In the first book Elsie faints off a piano stool because she won't play a secular song on the Sabbath! Martha Finley really had a thing for "saintly child refuses to break the Sabbath, is nearly martyred by godless parent."
There's also a scene where Elsie gets in trouble for releasing a hummingbird that her father had trapped under a bell jar to asphyxiate for his bird collection. I feel that FInley stumbled on a metaphor for Elsie's life so astoundingly blatant that any other author would have been like "Is this too much?", but she just failed to notice and skated right on to the next scene where Elsie gets in trouble for being too good for this world.
Well look, what is even the POINT of having a slatternly companion if you can't shout out your evil plans to her in the public street just in case your saintly fiancee happens to be passing? Also I love how they happen to pass at JUST EXACTLY THE RIGHT MINUTE for Elsie to hear the whole thing.
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Date: 2019-02-08 02:29 am (UTC)There's also a scene where Elsie gets in trouble for releasing a hummingbird that her father had trapped under a bell jar to asphyxiate for his bird collection. I feel that FInley stumbled on a metaphor for Elsie's life so astoundingly blatant that any other author would have been like "Is this too much?", but she just failed to notice and skated right on to the next scene where Elsie gets in trouble for being too good for this world.
Well look, what is even the POINT of having a slatternly companion if you can't shout out your evil plans to her in the public street just in case your saintly fiancee happens to be passing? Also I love how they happen to pass at JUST EXACTLY THE RIGHT MINUTE for Elsie to hear the whole thing.