#I can condone my brother the heir being a dissolute egotistical gambler and I will enable him as much as humanly possible | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thatscarletflycatcher · 2 months

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This is the third novel centered on a Squire that I pick that has a main plot line about inheritance (I did dnf The Squire's Daughter before I could tell if that was going to be the case as well), and I'm thinking that if it wasn't that Wives and Daughters came over a decade before these, I would think Gaskell was lampshading the inheritance trope in it.

#like nope young Osborne is inheriting everything yup and everybody loves him and no one is contesting him #i wonder if they chose squires because anything titled would have been considered much more risky #the novels are #Squire Arden probably one of the most disappointing novels I have ever read #three whole volumes to have absolutely no plot and no plot twist #it wasn't even a slice of life story it just... was whatever it was #then The Squire of Sandal-Side which was much better but also somewhat hilarious #the pov character be like #I can condone my brother the heir being a dissolute egotistical gambler and I will enable him as much as humanly possible #but I draw the line at him marrying AN ITALIAN and a Catholic #and a singer too but you know that wouldn't have been an issue if she was British #and the novel is like “this is the lowest point on my rather obvious prodigal son metaphor” XD #the third one is An English Squire #I'm only just 20% in so I don't know where is it going exactly #but the premise is interesting #it is about a squire who married a Spanish woman in his youth and had a child with her #then she died and his father died and he remarried #but his first son Alvar remains the legitimate heir #and when he comes of age he comes to visit him and his family #we'll see

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