What We Can Know

“It was medieval serfdom out at their place and after a while you got used to it. If you offered to help, Vivien cheerfully refused. Francis never stirred from his chair, never did a thing. I don’t think it crossed his mind that the household, the meals or even the state of his underwear might have something to do with him. He was, after all, a genius.”

Thomas summons this quote from one of the Blundys’ friends to expose their household dynamics, insinuating the regressive misogynist control that Francis exerted over Vivien. Apart from the medieval metaphor, the last line of the passage uses Francis’s cultural reputation to undermine Vivien’s status in the household, as if genius were enough to explain his superiority. This suggests a darker truth buried underneath the rosy public perception of their relationship.

“That morning I lifted the parchment from the desk and brought it close to my nose. No smell of blood or flesh. Only the faint memory of a boarding-school inkwell sunk into a lidded desk of gouged obscenities. I felt the friendly weight of the skin in two hands. I don’t remember when I last felt so innocently, serenely, unambiguously pleased with myself.”

An early passage taken from Francis’s journal offers a glimpse into his indulgent, egotistical character. Describing the vellum scroll on which he has written Viven’s gift poem, he attempts to neutralize the allusions to its violent creation with an idyllic recall of childhood. The use of multiple adverbs to qualify how pleased Francis is with himself underscores the self-congratulatory tone of the passage.

“As our dean once said in a speech, we have robbed the past of its privacy […] We know their voices well, their clothes and their faces changing through time. The differences between their private and public selves are apparent. Scholars see, hear and know more of them, of their private thoughts, than we do of our closest friends.”

Thomas describes historical scholarship as a transgressive act, one that tramples on the idea of privacy for the sake of new knowledge. When Thomas suggests that scholars feel more intimate with their research subjects than they do with the people in their lives, he is hinting at the parasocial relationship he has with the Blundys and their ilk. He may feel like their friend because their thoughts resonate with his own, but he is ultimately just another fan.