Portable Magic
Reading, for me, is entertainment and an escape from the real world. But it can also inform and stretch the boundaries of the life I live.
Currently reading
The Secret of the Old Clock – ND1.2
Continued: Reading the 1930 & 1959 versions of The Secret of The Old Clock simultaneously, comparing differences in the story and characters, and pondering dated plot points. Spoilers: full plot description below!
1930 (Chs 4-6) Nancy meets Allie & Grace Horner, dirt poor orphan sisters who bravely make ends meet by raising chickens and part time dressmaking. Spunky Allie needs her inheritance to buy a flock of white leghorns so they can better support themselves. Nancy butts in, asks questions, and promises to help. 1959 (Ch 5) Nancy meets Allison & Grace Horner, dirt poor orphan sisters who bravely make ends meet by raising chickens and part time dressmaking. These sisters are more refined and feminine than their 1930 selves. Grace bakes a yummy cake for Allison's birthday and sweet, wistful Allison needs the inheritance so she can get professional voice training for the singing career she longs for. No chickens for the modern Allison. Nancy asks a few discreet questions, but mostly is passive while the girls offer information. Nancy promises to help.
1930 Nancy sees the mean Topham sisters in the park and hides in the bushes to eavesdrop. Nancy hears the sisters saying nasty things about herself and hoping she doesn't find the new will. Nancy excitedly tells her father about the will and cheerfully blows off his warning that involving herself may be dangerous. Father cheers her on, praises her determination, sends her to courthouse to look up other relatives.
1930 (Chs 7-9) Nancy hears that Grace hasn’t had any dressmaking work for 3 months because people would rather buy ready made dresses. Nancy engages her to make her a dress, because unlike her virtuous 1959 self, she didn’t save the shopgirl by buying the ready made dress that the Topham girl tore. Then she visits the Mathews brothers and Turner sisters who are “regular old maids, but awfully nice”. LOL, I guess being old maids is this set of Crowley cousin’s great tragedy. 1959 (Ch 6) Nancy gets a little more busybodyish as she makes a free appointment for the Horner sisters with her attorney dad and with a famous voice teacher that she just happens to be buddies with (along with the mayor – Nancy is a VIP in town!). She springs the surprise audition on Allison Horner (rude!), but Allison does so well that she’s declared a future opera star, or could be, if only she had the money for lessons. There’s no discussion of finding her a scholarship. So Nancy sets her up for even more disappointment, I guess.
... To be continued!
Index of posts for The Secret of the Old Clock:
11
6