"my dearest Matilda, permit me to offer you my hand"

Yes, that line is spoken by the creepy Uncle Weimar, who we've just found out is not her uncle. Ew.

I'll get back to that in a moment.

The last time I wrote about this book I really did Matilda a disservice. I didn't like her going on and on and weeping. This time I'm a bit more kindly disposed. Considering the time period, yes, this would not only be a huge shock, but also completely upend her life and change how everyone sees her.

I've talked before on this blog on how the lower class aren't expected to be intelligent or witty or capable because they are not gentry. Parsons makes this clear in the way Matilda and Victoria talk about their servants as if they own them and how Joseph and Bertha don't argue with either Uncle Weimar or Count Wolfenbach because those men are their "betters."

By rights she shouldn't even have been talking to the gentry, much less be among them as an equal, as she had been.

But I'm out of time for posting for today, so tomorrow I'll get to the uncle. I promise.