to find it unpleasant that in the forward of the Anthony Trollope book I just started the man writing said he wished the main character got raped for being a PITA?

[hereidrawtheline]

I picked up a copy of Can You Forgive Her by Anthony Trollope at a charity shop - it was printed in 1973 and the forward is written by Simon Raven who I had never heard of until I just googled him and it does seem he was a fairly controversial person. But still he says by the end of the book you'll wish the main character, Alice, "gets hit on the head with a mallet and raped"

I just find that very distasteful and innappropriate! I know he is talking about a fictional feeling about a fictional character but to me rape is... you know... a violent crime that shouldnt be used as punishment for unwieldy women??? And a forward of a major book is a pretty public place of saying that, you'd think somewhere along the line, even in 1973 some editor would have thought that wasnt the best choice of words?

But then in a fit of bitterness I shall add that on my blog I've been told by a particularly nasty BNP man that I need a "dose of Taliban inspired discipline" so there you go.

Rant over. I know its AIBU but please be kind I am tender atm from the litany of abuse I have had this weekend on same blog even though I must add the clause I know I invited the BNP trouble on myself.

[Thunderduck]

YANBU at all.

[hereidrawtheline]

phew I cant remember if I have delved into AIBU before, I've always found the lynchings a bit intimidating

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

Blimey, you forget what attitudes were like in the Sixties and Seventies. And Simon Raven was an arse anyway.
No, YANBU at all, but don't let it put you off Trollope, who was quite forward thinking for his time.

[hereidrawtheline]

Palliser!!!!! Did you name change for that post or has that always been your name, I'm sure I have seen your name here before!

[MoominMymbleandMy]

You do forget how much times have changed, for the better in this case.

Wasn't it in the early 1970s that some high-ranking police officer advised rape victims to lie back and enjoy it rather than resist?

And women in short skirts were supposed to be 'asking for it'.

But don't let it put you off Trollope, though I prefer the Barsetshire Chronicles myself.

[hereidrawtheline]

Ugh Moomin I had never heard that re: the police officer.

I have read The Warden and enjoyed it in a strange way and I like Can You Forgive Her so far though I am only in chapter two. I wont let it put me off the book but I must admit that were it not that I realised a highly respected author like Trollope musnt be lumped in with every idiot who wields a pen, I nearly let it make me put the book away for good. Just turned my stomach a bit to get past it. I kept re-reading the sentence hoping I had got it wrong but no I hadnt.

[LovelyTinOfSpam]

Unfotunately a vast amount of people still believe that women in short skirts are asking for it.

At least it's only BNP loons who say women should enjoy being raped. out loud, anyway.

YANBU to find the forward extremely unpleasant.

[hereidrawtheline]

funny lovelytinofspam we are on the same 2 threads atm! Like moths to a flame.

[Metella]

Don't let it put you off, hereidrawtheline, it is a good book. There is quite a moving scene between Plantagenet and Lady Glencora later on!!!!

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

I've been LadyGlencoraPalliser on here for quite a while now! A tribute to one of my favourite literary heroines!

[hereidrawtheline]

hereidrawtheline comes from the Susan Howatch book, The Wheel of Fortune!

[warthog]

ah that's why i never read forwards...

[LovelyTinOfSpam]

Great minds and all that!

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

Come and join me and LTOS on the smoking in cars thread HIDTL. It is tres amusant.

[hereidrawtheline]

ah I shall!

[LovelyTinOfSpam]

Oh god that loon isn't still at it surely...

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

I am getting ridiculuously engaged with that thread. I just want whoeveritis to answer the bleeding questions.

[hereidrawtheline]

I havent had a chance to read yet been cooking dinner now eating in a minute!

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

Mine is all ready, though I nearly burnt the bread on account of the thread of doom. Just waiting for DD2 to get back from swimming club.

[catinthehat2]

Ooh Metella, are you the wife of Caecilius Iucundus by any chance?

[LovelyTinOfSpam]

We had those books too, catinthehat!

Metella usually hung out in the horto if I remember correctly. Caecilius' haunt was the atrium

Although you may of course be talking about something entirely different

[catinthehat2]

Spam I luvs ya!

I thought it was just me!

Blast from the past!

[LoveAndSqualor]

Horrific thing to say in the foreword - but as LadyGP says, Simon R was an arse. And Trollope is too splendid to be tarred with such a grimy brush, I think. Am with Moomin on preferring the Barsetshire chronicles myself, though - especially The Last Chronicle of Barset, which is unalloyed genius.

And on a side note- am thoroughly enjoying the Metella-inspired blast from the past too - thank you! We all got the giggles in my class during the section about the slave girl pleasing the master. And I always thought it was feckless Quintus who in horto est? Though wasn't he the only one to escape when vesuvius erupted??! Wow - had no idea I remembered so much of that ...

[LovelyTinOfSpam]

TBH I can't remember much about it all. Cerberus was ferociter. There. I've shot my latin load

[hereidrawtheline]

LovelyTinofSpam that sounds so pervy! Get thee back to the baths!