Patrick

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Patrick's romantic life provides a lot of scope for speculation.  The canon only provides Ginty, Claudie, and Nicola.  I'll state up front that, of the three, Nicola is obviously the best match, in my opinion.  Claudie is a non-starter, and unless Ginty gets a massive dose of maturity or Patrick goes off the deep end, we can rule Ginty out.

On the other hand, I see other possibilities.  First Rowan, for all that there's an age difference.  They certainly interact well together at the Nativity play in End of Term.  And I can see each providing the other with something each lacks - a romanticism that would be a nice break from Rowan's constant level-headedness, and a practicality that might help Patrick go somewhere in life.

The other, surprisingly enough, is Ann.  She is the only religious Marlow, and surely between low church Anglican and conservative Roman Catholic they could find some common ground. With the Anglican communion having its own turmoil, Ann might decide she doesn't want a woman vicar or blessings of same-sex unions.  One suspects that Antonia Forest would have found today's religious landscape very interesting (and would have been very happy with the new Pope).

Comments

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Well, with Rowan I think it's opposites attracting. And if Rowan decides she wants to get married, she might want something other than the local farmers (yes, there's always Ronnie, but I suspect he's dull in his own way). Patrick is a known quality, and besides, their lands run together and bigger is better. Marrying a younger man would be a rational Rowan decision.

Ann is almost totally on a common religiosity, even if it's different churches.

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Can't you see Ann reading Jane Eyre and thinking that Jane made a bad choice?

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

This. Though Patrick / The Pre-Vatican II Church also has legs, I feel.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

A discussion between Patrick and Madam Orly would be very interesting.

And, should it develop in a matrimonial direction, very unexpected! ^_^

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Well, lots of people do. A good friend of mine (not at ALL like Ann -- okay, except for being nice, reliable, etc.) didn't read Jane Eyre until she was past forty, and found Rochester deeply creepy and controlling (and Jane's not going back to him until he was safely maimed and harmless, as well as wifeless, might be sensible, but was also a bit creepy, she felt).

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Would St. John Rivers be any better? What's the line Dorothy L. Sayers quotes?

"He for God only, she for God in him."

And as a Canadian St. John Rivers sounds too much like the main stream in New Brunswick. http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Saint%20John%20River%20(New%20Brunswick)/

[charverz.livejournal.com]

ankaret, you're talking of my childhood. I was 10 when Vatican II happened.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Oh, lord no. Rivers (whose first name is probably pronounced Sinjin, by the way, if that makes you feel any less geographical about him) would have been much worse.

I just hope Rochester didn't have VD.

[manda-09.livejournal.com]

I think it's an example of sibling-dismissal, in terms of Nicola's attitude to Patrick's religion set against her attitude to Ann's.

[manda-09.livejournal.com]

I agree - I first read JE at about 10 / 11, and found Mr R deeply creepy then!

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Ah but that seems to be what girls want. Byron may have been "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" but that didn't stop Lady Caroline Lamb from chasing him.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I don't believe that even Lady Caroline Lamb was consciously courting VD.

If you're asserting that what 'girls' want is a charismatic bastard (and incidentally, how do you square that with thinking that Ann might prefer Rivers? Do you not consider Ann female?) then how does that relate to potential partners for Patrick?

I think some people here would see him as a charismatic Junior Byron type, and some as quite the reverse.

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

Dead under a traction engine, iirc.

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

It doesn't count as a single-hander if you have anyone else aboard, with the possible exception of a cat.

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

Did Byron have VD, do we know? That rather bizarre Fiona Macarthy biog (you know, the one that explained with regard to "Mad Jack"Byron that this proved 'incest tended to run in families' suggested the friend he'd been travelling round Europe with had picked up a nasty dose of clap in Lisbon, and then still suggested that the reason they split up in Athens was so Byron could explore his bisexuality, though plenty of interrailing holidays have come apart over "And you've been moaning about your embarassing itches for the last 800 miles" without needing any further embellishment.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Byron's hardly my specialty, so I don't know how good the evidence is, but as far as I can tell from a quick trawl through Google Books, an awful lot of authors have indeed said that he had VD at various times, and some assert that he may have died, or had death hastened, from complications thereof.

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Modern girls, based on my sons' experiences. Ann is hardly a modern girl. Ann would have eagerly thrown herself into Rivers's missionary work.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Byron's death is pretty well documented and my understanding is that it was principally the effective of bleeding as a remedy.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Based on what? That she's willing to do Peter's share of the washing-up? There's a sharp division, as Ann's Patrol were astute enough to point out in Autumn Term, between Ann's self-sacrificing behaviour towards her family and her attitude towards the rest of the world, which is still principled but much more brisk and hard-headed. One might
almost call it Rowanish, in the small glimpses we see when she's dealing with her dormitory babies.

Also, Ann has no money. Therefore, short of Mme Orly leaving her an inheritance (and I'd say Ginty was a more likely beneficiary), I doubt Rivers would have been interested.

[owl]

Ann is, however, closer to modern than Caro Lamb was. In every age, some women will unfortunately go for the bastards, and those with more of a sense of self-preservation, won't.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

'Worst sense of self-preservation' among the Marlows is probably a tie between Peter and Ginty. Karen ranks surprisingly high, though I don't think anyone outdoes Lawrie. ;)

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Does anyone besides me think that Peter won't end up in the Royal Navy after all? I think a sense of self-preservation may make him consider a career change after he leaves Dartmouth.

[coughingbear]

Yes, of course. I couldn't remember exactly when it met its end, but I knew it was bad!

[coughingbear]

Hmm, just given that there are quite a few 'modern girls' commenting here that they aren't particularly fond of the Byron type, I think that generalisation falls down rather fast.

I can see Ann throwing herself into missionary work (as of course we know Forest envisaged in a way, though taking the form of working as a nurse in developing countries), but I think she is also quite independent and, like Rowan, used to making up her own mind and running things. I can't see her as a helpmate in the way St John Rivers had in mind. I've argued before that she's just as much officer material as Nicola and Rowan.

[coughingbear]

I hope the Navy's sense of self-preservation will make them encourage him to consider a career change!