fiction – Tattooed Professor

Jane Steele: A Confession by Lyndsay Faye

G. P. Putnam’s Sons New York 2016

Volume One

“Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, for ever condemned? Why could I never please? Why was it useless to try to win anyone’s favour?

“I left such reflections behind me in childhood, at the bottom of the small ravine where my first cousin drew his final gurgling breaths” (4).

“Patience Barbary was blessed with a face ensuring that conjugal affronts would not happen twice…” (9).

Jane, the narrator, tells us her dad died before she could remember him. Her mom was a depressive who finally overdosed. Her aunt probably wants the estate that now belongs to Jane.

Two

Legal papers are in order for Jane’s inheritance. No one pays her any attention although she feels like someone is watching her.

Three

Aunt Patience wants to send Jane to boarding school. Her cousin, Edwin, tries to rape her. She pushes him which leads to his death.

Four

“I had meant to pray for forgiveness the instant Agatha left, but instead a deathly slumber took me. I don’t know the term for a child who falls asleep after her first murder and before confessing her sins, but I suspect it is not an intensely complimentary one” (34-5).

“Patience Barbary had shed her smug bravado as snakes do skins; everything about her was new, from the swollen pink edges of her eyelids to her raw expression, tender as a cut where the scab has peeled away. Years of trials I did not know about had hardened her, but now here she was–in desperate need of a shell, and stripped of her defenses as she had been stripped of her son. Her habitual mourning was an ostentation, I realised, maybe even a dig at my mother’s pale Parisian frocks; this was her, bared to the ravages of the whimsical world” (41).

Jane is questioned by the police and her aunt but she is sticking to the “I-wasn’t-there-and-it-was-an-accident” story. She now wants to go to that boarding school that before sounded so terrible.

Five

Jane arrives at school. She’ll share a bed with Sarah Taylor and she meets Rebecca Clarke who says she will tell on Jane for not saying her prayers.

Six

“This was peculiar, and likewise was it cause for a pulse of concern that none of the girls appeared happy about the fare; they regarded their bowls with slightly less dismay that I had once leveled at my cousin’s genitalia” (54).

Every night at dinner all sins are revealed and punished. Many do not get to eat.

Seven

Jane is called out. Headmaster Munt tells everyone that Jane’s mother committed suicide which is against God’s will. Jane will not eat for a week for the offense of mourning her mother.

Eight

The girls learn that Mr. Munt writes erotic letters to Ms. Lilyvale. Clarke, who cannot lie, calls out Mr. Munt during confessions. Mr. Munt counters that Clarke’s parents print porn for a living, so Clarke is punished to only have breakfast.

Nine

Jane sneaks into Mr. Munt’s office to make the books look like there is less food. Jane will steal the excess. Jane is caught. She says she just wants Clarke to be able to eat but Munt threatens to have Jane thrown into an asylum. She sees no way out, so stabs Munt in the neck with a letter opener!

Ten

“‘I went to his study,’ Clarke whispered.

“A word of advice: do not ever kill for love, or you will find yourself tethered, staked to the ground when your cleanest instincts require you to run for your life without a backwards glance. Killing for love is one of the most tangled acts you can commit, reader, in an already twisted world” (96).

“Were I to picture my honour, I imagine it might resemble a less attractive than usual tadpole…” (103).

“We are all of us daily decaying, after all; the speed is our only variant” (104).

As Jane is stealing food for the road, Clarke comes in and says she’s just seen Munt dead. Who could have killed him? Jane plays it off. They escape together to London.

Eleven

“Laughing, Hugh Grizzlehurst showed teeth resembling indifferently worn pencils” (116).

Jane and Clarke are homeless and starving until they find the Grizzlehursts. They are a crazy fighting married couple.

Twelve

The Grizzlehurts have fought so much that the wife has twice miscarried. Clarke discovers Munt’s watch and knows Jane killed him. She packs her things and leaves. Jane stays back so she can take care of Mr. Grizzlehurst: pushes his drunk ass into the Thames.

Volume Two

Thirteen

In the margin on this passage I wrote, “This is me to a T.”

Know, that in the course of your future life you will often find yourself elected the involuntary confidant of your acquaintances’ secrets: people will instinctively find out, as I have done, that it is not your forte to talk of yourself, but to listen while others talk of themselves; they will feel, too, that you listen with no malevolent scorn of their indiscretion, but with a kind of innate sympathy…

Six years later. Jane’s roommate is a lady of the night. A regular starts eyeing her daughter and Jane has to think of a plan. Jane also learns that her old house–the one she is supposed to own–is now in possession of a man looking for a governess.

