Humorous Hyperbole
The novel is notable for its comic sensibility and this educated form of playfulness arrives fairly early on with a metaphorical image that is pure hyperbole and gains its comic edge from that overstatement. It helps to know that “auto-da-fe” refers to nasty Spanish Inquisition process of burning heretics:
“She looked rather like a victim going to an Auto da Fe, but her destination was merely the bathroom.”
Literary Allusions
In addition to historical allusions, the narrator turns to the world of literature to create metaphorical comparisons through the art of the simile:
“Now it is nearly midnight. I feel rather like a Bronte myself, writing by the light of a guttering candle with my fingers so numb I can hardly hold the pencil.”
Reading and Writing and Stuff (Not ‘rithmetic)
The entire novel is about writing. And reading. And living. And stuff. And how it kind of all blends together. The narrator is attempting to keep a record of life at the castle—Godsend Castle. It certainly helps that she is an imaginative reader first. Although the line between reading and writing is a bit blurred:
“When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it-or rather, it is like living it.”
The (Oh-so-Much) Older Sister
The narrator has an older sister. When the narrator is a girl on the brink of womanhood in these types of gothic-y stories, there is very often an older sister. The story is told in the first person, by the younger sis, so keep perception in mind as well as perspective when she describes her older sister, Rose, who:
“looks particularly fetching by firelight because she is a pinkish person; her skin has a pink glow and her hair is pinkish gold, very light and feathery. Although I am rather used to her I know she is a beauty. She is nearly twenty-one and very bitter with life.”
Quirky Before Quirky Was Cool
The novel was published in 1949 during a time when the idea of a narrator as “quirky” really wasn’t quite as mundane as it is today. No getting around it, though: she’s quirky! At least when she delves into her toolbox of metaphorical one-liners:
“Thinking of death—strange, beautiful, terrible and a long way off—made me feel happier than ever.”
