Unread postby Jessica » Tue May 14, 2013 12:21 pm
Aaaah! I am so GLAD you are single-minded about this, because I am too since I am re-reading it! Y'all should re-read it too, and we can have a week-long book discussion and totally glom on W,ML posts. lol!
I think my very favorite scene in W,ML (quite possibly my favorite scene out of ALL JM books) begins after Whitney leaves Claymore after "The Bedroom Debacle" -- otherwise known as Clayton's Huge Mistake. They are not speaking, and Whitney is so depressed. Then Emily intervenes and invites Clay to the wedding to bring them together, and he stands there in the crowd. She meets his eyes and realizes he is standing there humbly offering himself to her....and that amazing line--"Miss Stone, I adore you." *THUD* (was me, fainting). la la la, she realizes he has broken the betrothal and is mean to him at the reception even though he is being so, SO sweet. *sniff* So they break up -- again. And THEN (and this is where I really start warming to this topic), weeks go by....and she sees him out. At the opera, with laughing with Vanessa Standfield. (Omg this tore me up). And at that party in the departing line when Vanessa asks "Where are you leading me?" and he says "Astray". (Arghhhhh! And Whitney heard it all! Oh, the angst.) And then she is depressed some more, and Nicki proposes, and she goes to her room and bawls....And then finally Emily has had enough of it and she goes to demand that Whitney tell her what is wrong. And talks her into going to Claymore... And that HORRIBLY awkward little gathering in the drawing room with Stephen, the Duchess, Clay, Vanessa, and Whitney. (Could that BE any more awkward??)... (Aside -- I love how JM says the Duchess, Clay's mom, is wanting to drink the entire bottle of wine or whatever it was. ha ha ha)... And anyway, this long series of increasingly unbearable angst finally culminates with the scene where she humbles herself to Clayton, and he stiffens, trying to resist her...And then finds he cannot. And he yanks her into his arms and... Oh my god it is AMAZING.
OK, OK I realize that is not one scene, but a string of many -- but I sort of think it qualifies as a scene because it is all tied together, and one cannot possibly get to that part, and put the book down until one has read that entire, angsty series of events. If someone HAS in the past put the book down in the middle of all that angsty trauma, it surely had to be because the house was on fire, or a robber came in. Even then, however, I would be likely to just say, "Take what you like, but please hurry and keep the noise to a minimum. I am reading right now and am at a REALLY good part." ha ha
<3