)

[regshoe]

:) I hope you enjoy them!