And it's deeply unfair because contemporary society offered Avery/men so many more outlets than Helen/women if they found themselves in unhappy marriages, and it makes my teeth grind.
Definitely! It was the kind of time period where men were almost expected to fuck around outside of their marriages, even if they were relatively happy. If they were actively unhappy, then they could do anything they please and it wouldn't be their fault at all. While women couldn't even look at another man without risking their reputation...
One of the things I find really like about Helen is the somewhat mercenary way she racks and stacks her suitors. I find it really admirable. If society is going to make her ability to live comfortably solely dependent on her spouse, then she is going to choose her spouse largely for his ability to provide a comfortable lifestyle, social opprobrium be damned.
I like that too! She's very casually ambitious and focused on making herself comfortable, and honestly I find that great about her. She's very, very much a realist in a lot of ways; and while that clashes with poor Avery quite a lot, who obviously thought that he was marrying for love and only later figured out that Helen was marrying based largely on practical considerations, I cannot fault her for it at all. I would kill to see Helen interacting with Blake a bit more, and with Matty too!
Or worse still, if his infidelity is what effects a reconciliation between him and Helen, which I don't believe is out of the realm of possibility in future books.
Oh, nooooo. I mean, I'm not that much of a fan of infidelity as a plot device anyway... But at least have Avery have an affair with Blake, instead of dragging all these poor innocent women into it!
Particularly in an era when you do start to see women agitating for the social space to have more independent thoughts, as you say. That move would be a Very Collinson Thing To Do.TM
I must admit, that I do have a fairly involved fic idea in my head that involves Helen somehow being revealed as a former spy - perhaps due to a murder that she ends up having to investigate with Matty - and being convinced to work with Blake & Avery to bring Collinson down. It would be literally novel length, which is why I haven't even attempted to write it, but I still regularly return to play around with it. XD
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2021-02-19 10:09 am (UTC)And it's deeply unfair because contemporary society offered Avery/men so many more outlets than Helen/women if they found themselves in unhappy marriages, and it makes my teeth grind.
Definitely! It was the kind of time period where men were almost expected to fuck around outside of their marriages, even if they were relatively happy. If they were actively unhappy, then they could do anything they please and it wouldn't be their fault at all. While women couldn't even look at another man without risking their reputation...
One of the things I find really like about Helen is the somewhat mercenary way she racks and stacks her suitors. I find it really admirable. If society is going to make her ability to live comfortably solely dependent on her spouse, then she is going to choose her spouse largely for his ability to provide a comfortable lifestyle, social opprobrium be damned.
I like that too! She's very casually ambitious and focused on making herself comfortable, and honestly I find that great about her. She's very, very much a realist in a lot of ways; and while that clashes with poor Avery quite a lot, who obviously thought that he was marrying for love and only later figured out that Helen was marrying based largely on practical considerations, I cannot fault her for it at all. I would kill to see Helen interacting with Blake a bit more, and with Matty too!
Or worse still, if his infidelity is what effects a reconciliation between him and Helen, which I don't believe is out of the realm of possibility in future books.
Oh, nooooo. I mean, I'm not that much of a fan of infidelity as a plot device anyway... But at least have Avery have an affair with Blake, instead of dragging all these poor innocent women into it!
Particularly in an era when you do start to see women agitating for the social space to have more independent thoughts, as you say. That move would be a Very Collinson Thing To Do.TM
I must admit, that I do have a fairly involved fic idea in my head that involves Helen somehow being revealed as a former spy - perhaps due to a murder that she ends up having to investigate with Matty - and being convinced to work with Blake & Avery to bring Collinson down. It would be literally novel length, which is why I haven't even attempted to write it, but I still regularly return to play around with it. XD