Finishing The Return of the Native this week, I wondered about the death of Eustacia Vye, a candidate for my Top 6 Fictional Characters whenever I compile such a list. She drowns in a whirlpool with Wildeve hanging on to her but although I had taken it to be suicide, I wasn't sure. In olden days, of course, one had to look back at the book but nowadays you only have to put 'Eustacia Vye suicide' into the interweb to see what it says. And I was gratified to be exonerated by reading that the point is moot and academic papers have been written about it. But surely, she is a victim of circumstances and of her own nature and Hardy wouldn't expect us to think it was an accident.
There is a note towards the end that Hardy's original intention- and thus the genuine artistic meaning- was to end differently with Diggory Venn wandering off without trace and Thomasin remaining a widow but it seems that the serialization required a happier ending so Venn is cleaned up and marries Thomasin. It seems less likely but it wouldn't be the first unlikely thing to happen in Hardy.
Clym's idealism leaves him as a preacher, reformed in a way but perhaps not entirely happily but at least with the wisdom that,
instead of men aiming to advance in life with glory they should calculate how to retreat out of it without shame.
And Hardy's deterministic view is a good one to have on your side when expressing scepticism about the uses of worldly ambition. The incompatability of Clym and Eustacia due to their different ambitions is just one more masterpiece of Hardy's understanding of human nature.
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But such a view wouldn't get you very far at Cheltenham races.
What an exhilarating week that was. What a rigmarole of ups and downs and roller-coaster rides to end up about quits, with the ante post stake money retrieved and reviewing just how many more winners one had to back to make a good profit. In fact, I could have exchanged half a dozen small successes for Yanworth winning on Wednesday and I'd have been fine but I went in and came out in one piece and that'll do.
I'm not sure if there's ever been a race meeting quite like it. A Top 6 of Great Moments from four days of racing would have to include Sprinter Sacre's heroic regaining of the Two Mile Championship; Thistlecrack landing the nap in consummate style was tremendous and what does next year's Gold Cup look like with him, Vautour, Don Cossack and the return of Coneygree; Bobsworth was tremendous, staying on into third in the World Hurdle; Annie Power proved the likes of me wrong in the Champion Hurdle and, by no means least, Vicky Pendleton exceeded all expectations in the Foxhunters.It was exhausting and I need a few days off to get over it.
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One could possibly become accustomed to retirement, having taken quite readily to a rhythm that involved the knife-edge decision of whether to get up in time to see The Morning Line, perform a few small maintenance jobs in the morning in an attempt to feel worthy, find that Sky Arts had a Great Culture Quiz on at lunchtime, and then watch throughout the afternoons as cash seemed to ebb away before flowing back in as if such tides were caused by the Moon. It was a shame that a few books on order didn't actually get delivered while I was in but they can wait.
I don't know if there has been a downturn in the unsolicited phone call industry but there were fewer than is usual. The one that rang just after Yanworth had got beaten must have regretted the timing of their automated call; the one who was 'opening lines of communication' between their investment company and me wasn't able to keep them open for long and BT rang twice in three days.
If you can't think of any other way of diverting their attention from their script, I recommend asking for the full name of their company, the address they are phoning from and other such details. Most of them soon give up.
Never answer any of their questions, take the initiative and keeping asking them any question you can think of.
Who is your current internet provider.
I'm not telling you. Who's yours?