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The Sitwell quotation is given without much context.
It seems to come from her autobiography, Taken Care Of (first published in 1965, shortly after the author's death; republished in 2011), where Sitwell is writing about Forbes's unkempt appearance: those paragraphs also mention "an impression of tattered hairiness"; and then, in answer to a perceived insult by Forbes of her brother Sacheverell Sitwell, Edith waspishly adds that "all the young males of her acquaintance referred to her, invariably, by words of one syllable - one Biblical, the other veterinary". Nice work, Edith. Classy.
It is followed by a back-handed compliment, calling Forbes the "epitome of the Edwardian reign", although earlier she is "a bad hang-over from the Edwardian era"; an "obstructionist" whose behaviour made it difficult to protect her good name. In context, this seems to be a bad thing, but in modern terms you might say Forbes would not conform to society's strict rules for women of her class and gender.
Have these undercurrents been explored in the literature anywhere? 213.205.240.161 ( talk) 08:35, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
As is clear from the link above, and reviews of the 1965 publication, Leslie misquotes the original, which says Forbes is "an elderly gorilla afflicted with sex-appeal" - that is, "afflicted" not "affected" and hyphenated "sex-appeal". 213.205.240.161 ( talk) 11:39, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:
Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. — Community Tech bot ( talk) 18:24, 3 February 2021 (UTC)
This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Sitwell quotation is given without much context.
It seems to come from her autobiography, Taken Care Of (first published in 1965, shortly after the author's death; republished in 2011), where Sitwell is writing about Forbes's unkempt appearance: those paragraphs also mention "an impression of tattered hairiness"; and then, in answer to a perceived insult by Forbes of her brother Sacheverell Sitwell, Edith waspishly adds that "all the young males of her acquaintance referred to her, invariably, by words of one syllable - one Biblical, the other veterinary". Nice work, Edith. Classy.
It is followed by a back-handed compliment, calling Forbes the "epitome of the Edwardian reign", although earlier she is "a bad hang-over from the Edwardian era"; an "obstructionist" whose behaviour made it difficult to protect her good name. In context, this seems to be a bad thing, but in modern terms you might say Forbes would not conform to society's strict rules for women of her class and gender.
Have these undercurrents been explored in the literature anywhere? 213.205.240.161 ( talk) 08:35, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
As is clear from the link above, and reviews of the 1965 publication, Leslie misquotes the original, which says Forbes is "an elderly gorilla afflicted with sex-appeal" - that is, "afflicted" not "affected" and hyphenated "sex-appeal". 213.205.240.161 ( talk) 11:39, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:
Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. — Community Tech bot ( talk) 18:24, 3 February 2021 (UTC)