And a footnote

A few pages after 'the twist, the surprise', there's a footnote in my edition that comments on an apparent critical controversy around Scott's insertion of 'the twist, the surprise'. If I had time, I'd read more about this...it would be interesting. It would be especially interesting to find out when these critical comments were made. Literary fashions change and maybe critics aren’t always honourable in how they understand the times in which the book was actually engendered and written. The footnote briefly suggests that readers (whoever that refers to) found the turn of events contrived and far-fetched. Personally, I loved it. I thought it was classic gothic and very comical (to my mind - these are two things that naturally go together). It also functioned narratively as a way of bringing all of the characters together effectively to share some information and revelations and as a transition to the next episode – the battle for Rebecca – which turned out to be an incredibly short section – I would write a footnote on that – though I loved Brian de Bois Guilbert’s final moments – very interesting character altogether. He’s driven by passion and this makes him human despite being a bad guy. Yet his ‘unbalance’ is not madness in the stereotypical sense. He doesn't loll around with his head in his hands talking nonsense - though he does become uncontrollable. Indeed, in the end, his madness manifests itself through the body. Scott talks about his face a lot…and it is the last part of him that we see – Malvoisin has to see his face and read it. It’s one of those extreme close-up pov to zoom out to crane shot scenes. But too short.