Fourteen

Jane is hired as a governess at her former home. She sleeps in her dead aunt’s room but everything has been redecorated and brought to life. She likes everyone so far; perhaps owner Charles Thornfield the most.

Fifteen

Jane likes her new job and the people. No one from her childhood remained there. One room is full of weapons and Mr. Singh and Thornfield know how to use them. Sahjara had lost her parents and been raised by Thornfield. There is an important chest that had been lost. What was in it and why is the cellar being renovated?

Sixteen

Jane finds paperwork that discusses her inheriting Highgate House. She writes to one of the lawyers and is on the way to mail it when she has an accident. Mr. Thornfield is there to assist her.

Seventeen

“‘You hadn’t anticipated the scope of my abnormality.’”

“‘There have already been multiple moments which cause me to suspect your true self a giant deliberately casting a small shadow” (200).

Mr. Sack is an unwelcomed guest seeking information about the lost chest. When he won’t leave, Thornfield, Singh, and Suhjara all pull knives! Jane has to learn more. She’s been invited to Thornfield’s dinner table.

Eighteen

Plot point: “Patience Goodwill and Chastity Goodwill. My pulse thumped against my drab grey dress as I recalled my aunt’s maiden name. Sisters–there is the connection.”

“Once he was in, they realised he’d a positive genius for getting them anything they wanted, and the Sikhs ain’t Quakers, mind. A hotter hive of lechery and treachery you’ve not seen since the Vatican” (210).

“…and he could raise an eyebrow as if raising a middle finger” (213).

Thornfield’s mother was sister to Aunt Patience–that’s how he knew the house was empty after she died. Singh is really a warrior, like Thornfield. He is only playing the role of butler. Yes, there is a mysterious missing trunk.

Nineteen

Jane eavesdrops on Thornfield and Singh. She learns they like and have worked with Quillfeather, the constable who questioned Jane long ago. Sack was the one who killed Clements; that is the funeral where Sack saw Thornfield. Thornfield still wishes Sahjara could remember more about that missing trunk.

Twenty

Plot point: “What crime did you and Mr. Singh commit in the Punjab? Or Why should the dead speak to you?

Jane is in love. To tell him would be to reveal much more about herself.

Twenty-one

Jane learns the cellar has been turned into a morgue. Jane confesses her feelings but Thornfield does not follow suit.

Twenty-two

A thief breaks in looking for the trunk. There is a great scuffle and Jane ends up killing him in front of Thronfield and Singh.

Volume Three

Twenty-three

The jewels were Singh’s sister’s. When she was killed her jewels were sown into Sahjara’s dolls which were stolen. Something Thornfield has done in the past makes him feel he should punish himself.

Twenty-four

Jane feels she must confess all her crimes if she is to have a relationship with Thornfield. She seemed just about to confess when who should enter but Quillfeather! She doesn’t let on, but the moment Jane can get away she takes a horse and hightails it out of there!

Twenty-five

Jane’s goals: Remove all threats from the lives endangered by Augustus P. Sack

Ascertain whether you are the heiress of Highgate House

Escape the clutches of Mr. Sam Quillfeather and avoid the noose

Mr. Singh sees Jane on the run and learns a little of why she left. He knows she’s safe. Jane will use her time away to take care of business. She will begin with Sack.

Twenty-six

Plot points: “…your father was a rich man, and so managed the necessary documentation–he avoided mentioning the fact, of course, that he had already left a wife and child behind in England.”

“My half brother, Edwin, who tried to rape me, was not my cousin, he was my half–”

“…licensed agents de change, and he presented himself to your mother as a gentleman of leisure named Jonathan Steele. You were conceived, your parents were married, your father fell ill, your mother found out his true marital status, and he and your mother threatened Patience Barbary with exposure of all his sins should she refuse to cooperate–your father blackmailed his wife with his own ill-usage of her, knowing the second marriage illegal” (318).

“‘You have an allowance of three hundred a year.’ Cyrus Sneeves wrote a note to himself, as if that clinched matters. ‘You do not possess any part of Highgate House, but your independence is assured…” (319).

Jane finds Quillfeather in her room.

Jane’s long-lost father was actually who she thought to be her uncle. Although Jane does not own Highgate House, she will pull an income from a trust set up for her long ago.

