Do you ever yearn to lecture/warn characters?

[MsAmerica]

It makes me think of movie audiences yelling “Don’t open that door!” to characters in a horror film.

A classic example is wanting to tell Juliet to be patient and Romeo to hurry it up.

Author Brenda Wineapple, in a “By the Book” Q&A in the New York Times last year, when asked what was the last book that made her furious, said: Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy”: I kept telling Roberta to avoid Clyde, then to dump him, but she wouldn’t listen.

For me, I keep wanting to stop Lily Bart, in Edith Wharton’s "The Age of Innocence," from her bad choices.

I do sometimes snap things like "oh, come on !!" or "well that was obvious" when characters frustrate me with their plot induced idiocy...

As a youngster I used to love Rebecca and identified very much with the heroine.

However, several years ago I spotted it on the bookshelf and thought "Oh I haven't read that in years". Re-reading it as a middle aged woman I felt so angry and frustrated with Maxim de Winter and really wanted to encourage the heroine to have a bit of backbone. I sort of fantasised being her elder, more worldly, cousin who goes to visit and stays to give her some moral support.

I saw the title and came on to say Lily Bart as well! (Although isn’t she House of Mirth?)
So many others though. Especially when you read it more than once and find yourself hoping they’ll make better choices the second time round 😁

Yes! For me, I kept thinking, "Get a spine. Stop whining."

Damn! You're right. Thanks for correcting me. House of Mirth!

Yes, it's it amusing when on later readings, you somehow wish that THIS time it would turn out differently.

Yes, frequently. (And definitely to Lily Bart.)

I suggest to Jane Eyre in my head that a decent employer doesn’t boast about his previous sexual conquests to his penniless teenage employee, and then put the moves on her. And that it is pretty obvious his first intention was just to seduce her, that the bigamous marriage only nearly happened because he realised she wouldn’t have sex with him unmarried, and she had no relatives to interfere.

Isabel Archer I want to lock up in a turret till her fancy for the ghastly Gilbert Osmond passes.

To the second Mrs de Winter that when you don’t actually realise you’re being proposed to because the man in question couches it in such a way that you think he’s offering you a job — this is a sign of things to come.

No quite the same but I have often thought it would be great if you could pick what the main characters in the book dont/ do .
It would work well on Audible and kindle but not so much with real books .
You would buy the book and at vital places like should they have sex, should the go into the woods, is the ransom real , ( or in mn world should they eat the chicken that was left on the worktop for 5 minutes longer than intended )
You get to choose and then open another section of the book follow the story from there .

I am fairly sure there was something like this available in print form for kids in the early/ mid 80s

Yep, choose your own adventure stories. They still exist, DS loves them!

I AM STILL MAD WITH LILY BART. Marry Rosedale and grind Bertha under your heel, stuff all your highflown principles, you helpless baggage!

See also: Fanny Price should have married Henry Crawford instead of fucking ditchwater Edmund.

Aww I am glad they still exist, I think they were a great early way to learn about consequences of your actions ( without really realising you were learning )
Ww need adult versions !

Isabel Archer and Tess

In that case, one wouldn't really need a novelist.
Perhaps it could all be turned over to A.I.