"Sheer want of personality"
Summer Half!
by Angela Thirkell (1937)
The denouement of Philip Winter’s ill-begotten engagement to featherbrained Rose Birkett is enacted in full view of Southbridge School’s extended family during a holiday break.
Everyone, including her parents, is rooting for Philip’s escape which occurs when Rose breaks it off as the utter dullness of being engaged overwhelms her.
Along the way, we enjoy the tea party where Rose, “through sheer want of personality bring(s) the talk to her own level” and confounds her audience by insisting that Hamlet and Shakespeare are both names of plays (and probably the same one).
As in many of Thirkell’s books, the characters refer to a body of literature, both classic and modern, with a casualness that would be improbable today; the assumption of a shared background and culture having been lost.
The ceremony of the Cleaning of the Pond by Lydia, Eric Swan, and a much improved Tony Morland brings the holiday to a satisfactory conclusion as does a match between Kate Keith and Everard Carter.
Dreamstory, Chapter Three: Unitarian Church
UNITARIAN CHURCH
Barnstable Patriot, May 23, 1968
http://digital.olivesoftware.com/olive/apa/sturgis/sharedview.article.aspx?href=BAR%2F1968%2F05%2F23&id=Ar00400&sk=8FD39EEE&viewMode=image
Speaker for the 11 a.m. service of the Unitarian Church May 26 will be Louis Jacobucci, executive director of MSPCC, who has been chairman of the social concerns committee of the church and is chairman of the prudential committee. Among other activities are membership in Hyannis Rotary; he is also vice president of Cape Cod Community Council and chairman of Community Action Committee of Cape Cod.
"So, look. Miss Andrews."
"Yes."
"You understand this is a very serious charge to bring against anyone."
"Yes."
"Let alone your own brother."
"Yes."
"It never happened."
"Well, actually, it kind of totally did."
"You are deluded."
"Well, that may be, but I would submit that my mental health history is a result of having stuff like that done to me in the first place."
"You lie."
"I don't, actually. In fact, this is the first...
Dreamstory, Chapter One: What Happens At The End
By Velveteen Andrews
"What?!"
"I didn't say anything."
"How can you say such a thing?"
"I'm not going through this again."
"What do you mean?"
"All this -- denial. I'm done. I'm just going to say exactly what happened as I remember it."
"It never happened!"
"The reason I know it happened is that I renember it. I was eight years old. My brother was twelve years old. I was able to recover the date because I remember at some point in the week preceding the event, our father for some reason had told us, I'm going to be speaking at the Unitarian Church this Sunday at 11:00. It did not seem weird to me at the time, because he was always out of the house anyway. Plus all he used to when he was home was harangue me, so good."
"You lie."
"In fact, I remember thinking, it made sense that he would get something going on Sundays, because that was the only time he was ever even around anymore. Weekdays he was working, of course, and weeknights he was always at one of his many, many important community ...