Twenty-seven

Mr. Quillfeather had always wanted to tell Jane that Edwin’s death made sense; she had been attacked. It was not her fault. He said nothing of her subsequent murders. He thought Lilyvale had murdered Munt and knew why. He didn’t seek her either. Jane still plans to kill Sack but stops off for lunch. There she sees her old best friend, Clarke.

Twenty-Eight

“‘Rebecca.’ The name tasted strange, like salt where sugar was expected” (339).

“The whisper of fingertips touched my cheek, and then Clarke was kissing me.

“It was only a brief press, but it was neither dry, nor chaste, nor seeking. It was the kiss of a person who has thought about variants of the same kiss for a very long time, as if it were a hundred kisses, all of them passionate and all of them hopeless. I was startled and–in the moment–grateful enough even to reciprocate, did so before even thinking why I should not, and I tasted years in that kiss. I tasted years of dying hope, and the sweet bellyache of longing, and coffee, and Clarke herself, before she pulled away, running her thumb over my open lips.

“‘That was how I loved you,’ she told me.

“…whilst his stare bored into me with all the gentility of a bullet” (344).

Mr. Sack says he knows what happened to Thornfield at the Battle of Sobraon. The meeting with Clarke goes well although she does not want to resume their friendship. They kiss and Clarke implies she’d always loved Jane. Jane’s meeting with Sack is foiled by a letter to Sack from Singh saying the trunk was tucked in Highgate House. She was going to lead him away.

Twenty-nine

“Mr. Sack’s ability to swagger whilst stationary cannot be exaggerated” (348).

Plot point: “Mr. Singh did not think Mr. Thornfield a murderer. Mr. Thornfield saw every step leading to her decision like paces towards a gallows, saw the fateful instant when the loss of her treasure propelled her into a harrowing war, and he thought himself wholly responsible” 351).

“Mr. Sack ripped the necklace from my spine” (356).

“I had to solve the murder of David Lavell–in Amritsar, all those years hence” (359).

Sack is harsher to deal with than Jane anticipated. She needs more information and will turn to Quillfeather for help.

Thirty

Quillfether and Jane work all night. She rides to Highgate House, finds the treasure in the attic, and then is confronted with Garima, knife in hand!

Thirty-one

Plot point: Garima Kaur accuses Jane of killing David Lavell. Garima also believes John Clements loved Jane and when his colleague Mr. Sack received a taunting letter from Sardar Singh he suspected Jane was involved. Garima says Jane was trusted so was fed information. “And I think when he concluded you had stolen the trunk, and had finished Lavell, I think he confronted you, and you poisoned him in his rooms in London” (375).

Jane knew Singh had remained in Lahore guarding Sahjara, but his secretary, one Ms. Garima Kaur, “had made at least one delivery to David Lavell”: a gash through the neck. Garima tipped off Jack Ghosh as well.

When Lavell was found to have treated Karman poorly Jane “slaughtered him in Amritsar and was back in Lahore before anyone there so much as knew he was dead” (377).

Garima begins confessing. She killed David Lavell and kept an inside track on Sack and Ghosh. She killed Clements because he kept too close an eye on her and knew she had forged an important letter.

When Singh interrupts them Jane tells him that Garima has the treasure.

Jane tells Quillfeather that Garima had forged a letter in his name which led to Lavell’s demise.

Then things really get crazy! Garima is a behind-the-scenes witcher woman! She kidnaps Sahjara and escapes on horseback. Singh loses a hand!

Thirty-two

Jane rides to the rescue of Sahjara. Garima is killed after being thrown from a horse. Sahjara is safely returned home. Thornfield and Jane state their love and that they will remain together–that is, if he still wants her after hearing her story. Jane and Thornfield will next deal with Sack.

Thirty-Three

One quote: “I hope that the epitaph of the human race when the world ends will be: Here perished a species which lived to tell stories.

That’s it! You will have to read the details and the ending by going to your local library or bookstore and checking it out! Jane Steele: A Confession by Lyndsay Faye

Ethan Frome

by Edith Wharton

A Norton Critical Edition edited by Kristin O. Lauer and Cynthia Griffin Wolff

Ends with authoritative text backgrounds and contexts criticism

Ethan Frome

The narrator is curious about lonely and quiet Ethan Frome. He begins to learn a bit more when Frome begins giving the narrator rides to work.

