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Sir Charles Grandison has quite a bit in common with Richardson’s previous book, Clarissa. Both are massive epistolary novels with the main characters writing to each other about current events, and both have characters of similar class with similar issues. Richardson, in his capacity as “editor” (wink, wink) of both books, states that his purpose in writing Sir Charles Grandison was to publish an example of “the character and actions of a man of TRUE HONOUR,” presumably as a counterpoint to the female excellence of Clarissa Harlowe.

In the first volume of Sir Charles Grandison, readers are introduced to Harriet Byron, a young lady of the gentry who lives with her aunt and uncle Selby, as she leaves their charming company for a stay in London with her cousins Reeves. Miss Byron is a prolific writer, much like Clarissa, though we rarely see the Selby’s responses to her epistles; thus far, the book seems almost like one long letter from Harriet to her cousin Lucy. The main plot thread thus far has been, much to Miss Byron’s dismay, her inundation with beaus, or “humble servants,” as she calls them: I counted at least 6 in this volume alone. The conflict lies in the fact that Miss Byron is spirited away by one of the more vehement beaus, Sir Hargrave Pollexfen, whose surname conjures up unhealthy obsession. After almost being forced to marry Sir Hargrave, Miss Byron is providentially rescued by the baronet Sir Charles Grandison (another man with a telling surname), the book’s hero. Extreme gratitude and praise ensues.

This volume seemed almost like a microcosm of Clarissa, with a happy outcome: the heroine is unpleasantly annoyed with too many admirers, one of whom contrives to get her away from her friends and family. In this case, however, the family is loving and supportive, allowing Harriet to make her own choice of husband; Harriet is not strong enough to escape on her own power from Sir Hargrave, and falls into the protection of Sir Charles.

The two main female characters whose personalities we have been introduced to thus far are Miss Byron, and Charlotte Grandison, Sir Charles’s younger sister. Both of these young ladies are exemplary women, with personalities–particularly the latter–that have a lot in common with Anna Howe, Clarissa’s confidante: they are vivacious and a bit saucy, intelligent, and respectful of family duty. On the very last page of this volume, Harriet and Charlotte even have a brief conversation about Miss Howe and her beau, Mr. Hickman, comparing their behavior to Charlotte and one of her admirers.

Up Next…

I am starting to work on the second volume of Sir Charles Grandison, as well as the DH Lawrence book The White Peacock. Looks like the bulk of Sir Charles Vol. 2 will be a history of the Grandison family, which should be super exciting. See me jump up and down in joyful anticipation. I’m jumping.

After a bit of a delay due to excessive vacationing in June, I have finished off a new text for Project Gutenberg. I started work on The History of Sir Charles Grandison shortly after The White Devil, but being another wordy epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson (published in the wake of his masterpiece Clarissa) this volume took considerably longer to type out than Webster’s short revenge tragedy.

Notice my use of the word volume. Although Sir Charles Grandison weighs in behind the massive Clarissa at a slender seven volumes (about 2,400 pages), it is still going to take at least as many months to complete. This will especially be true since I am considering working on other books in between volumes to break up the excessive 18th-century politeness and decorum.

A review of the first volume of Sir Charles Grandison is forthcoming, as is a link to the PG version of the book, when I get it.

This weekend in Salem, we had sweltering heat, upwards of 100ºF. Since our house is old with old windows and no A/C, we were feeling pretty wilted. Jeremy retreated to the cool basement to play computer games (first time in quite a while!), and I sat upstairs in the sauna—er, home theatre room—and mustered up just enough energy to hold a book.

‘Salem’s Lot is one of the King books I have been wanting to read for a while, but was never able to find when I thought to look for it. Finally, I got ahold of a copy, and read it in less than a week. This book was Stephen King’s second novel, written in 1975. It is a vampire story modeled on Bram Stoker’s type, but characteristic of King, it is set in a small Maine town called Jerusalem’s Lot.

As the title indicates, the town itself is much more the subject of this book than the vampires. It was several hundred pages before we first get a clear indication that vampires are the villains of the story, and at least halfway through before the main characters start to consider this. Instead, the focus is on the town: the grand passage of time—or lack thereof—in this small rural borough, and the more mundane ins and outs of its inhabitants’ daily lives. Although the story has a small core of heroes, the book weaves their activities together with those of the town’s locals, dwelling on the potential for evil that simmers everywhere just under the surface.

‘Salem’s Lot was a well written book. Although an early book, it has all the components of King’s best work: a scary, compelling plot with a supernatural twist, yet deeply connected to human nature through his detailed characterization of the rural town’s inhabitants. I also appreciated that it doesn’t end with a huge supernatural battle between good and evil, a device which seems rather forced in many of King’s later books—instead, the final conflict is both realistic and satisfying. Definitely a recommended book.

Finally took pictures of three drawings I finished this weekend. They are now up in the gallery. I really need to do some painting, not sure when I’ll be able to find the time though. I also need to do some more copying out of the Bargue Cours de Dessin as well so I’m not sure when the next gallery update will be.

-Jeremy

Pandora loves to eat human food, especially cooked chicken, but she isn’t fussy, and will take whatever she can get her mouth on. She also loves Nutrical (a high-calorie paste for ferrets) and Ferretone (a nasty oil that’s good for their coats). Loki loves to beg for her treats, which are usually raisins or Cheerios, or the ferret treats, or even kibble, if we hold a piece up like it’s a treat. She also attempts to raid bowls of cereal and ice cream, and eats fruit and other sweet things.

