The point that theseatheseatheopensea made about the House being similar to Lost-hope is great! That parallels very well with Stephen and Matthew-Piranesi. Stephen, like M-P, isn't trying to use Lost-hope as a seat of power or of a way to reach his goals. M-P very much accepts that House for what it is, while Stephen wants to improve Lost-hope for its population, and those places seem to reward them for their generosity of spirit.

Oh, very interesting that you had some more chapters in your special edition! It's nice that there are more aspects to Raphael's story. I just finished North and South and I'm looking forward to rereading Piranesi.