I started out reading what Chesterton didn't like about David Copperfield (at the end, all the fascinatingly weird people take off for Australia, leaving just Dave and his boring second wife) and found myself reading Bleak House and hoping I wasn't really like Mrs. Jellyby.
She's the one pursuing a plan to resettle "the surplus population" in Africa and get them to teach the natives to make piano legs. Meanwhile, her house is in chaos, the kids are in actual danger, the food isn't cooked, her eldest has never learned to do anything but take dictation, and a houseguest has to wash his hands in a pie plate.
Yes, being middle class, she has servants who are supposed to do the housework. But they're the kind who won't unless they're checked up on. It's all Mrs. Jellyby's fault, of course -- and the fault of the people who praise her for her "good works", which seem to be still at the letter-dictating and flyer-mailing stage.
No comments:
Post a Comment