Part 1: Tumperkin explores their significance and structure, focusing on Gaffney, Carlyle and Balogh.
Part 2: Jessica, never one to lose an opportunity to Create a List, does so, and throws in some contemp and paranormal.
As usual with us, you will need a 3 day supply of food, a sleeping bag, and a flashlight to get through this post. Edited to add: now with a Darcylicious reward at the end.
Part 1: by Tumperkin
One of my favourite elements of romance is the Excruciating Moment. This is a common device but it’s not easy to do well. It’s a moment of high emotion and deep conflict and is often one in which one of the protagonists – the hero usually – has not behaved well.
Probably my favourite Excruciating Moment is to be found in To Have and To Hold by Patricia Gaffney. No, I’m not revisiting the forced seduction again. I’m talking about the scene in which Sebastian lets his horrible friends interrogate Rachel about her period of imprisonment. They are cruel and intrusive, amused and titillated by her suffering. And through it all, Sebastian is on their side. He knows he’s being appalling but he just lets this happen; lets his inaction act as their permission. The discussion turns to the crime Rachel was accused of and why it happened. It culminates in a question of shocking prurience that makes Rachel finally run from the room and leads one of her questioners to believe Sebastian won’t even care if he forces himself on Rachel. The resultant events are climatic and change the course of the whole story.
