The Houdini thing is problematic, and you're right, his obsession isn't mentioned till the end. The little boy is psychic in the book, too- it's lifted directly from the source material.
I think Mother's supposed to be much more free and loose-corseted and loose-haired at the seashore, but I agree, I thought maybe he would have recognized her, too (I even thought that when I saw the original production). But I guess neither of them really paid much attention to each other in the train station aside from "wow, a nice person, how often does that happen?".
Emma and Evelyn aren't friends right away, of course- Emma speaks very harshly to her at first, and tries (with some success) to get Evelyn to respect herself for something more than her looks. There's a rather moving scene in the book where Emma strips her of her corsets and massages her pinched and tortured flesh (done to attract men) back into a real woman's shape. If I recall, Evelyn also falls in love with a member of the proletariat while incognito at one of Emma's rallies... I forget what happens there. I should read it again.
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Date: 2003-03-31 01:11 pm (UTC)I think Mother's supposed to be much more free and loose-corseted and loose-haired at the seashore, but I agree, I thought maybe he would have recognized her, too (I even thought that when I saw the original production). But I guess neither of them really paid much attention to each other in the train station aside from "wow, a nice person, how often does that happen?".
Emma and Evelyn aren't friends right away, of course- Emma speaks very harshly to her at first, and tries (with some success) to get Evelyn to respect herself for something more than her looks.
There's a rather moving scene in the book where Emma strips her of her corsets and massages her pinched and tortured flesh (done to attract men) back into a real woman's shape.
If I recall, Evelyn also falls in love with a member of the proletariat while incognito at one of Emma's rallies... I forget what happens there. I should read it again.