We go back in time 24 years earlier

“The guests were preparing to leave, and the tide had already set toward the passage where coats and wraps were hung, when a young man with a sprightly foot and a shock of black hair shot into the middle of the floor and clapped his hands. The signal took instant effect. The musicians hurried to their instruments, the dancers–some already half-muffled for departure–fell into line down each side of the room, the older spectators slipped back to their chairs, and the lively young man, after diving about here and there in the throng, drew forth a girl who had already wound a cherry-coloured ‘fascinator’ about her had, and, leading her up to the end of the floor, whirled her down its length to the bounding tune of a Virginia reel.

“Frome’s heart was beating fast. He had been straining for a glimpse of the dark head under the cherry-coloured scarf and it vexed him that another eye should have been quicker than his. The leader of the reel, who looked as if he had Irish blood in his veins, danced well, and his partner caught his fire. As she passed down the line, her light figure swinging from hand to hand in circles of increasing swiftness, the scarf flew off her head and stood out behind her shoulders, and Frome, at each turn, caught sight of her laughing panting lips, the cloud of dark hair about her forehead, and the dark eyes which seemed the only fixed points in a maze of flying lines” (14).

“The face she lifted to her dancers was the same which, when she saw him, always looked like a window that has caught the sunset” (16).

Frome is beginning to care more for Mattie, his wife’s cousin, than for his wife.

I think Frome’s wife, Zeena, knows what is going on.

III

Zeena will be in town overnight to see a new doctor. Frome and Mattie will be alone.

“There was in him a slumbering spark of sociability which the long Starkfield winters had not yet extinguished. By nature grave and inarticulate, he admired recklessness and gaiety in others and was warmed to the marrow by friendly human intercourse” (29).

“…the laughter sparkling through her lashes” (34).

A special dish is broken during dinner. When will Zeena learn of the broken dish and how it was being used over a flirtatious dinner?

Mattie and Ethan spend a quiet evening together, both too nervous to really do anything.

All Ethan thinks about is Mattie though they’ve never touched or kissed. His wife has now returned. Ethan now has to secretly fix the dish they broke.

VII

Zeena finds the broken dish. Mattie confesses.

VIII

Ethan is going to ask the Hales for an advance so he can run away but he changes his mind. He just couldn’t lie to them.

“She clung to him without answering, and he laid his lips on her hair, which was soft yet springy, like certain mosses on warm slopes, and had the faint woody fragrance of fresh sawdust in the sun” (60).

Zeena knows all…you can tell by the clues and the way she acts.

“…all their intercourse had been made up of just such inarticulate flashes, when they seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods…” (63).

Mattie and Ethan stop by a shared memory space on the way taking her to the train. They share a sled ride down a long run and almost hit a tree. Mattie decides instead of parting that they should sled down the hill once again and that is when they hit the tree. They’d rather die together than part.

“…and her dark eyes had the bright witch-like stare that disease of the spine sometimes gives” (71).

Read this short novella to find out the juicy details! The story is only 72 pages long (in this version). Just an afternoon’s read.

I didn’t read all of the background and context material (too boring), but I did find something of note in a piece by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg. Her essay is called “They Hysterical Woman: Sex Roles and Role Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America”

“Hysteria as a chronic, dramatic, and socially accepted sick role could thus provide some alleviation of conflict and tension, but the hysteric purchased her escape from the emotional and –frequently–from the sexual demands of her life only at the cost of pain, disability, and an intensification of woman’s traditional passivity and dependence.”

“The effect of hysteria upon the family and traditional sex-role differentiation was disruptive in the extreme. The hysterical woman virtually ceased to function within the family. No longer did she devote herself to the needs of others, acting as self-sacrificing wife, mother, or daughter: through her hysteria she could and in fact did force others to assume those functions. Household activities were reoriented to answer the hysterical woman’s important needs. Children were hushed, rooms darkened, entertaining suspended, a devoted nurse recruited. Fortunes might be spent on medical bills or for drugs and operations. Worry and concern bowed the husband’s shoulders; his home had suddenly become a hospital and he a nurse. Through her illness, the bedridden woman came to dominate her family to an extent that would have been considered inappropriate–indeed, shrewish–in a healthy woman. Taking to one’s bed, especially when suffering from dramatic and ever-visible symptoms, might also have functioned as a mode of passive aggression, especially in a milieu in which weakness was rewarded and in which women had since childhood been taught not to express overt aggression. Consciously or unconsciously, they had thus opted out of their traditional role.”

