In The Beginning, Concluded

[sonetka]

In which you already know what happens :). (Read Part 1 Part 2 and Part 3 if you need to catch up). As usual, all comments and corrections of whatever stripe are very welcome, and also I wanted to say thank you to everyone who's read and/or commented so far; I really do appreciate it, especially since this ended up turning out much longer than I

Comments

[a_t_rain]

Oh my, now I want to read the book all over again. This is so plausible, and so painful, as backstory.

[persephone_kore]

Now I do too!

[sonetka]

Do it! Do it! It doesn't even take that long. (Yet another reason to prefer Sayers to Cournos: her revenge novel is 260 pages long while his is 600-plus :)).

[persephone_kore]

I did! And ended up admiringly noting numerous details you had worked into the fic.

[castiron]

***applause***

Are you likely to post this on AO3? I want to save this for rereading but will wait if I'll be able to download an epub from there.

[sonetka]

**bows in thanks**

I'm planning on cleaning it up a bit and then posting it on AO3, I'll mention it here when I do. I just looked over there, and if I post the "Philip doesn't propose" AU, I'll be increasing the number of Philip/Harriet fics there by 100%. I don't think that pairing has much of a fanbase, to put it mildly!

[nineveh_uk]

I, too, need to re-read Strong Poison after this. It's never been one of my favourites*, but I feel I may have maligned it, you've woven so much in here. Poor Harriet! Phil's off-the-cuff self-justification (perhaps true to an extent, but not a conscious strategy at the time) becoming the thing that above all makes her feel that the experience has been so sordid and ashamed of it. If she could say "we tried living together, it didn't work, I left" she might accept what it was as a bad mistake, but now over without undermining everything so much, but not the absolute betrayal it becomes. No wonder she doesn't believe in Peter's sincerity later! Philip's convincing himself of his own argument and coming to believe it ties up nicely with his portrayal in the previous sections, as does Harriet's still feeling isolated and out of the loop. Though she's so prickly I can't entirely blame her friends for not telling her about the rumours, given that they presumably have no reason to take them seriously. They're probably afraid she'll be

[sonetka]

Harriet's friends were in an impossible position -- consider all the people who write to the agony columns with variations on "Should I tell my friend's SO that I've just found out my friend is having an affair?" (and usually being advised to back off), and this would be exponentially worse, especially if the nurse passed on that line about "Harriet will be rid of me now." There's just no good way to tell someone that news. Sylvia is hoping that the trip to Paris will serve both to keep Harriet away until the rumours have been thoroughly scotched, and to demonstrate to her that having one disastrous relationship doesn't mean she is Defiled Forever, and she can still socialize with other men and get on with her life. Of course, Harriet never told her what the fight was about (per the book she didn't tell her friends and they didn't know what had happened -- until Parker et al came calling and Harriet ended up having to tell the entire world) so Sylvia is having to work with one hand tied behind her back

[persephone_kore]

and then he goes and drops that idiotic proposal bomb. Every time, I want to somehow reach into the book and physically prevent him from doing that.

Oh, dear, yes -- I don't recall knowing that you read Girl Genius, but trust me, it was saying something when I got to that part and went, "My goodness, I think that was actually a worse proposal than Gilgamesh Wulfenbach's." (I love Gil dearly as a character, but he botched his proposal something awful. Peter recovers better.)

[sonetka]

I've never read Girl Genius, but I'll have to put it on the list. Even if the proposal was better than Peter's, it still sounds like it must have been cringeworthy.

[lopezuna_writes]

*Loud applause*

[sonetka]

*blushes, bows*

Thanks so much for reading! I felt slightly presumptuous asking people to read this beast, it ended up being so long.