Here’s Liza!
The book opens with a scene that suggests Liza is something of a minor local attraction. Even the organ grinder is moved to stop his grinding to check out all the excitement foreshadowed by cries of “look at Liza” and “there’s Liza.” So what’s all the hubbub?
“It was a young girl of about eighteen, with dark eyes, and an enormous fringe, puffed-out and curled and frizzed, covering her whole forehead from side to side, and coming down to meet her eyebrows. She was dressed in brilliant violet, with great lappets of velvet, and she had on her head an enormous black hat covered with feathers…Liza saw what a sensation she was creating; she arched her back and lifted her head, and walked down the street, swaying her body from side to side, and swaggering along as though the whole place belonged to her.”
On the Way to Chingford
What must it have been like to live in the days when the actual journey to someplace nearby was itself an adventure to be enjoyed rather than a necessity to be endured. It’s only about twenty miles from Lambeth to Chingford, but even today public transport will still require about an hour to make the trip. The imagery of the trip described in the novel is a little short on the details of time, but with such a flurry of activity to keep one from boredom, it is conceivable it felt even faster back then:
“as the hour grew later the streets became more filled and the traffic greater. At last they got on the road to Chingford, and caught up numbers of other vehicles going in the same direction--donkey-shays, pony-carts, tradesmen's carts, dog-carts, drags, brakes, every conceivable kind of wheel thing, all filled with people, the wretched donkey dragging along four solid rate-payers to the pair of stout horses easily managing a couple of score. They exchanged cheers and greetings as they passed, the 'Red Lion' brake being noticeable above all for its uproariousness.”
Liza and Jim: A Love Story?
Sex is a heavy presence in the story and love is mentioned, but seems strangely absent. Perhaps not so much absent as simply appearing in a much different form that one comes to expect from fiction, which is not to say it is an untrue representation. One certain hopes so, however:
“the beer had got to Liza's head, and the warm night air filled her with a double intoxication. She felt the arm round her waist, and the big, heavy form pressing against her side; she experienced again the curious sensation as if her heart were about to burst, and it choked her--a feeling so oppressive and painful it almost made her feel sick. Her hands began to tremble, and her breathing grew rapid, as though she were suffocating. Almost fainting, she swayed over towards the man, and a cold shiver ran through her from top to toe. Jim bent over her, and, taking her in both arms, he pressed his lips to hers in a long, passionate kiss.”
Jim Hits Her and It Feels Like a Kiss
Jim is married. Liza is young. Youth could account for questions about stupidity, but then so could love. But that would mean having to admit that what passes between Liza and Jim really is love. And for a good many, the following imagery alone will discount that idea:
“He kissed her and they were quite friends again. But the little quarrel had another effect which was worse for Liza. When she woke up next morning she noticed a slight soreness over the ridge of bone under the left eye, and on looking in the glass saw that it was black and blue and green. She bathed it, but it remained, and seemed to get more marked. She was terrified lest people should see it, and kept indoors all day; but next morning it was blacker than ever. She went to the factory with her hat over her eyes and her head bent down; she escaped observation, but on the way home she was not so lucky. The sharp eyes of some girls noticed it first.”
