Dear golly it has been over a year since I posted here!
What I have for you today felt as though it couldn't really go much elsewhere and I do apologise for the fact I do not have the patience to describe the whole story of Parade's End.
I in the past couple of days have gone through the BBC miniseries that came out in 2012 with the wonderful Benedict Cumberbatch. I have to say to my sister and I's standards that man certainly has the hair gift to pull off all sorts of natural tones and blonde and his character of Christopher Tietjens was one of my favourites.
What I love about Christopher Tietjens is that he wasn't afraid to be proper when it could have otherwise have been easy to say, to hell with it. He sees what he sees and he feels what he feels but he accepts that sometimes being proper doesn't work anymore. When being proper doesn't hold value anymore. Even though propriety can lead to unhappiness. What I admire about Tietjens is that he has such an immense amount of knowledge and enviable foresight with the knowledge that he has. It takes one to be able to put information into places where they have meaning and can be applied.
What I admire about his wife, cruel as she is and as much as she wants all that she wants for herself, is that she sees what kind of a man her husband is. How straight and proper and kind he is to not disgrace her. And how that frustrates her that he uses what he knows for right.
Lady Macmaster makes me laugh as a character too and makes me quite sad, in a sense but I'm glad that Valentine holds onto her own beliefs and values no matter what happens. I love her valiant fight for happiness and for girls to understand and not be kept in the dark. For education and equal rights. Lady Macmaster I think was overshadowed by her wild pastor of a husband who was utterly mad. She was scared for what would happen and it made her quite the lady who valued survival. But of course once he had died and was out of the way her true self came out and deary me.
Overall I have to say I detest how rumours can spread and how easy it is to misjudge the values of others in comparison to what we hold dear in ourselves. How unhappy propriety in the face of impropriety can make us. And how you cannot not love the traditions we hold amongst friends and frenemies alike.