Rocky, however, is a very fussy eater. He was the first ferret we had ever heard of, who would not even try raisins or Nutrical—we had to force them into his mouth the first few times. Now his list of acceptable treats includes raisins, yogurt treats, Nutrical and Ferretone. We have also been successful getting him used to eating chicken gravy (the kind where we grind up a whole fryer—skin, bones, and all—especially to make a meat gravy for the ferrets), but he turns up his nose at everything else. It’s kind of refreshing to have a ferret who doesn’t beg for human food off our dinner plates.

He’s so fussy that he hardly ever even gives kisses. The other ferrets will lick our hands when they are sleepy, or our feet when we get out of the shower, and most of them will give ferret kisses on our noses also. Rocky doesn’t lick skin. The photo above is literally one of the very few times when I have convinced him to give kisses because my fingers had Ferretone on them.

A quick update to the Sparks Gallery: I added two new images to my section, both prints from recent exchanges. One was for an open-themed exchange for Baren Forum, and the other was for a self-portrait exchange.

Jeremy will also be posting some new drawings as soon as he gets good photographs of them.

-Julie

Rocky is not very picky when it comes to toys, but he does have a few favorites. Among normal ferret toys, he loves a hard treat ball—even though we no longer put treats in it—and pushes it up and down inside the cage. He also likes to play with the old sock toy and knitted hemp jingle ball I made him, batting them like mad behind my roll-top desk.

Rocky’s favorite items, though, are often not toys at all. He likes anything made of soft plastic, rubber, leather, or cardboard. He used to try to steal Jeremy’s leather belt off his waist every day. He attempts to stash large cardboard boxes in very small spaces, ripping them to bits first if necessary. He makes off with Jeremy’s video game controllers, and sometimes pulls on power cords as well. Combined with his propensity for clumsiness and his ability to get on top of things we thought he couldn’t reach (like my desk, TV tables and bookshelves, etc.), we have to keep a close eye on Rocky to keep him safe and out of trouble.

Rocky is our ambassador ferret, because he is so sweet and gentle with everyone, and is not nearly as wiggly as Loki. His only greeting requirement is to climb up to the face of the person holding him, and sniff their lips to identify them, every single time he gets picked up. He has holes in the iris of one of his eyes, so I think he sees more poorly than the other ferrets.

Rocky loves to play: with us, with the other ferrets, and with his toys. He can get a little hyper when Jeremy and I wrestle with him, and grabs our wrists like he would another ferret’s scruff, but he never breaks the skin. Rocky gets along with all the other ferrets except Nikita, who is scared of him for some unexplained reason, and he prefers wrestling with them to playing with people. When he gets in the wrestling mood, he bounces after his playmates like Pepe LePew, completely at leisure, yet overtaking them right away. Rocky’s long legs give him an advantage, and he has a mean sidesweep that flips the girls over so he can scruff them. Only huge Ajax is immune to The Rok’s moves. But no matter how long Rocky can keep his motor revving, sooner or later it’s time for bed.

It’s been a while since I wrote about my knitting. I have continued working on the red Brilla shell, and this weekend I finally finished knitting the back, as you can see above. I’m now about two pattern repeats in on the front. Progress greatly improved once I remembered to use a row-by-row index card flipbook to keep track of the lace pattern, which is rather long.

In my last knitting post, I was worried about the way my measurements were coming out. I decided just to keep going, though, and as the lace relaxed under its own weight, that problem corrected itself. Now I think it will fit nicely when blocked. I did notice, however, that the model in the photo has a significantly longer waist measurement than the pattern indicates—this comes just past my waist, while the photo shows something that passes the hips. Not a complaint from my perspective, but something to be aware of.

Ragnarok (a.k.a. Rocky, The Rok, Rocketman, Rock Star, Busted) is a 4-year old black sable ferret, which just means that his fur is very dark brown. When he was a kit, he had a stronger T-mask; he has lightened up a bit as he ages, though not to the extent of a roan.

Although Rocky was a pet store ferret, he was not from Marshall Farms, and has no identifying tattoos at all. The store could only tell us he came from Canada. At any rate, The Rok was still neutered at an early age, a fact which we believe stunted his growth significantly. He still has outsized limbs and tail, which makes him a very lanky ferret, but Rocky could have been a Big Boy if he had had the chance to really grow up.

This past winter, at the age of 3.5, Rocky began to lose fur in patches on his back, and become more vocal and aggressive, particularly with the girls. We were suspicious, and the vet confirmed that he was developing an adrenal gland tumor, a common disease among early neuters. Although at these early stages he was in no pain, eventually the tumor would cause a fatal overload of hormones.

By the time he went in for surgery, Rocky’s skinny little bod was mostly bald, from hair loss caused by the disease, and from having been shaved for tests. I felt like crying every time I looked at him. However, the operation, though one of the more complicated types of adrenal surgery (a ferret’s right gland is wrapped in the vena cava), was a complete success. Within a few months, Rocky’s hair began to grow back. Now he is fat, sleek, and sassy again, and very happy to be able to play nicely with his buddies.

Tangential note for knitters: See that sweater I’m wearing? I made it.