So, I’m delighted to say that Richenda is excellent. Which is fitting as, being the one in which Sir JT discovers Joey’s ‘displaced organ’, it has provided both title and theme for these threads. (Though I’m grateful to the kind poster who offered a more plausible reason for said medical condition on the first thread.)
All the characters are sharply and colourfully drawn. (I’ve found myself, oddly enough, more outraged at EBD’s alienating descriptions of Swiss villagers than I ever was about her of-the-time racist writing. I guess I’m inured to the latter but had forgotten the former.) And there were what seemed to be a large number of characters, really deftly handled. It gave the feeling of life rolling on, rather than being simply a series of dramatic incidents.
Small quibble over whether Richenda’s Nanny would have had a passport available for an urgent trip (particularly since Richenda herself had never been abroad). But, perhaps combined with stupid Wagner on the radio, one chapter almost made me cry.
One of the best of this summer’s re-readings!