I do remember reading that back in the day when some husbands became increasingly unsatisfied with their wives, they would begin to make a case that the wife was hysteric or was losing her mind. In this way, they could have their wives committed against their will. They would leave their wives in asylums while they married new, younger wives. Can you imagine having to resort to hysterics in order to rest? We’ve come a long way, baby.

Ordinary People

by Judith Guest Ballantine Books New York 1976

This is a classic and an easy read with short chapters. The writing is not flowery or dreamy although when someone is experiencing disordered thinking the writing reflects what that might look like with few punctuation marks and fragments of sentences. The story deals with difficult family issues. The story and emotions are realistic. There are no easy answers if there are any answers at all. We learn that parental love can come in many forms, but it can also not be shown at all. Accidents happen, emotions and behaviors become twisted, people lose their shit and those around them don’t know what to do with that lost shit. Trigger warning issues of accidental death, suicide and mental institutions.

What follows is a plot summary excluding the epilogue; that’s for you to get to. The numbers indicate the chapter.

1 We meet young Conrad Jarrett fresh out of the mental facility and having trouble starting his day.

2 Calvin Jarrett is the father. Being abandoned as a child makes it even more difficult for him to parent a teen with mental illness. (The chapters alternate between these two characters’ points of view. The novel is written, interestingly, in the present tense.)

3 We learn about Conrad’s school life. All his friends are seniors but due to his illness he is still a junior. He has trouble feeling normal although he is trying to get back to his old routine.

4 Calvin doesn’t think it wise to go on their annual Christmas vacation. He doesn’t want any trouble. We learn that another son, Jordan, (older brother to Conrad) is now deceased.

5 Conrad sees a crazy local psychiatrist who appears inept. Conrad says his older brother died in a boating accident.

6 Calvin, the dad, seems every bit as lost as his mentally ill son. He has no idea who he is or what he wants.

7 Conrad attempts an afternoon date with Karen, a girl from the mental facility. She doesn’t feel mentally safe and leaves quickly.

8 Calvin drinks quite a bit. The neighbors are curious about Conrad’s situation. Beth (Conrad’s mother/Calvin’s wife) doesn’t want to discuss the topic at parties (or generally in public). Calvin misses hearing both sons in the house. We learn Conrad has slit his wrists.

9 Conrad is actually getting something out of seeing this wacky psychiatrist, Dr. Berger.

10 Conrad quits the swim team; he doesn’t like those people. They are too mean and he is too sensitive; too raw.

11 Calvin thinking about his law partner’s life and marriage.

12 Conrad successfully visits with a cute girl. He recalls a ski trip with his brother.

13 Beth finds out Conrad quit the swim team from an outside source. He quit a month ago and his parents didn’t know. There is a big family freak out. Conrad feels his mother hates him.

14 Dr. Berger’s genius is slowly being revealed.

15 Instead of talking about their grief, Calvin and Beth simply fight.

16 Conrad gets his looks complimented. He is starting to gain positive momentum. His psychiatrist is very helpful.

17 Calvin is now the one seeking Dr. Berger’s help.

18 Bumbling through exams and asking out girls.

19 Calvin’s business partner is worried about him.

20 Conrad’s date goes well. They set up another for the following weekend.

21 Calvin evaluates his fears and how he is most motivated to be safe.

22 Conrad gets in a fist fight with an asshole in the school parking lot.

23 Conrad tells his dad about the fight. Mom doesn’t even notice Conrad is waiting up for Dad.

24 Conrad’s new girlfriend is experiencing family drama. His own parents are out of town and he has to stay with his grandparents. His grandmother is a ball buster. (You can see where his mom gets it.)

25 Calvin and Beth on vacation at her brother’s place in Texas.

26 Karen is a girl Conrad was in treatment with. She has killed herself. This sends Conrad into a tailspin thinking about his brother dying on the lake and about electric shock therapy in treatment. He calls his psychiatrist and is driving to see him.

27 Conrad has a bad night but he makes it through.

28 Calvin and Beth can’t get through a vacation without fighting. Beth feels her son cut his wrists to show HER how much he hates her.

29 Everyone seems relieved to be home again.

30 Conrad has a girlfriend and they can discuss important things.

31 Calvin and Conrad discuss Beth and her leaving them. There are no clear answers and they’ll just have to be okay with that.

Epilogue