I've been reading this again without my PoGS hate goggles on this time, partly because I think it is very very sweet and good comfort reading, and partly because I've been reading a bit about Lebas and was interested in what Élisabeth's story was.
I have some very frivolous comments - The Lebas/Élisabeth courtship story I've heard before elsewhere, the virtuous lover testing his beloved by asking her to find him a pretty, pleasure loving selfish partner turns up in a lot of fairytale and folklore. I'm not sure if that meant Lebas had been reading fairy stories, or if Élisabeth had been adding rose tints as she remembered the events, or if modern tellings of fairy stories now include 18th century norms. Is it possibly something that turned up in Rousseau? (Incidentally, I prefer theory 1, but I'm willing to admit it might be bunk.)
“My friend, it’s our Élisabeth, our scatterbrain, that M. Le Bas is asking us in marriage."
"my mother made a few more objections on my distractedness;"
Does anyone else get the suspicion that Élisabeth and Robespierre might have bonded so closely because they had something in common?
Also, if Élisabeth and others thought Robespierre had some understanding with Éléonore, how does Mme Duplay's comments about getting Éléonore married off before Élisabeth fit in? Does she still see Éléonore as eligible at this point, or is she trying to protect her youngest daughter for getting embrolied in political turmoil?
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I have some very frivolous comments - The Lebas/Élisabeth courtship story I've heard before elsewhere, the virtuous lover testing his beloved by asking her to find him a pretty, pleasure loving selfish partner turns up in a lot of fairytale and folklore. I'm not sure if that meant Lebas had been reading fairy stories, or if Élisabeth had been adding rose tints as she remembered the events, or if modern tellings of fairy stories now include 18th century norms. Is it possibly something that turned up in Rousseau? (Incidentally, I prefer theory 1, but I'm willing to admit it might be bunk.)
“My friend, it’s our Élisabeth, our scatterbrain, that M. Le Bas is asking us in marriage."
"my mother made a few more objections on my distractedness;"
Does anyone else get the suspicion that Élisabeth and Robespierre might have bonded so closely because they had something in common?
Also, if Élisabeth and others thought Robespierre had some understanding with Éléonore, how does Mme Duplay's comments about getting Éléonore married off before Élisabeth fit in? Does she still see Éléonore as eligible at this point, or is she trying to protect her youngest daughter for getting embrolied in political turmoil?