The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

For those with books divided into sections, this week’s reading includes Volume 2, chapters 1 and 2. For those with just chapters, it’s through chapter 30.

Ritt is still in London trying to answer the Kinf’s summon for over two months. He finally comes before Chief Justice Jefferies who asks him about the Doones, De Whichehalse, and Tom. Jefferies warns Ritt to have Tom change his name and stop being a highwayman.

Ritt walks home, and we experience the harvest celebration. Ritt learns Annie is in love with Tom. Annie learns about Lorna.

1. What do you think of the Chief Justice and the court system?

2. Once again we have comments about females. Do you think this due to the time period of the setting, the time period of writing, or other? Why do you think the comments are so contradictory?

Sorry, isn't it Ridd, not Ritt? that's why Jefferies makes so many jokes about his name (as well as his size). What a waste of time to keep John in London so long for that conversation. I liked how there was a switch to the usual trope of the rube being cheated in the big city. John ends up getting offered a purse of money, but he then refuses to take any more than his debts - and gets carried away buying presents.

Robin wrote: "Sorry, isn't it Ridd, not Ritt? that's why Jefferies makes so many jokes about his name (as well as his size). What a waste of time to keep John in London so long for that conversation. I liked how..."

I may have confused myself

This Section answers some questions and brings up some more:

1. We get a better idea of the Doones. Before the Chief judge, Ridd states that the Doones consist of "about forty of them, beside the women and children," so likely over 100 total in Dooneville. And they have been there for 30 or 40 years.
2. We know why Jan was brought to London, although I don't completely get why Jan himself was the chosen one. However, while it seems much ado about nothing, one has the suspicion that these events and discussions may provide the groundwork for future plot events.
3. The Chief Judge alleges that the de Whichehalse family is in league with the Doones, which surprised me. It made me think that Annie might get involved with them, although she now loves Tom Faggus, the allegedly honorable bandit. But this section ends with Annie dancing with Squire Marwood de Whichehalse. so...... with 2/3 of the book left, there is much to come later.

Yes, I was also surprised the judge brought the Whichehalse family into it (as was John). Have they been wrongly suspected, or is there just something we don't yet know about them?

It's definitely picking up now, but there is a lot of the book left, so I suppose much more will happen. I suppose the historical events will take a more prominent place than they have so far (had to look up Lord William Russell on Wikipedia to understand what that was about).

I really enjoy the descriptions of nature and the farm animals, how the author personifies them.

If Lorna were to fall in love with John (as I'm sure will happen), what options would they have? If John just took her home with him, the Doones would murder them and his whole family. Even if he took her abroad, the Doones would still find out John was the one who took her and murder his family as revenge. Since John is narrating the story, we know he lived to be a middle-aged (or old? I forget) man. His tone when talking about love is rather bittersweet, making me think that he didn't succeed in marrying Lorna, or that he did and she didn't live long after that. Also, he's implied that something bad happened to Annie or Tom or both. In the second chapter, John also implied some victory over the Doones. So I'm looking forward to find out what happened.

Lori, I didn't realize, until I just checked it now, that Chief Judge Jeffreys was an (in)famous real figure too. I will have to check the history out as this goes on since I'm not that up on 17th Century British history. I recently read two histories by Dan Jones but they just got me from the 12 century to the beginning of the 16th century.

Oh, I didn't realize he was a real figure; just Wiki'd him now. Interesting! I wasn't familiar with the Monmouth Rebellion at all. I like reading these historical novels because I get to learn a lot about the historical figures and events in the process.

Wikipedia said that Jeffreys did the prosecution of Lord Russell and was rewarded with becoming Chief Judge. I will learn some history as we go on too since, as I said, I'm fairly weak on the Charles, James, William & Mary, Anne years - heck I'm weak until Victoria actually. I too hadn't heard of the Monmouth Rebellion or any of this.

Robin is the only one of the 11 members who voted for Lorna Doone that is participating in this discussion. That is not atypical. Its fine if members read and don't comment, at least with this book, as I am very much enjoying this discussion which actually has a nice number of participants. There are six active participants. including Charlotte and myself. The discussion is probably helped by having four moderators as participants, Deborah, Robin, Lori and Candace, and having everyone chime in each thread. (having 4 out of the 8 messages in this thread, I realize I'm chiming a bit too often)
EDIT: and have moderator Rosemarie chime in too as she read it before - no spoilers! I have to admit I'm interested in seeing where this is going.

You can chime in as much as you want Brian!

Brian and Lori, thanks for sharing your interesting thoughts!

Lori, we still haven’t heard more about the mysterious rumbling in the night, have we?

When I saw the video about the Exmoor landscape, https://youtu.be/aDhxiYqj-1o
, it ocurred to me that it could be explained by the waves from the sea coming from a distance - although Ridd does not think about this.

Sometimes distant noises are clearer in the still of the night. I can hear a train 3 km away, but only at night.

Something gave me a hypothesis, but I don't remember if it was in this week's section or the next one, so I'll post it in Week 6. It's probably wrong, but just an idea.

It's been nice to read through the comments and understand the historical context better.

Was anyone else thrown by Lord Russell's murder in the first paragraph in Chp. 25? There was just one short paragraph on the subject and then John goes back to recounting his court time in London. I had to reread the previous chapter to see if I had missed anything! Who was Lord Russell? Had his character been mentioned previously? A murder is a pretty big deal - why was it mentioned in such a short and seemingly random paragraph? Ah, so confusing! Thanks to reading the comments, I realize now that it was a real historical happening instead of fictional - which makes a bit more sense. Will be interesting to research it more and understand the time period better.

It's so neat to know from Brian that Chief Judge Jeffreys was a real person! By the end of the London affair, his character really grew on me.

This is one of the neatest aspects of historical fiction - you learn so much of history, the people, and places you never really knew of before.

Which, thanks to Charlotte, I didn't know Exmoor was a real place till now! HOW NEAT! Looking forward to watching the landscape video!

One of our members, who hasn’t been out here for a while, actually grew up in the area that the book is set,