This will be a brief dispatch, as it is late, and I am tired, and need my sleep for I am in the throes of travel preparation. My family and I are heading east on Wednesday, and for some reason, traveling with three children requires large reserves of energy and patience. I am gearing up.
I wanted to let you know that I have read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It is the first Agatha Christie that I've read, although I did perform in a theatrical adaptation of And Then There Were None (en français!) in grade 10, and saw The Mousetrap in Toronto many years ago. My paternal grandmother was a big fan, and I remember the mysteries all lined up on a bookshelf along the stairs. I have never been much of a detective novel reader, but this is the second one I've read recently - the last novel I read before embarking on this project was The Sweetness at The Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley. (Another very enjoyable read). My only complaint about this book has nothing to do with Agatha, and everything to do with the publisher at Berkley Books who allowed the following to be printed on the back cover: "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was championed by Dorothy L. Sayers who said, "Christie fooled you [all]... It's the reader's business to suspect everyone." (There - you said no-one refers to her as "Christie", but apparently Dorothy L Sayers did.) Don't you think that rather gives it away? Of course I started suspecting the least obvious character after reading that. It didn't really ruin it for me - I just like to complain. It was still fun to see how all these little details that have been in plain sight all along can be pieced together, all the loose ends tied up. It made me consider how much I skim as a reader, how much I miss because of my skimming. It also made me think about all the little (and not so little) secrets in families, and how they simmer until something causes them to boil over into open secrets (that's the title of one of my all-time favourite collections of Alice Munro's - I'm so happy you've put her on the list). Unless they are lucky enough to simmer until they evaporate, but those are the lucky few I think. More often the "truth will out", right? Oh- that provides a convenient lead up to introduce my photographs - in the letter you sent to accompany this volume you provided four photos from the library at Laurier House, and again, in the interest of symmetry, I thought I would offer up two from my own library. My Shakespeare, to be precise.
Aren't they lovely? My mother gave them to me, and they are one of my most prized possessions. I think in the event of a fire, I would rush to save them, maybe stacking them on top of the family photo albums. It is The New Temple Shakespeare, and my mum collected them. Some of them have inscriptions on the front flyleaf (in Hamlet: Gabriel from Ma. June 17.1958.) and some of them have inscriptions on the back flyleaf, written by my mother (Gabriel) (in Macbeth: 29.vii.55 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford (Olivier), or King Lear: 11.viii.53 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford (Redgrave). I've decided to add to the inscriptions, starting with As You Like It, which I saw at the McPherson Theatre here in Victoria two weeks ago. No big names, but a wonderful performance nevertheless. My mother is following our correspondences with interest, and has her own theories as to why you have not heard from the prime minister directly, but I will not go into them here.
Hmm. I do manage to get off topic. I did look out for the George Eliot reference you mentioned. I have not read The Mill on the Floss myself, but devoured Middlemarch and have been meaning to read more ever since. I see why you like that line. Perhaps you know the answer to a question that came up for me while reading - of course I can't find the exact reference right now, but at some point I think it is Flora who says things are beginning to seem like a scene from a Danish play. I thought of Ibsen, but no - Ibsen is Norweigian. So who is the Danish playwright being referred to? Just wondering.
I will be reading Elizabeth Smart on the plane, if the children let me, and will send you my next response from Montreal. Until then, all the best, and Happy Canada Day!
Rebecca Baugniet
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