#58-62: britlit time!

[extemporally]

I am so impossibly tired from studying. Good thing it's Friday, eh? Well... no, because tomorrow there is more studying on the schedule. I plan on going to bed very early.

Problems at Pollensa Bay, by Agatha Christie.

OH MY GOD, HARLEY QUIN. <3333 my first introduction to the character, but he's actually perfect and mysterious and queer and I can't find the book now and can't quote from it - oh wait, just got up and found it - and:

'Mr Quin,' said Mr Satterthwaite, 'I knew somehow it was going to be you.'

Mr Quin smiled.

'You always know so many things,' he said.

'It's a long time since I've seen you,' said Mr Satterthwaite.

'Does time matter?' said Mr Quin.

'Perhaps not. You may be right. Perhaps not.'

Wikipedia describes the Harley Quin stories as having a whimsical-supernatural element, which I think is just right and makes me want all the stories in the world about them having been lovers and friends and allies in scores and scores of past lives. --Does time matter? --Perhaps not. You might be right. Perhaps not. A;LFJDS;FLJASF;LDJSF;LDJF;LKDSJ YOU GUYS

Endless Night, by Agatha Christie.

First person point of views are not Agatha Christie's strongest suit - nevertheless, she had me fooled here even though I shouldn't have been, it really was a fairly transparent plot device. You get the feeling that through most of her novels she gets torn between writing about her characters sharply and smartly, that is to say delineating 'type', and writing really romantic, wistful, but intelligent novels like Sayers. She's probably better at the former than the latter. But here is my favourite bit in the whole thing:

'You could take me to see your mother.'

'Yes, I could,' I said, 'but I'd rather not. I expect that sounds very harsh to you, perhaps cruel, but you see we've got to lead a queer life together, you and I. It's not going to be the life that you've led and it's not going to be the life that I've led either. It's got to be a new life where we have a sort of meeting ground between my poverty and ignorance and your money and culture and social knowledge. My friends will think you're stuck up and your friends will think I'm socially unpresentable. So what are we going to do?'

I really do enjoy her take on romance some days. <333

Five On A Treasure Island, by Enid Blyton.

Oh my god, this was so darling. I remember reading some of the Famous Five back in the day, but not in any detail, so I'm counting these even though they're probably rereads. MIK, COME TALK TO ME ABOUT GEORGE:

George stared at him. 'I'll see,' she said. 'I don't make friends with people just because they're my cousins, or anything silly like that. I only make friends with people if I like them.'

'So do we,' said Julian. 'We may not like you, of course.'

'Oh!' said George, as if that thought hadn't occurred to her. Well - you may not, of course. Lots of people don't like me, now I come to think of it.'

George wants so to be a boy <3333

Five Go Adventuring Again, by Enid Blyton.

In this review I want to talk about Uncle Quentin and how he's so obviously a parental figure set up for you to rage against and how (of course) the children (and Timmy!) (well not so much the children as mostly just George) are so much more perceptive than him and

'What's that?' said Anne.

'You wouldn't understand,' said her uncle. 'All these "funny things" as you call them, help me in my experiments, and I put down in my book what they tell me - and from all I learn I work out a secret formula, that will be of great use when it is finished.'

THAT IS NOT A DIFFICULT EXPLANATION AT ALL AND ALSO THE OPPOSITE OF HELPFUL, YOU DICKHEAD

and of course, George is supposed to have the same personality as him - people-shy, scornful, and, it is suggested, for more booksmart than people-smart - and it is suggested that that's the reason they don't really get along, bla bla bla parental figures authority genes, but the real reason is that George is PERFECT and Uncle Quentin is a DICK.

(Also, I'm talking about the first book now but it is vaguely weird that Uncle Quentin was really stressed and bad-tempered about not being able to provide for his family and then he got all 'LO, THIS ISLAND IS NOW WORTH SOMETHING AND WE HAVE MONEY, ALL OUR STRESSES ARE OVER' when really the island was his wives and by 'vaguely weird' I actually mean 'gross and overbearing'.)

'I don't like his nasty mouth.'

'But you can't see it,' said Julian. 'It's covered with his moustache and beard.'

'I've seen his lips through them,' said George, obstinately. 'They're thin and cruel. You look and see. I don't like thin-lipped people. They're always spiteful and hard. And I don't like his cold eyes either. You can suck up to him all you like. I shan't.'

♥GEORGE♥

The Witness for the Prosecution, and other stories, by Agatha Christie.

One of those short story collections I'm fairly sure I've read before? I don't know if it's that or if it's because Agatha Christie isn't really at the top of her game when it comes to short stories - she has less time to lay elaborate trails or red herrings and the character motivations tend to become fairly obvious. Nevertheless, I do love her bent for the gothic. And in case it wasn't clear or anything I read a lot of Agatha Christie, she's my comfort food of reading.