Parenting 101

            A few people have already mentioned the expanded assortment of writers in the second and third volumes of Desmond, but this change struck me for a different reason. Hearing directly from more characters introduces a number of new relationships, such as those among Geraldine, Mr. Verney, and their children. These familial relationships are so interesting to me because they simultaneously help the reader understand Geraldine and Mr. Verney’s characters as individuals and also as a married couple. Mr. Verney’s lack of compassion for his children is first exposed indirectly, as Mr. Bethel recounts a conversation during which Mr. Verney refers to his kids as “incumbrances” that “pull confounded hard” and promise nothing but more grief (173). Mr. Verney does not cherish his children, a sentiment he affirms when he later suggests that Geraldine leave them with her mother or their servants while she travels to Paris. The tension and strife in the Verneys’ marriage manifests itself forcefully through the juxtaposition of this letter with one of Geraldine’s own, in which she expresses her exasperation at the suggestion that she “Leave [her] children,” and that Mr. Verney’s proposition is “wildness” and “madness” (260). Geraldine loves her children, and she derives energy and happiness from being in their presence. The deep divide between the Verneys’ individual attitudes towards their kids is illustrative of their unsatisfying relationship with one another.