Maria Farlow, from 'Lady of Quality'

Upon my current rereading spree, I'm noticing the characters and skirmishes on the sidelines more. I find they make the books come to life and give the stories depth and dimension!

One who is both annoying and amusing is Maria Farlow, that mousy cousin who lives with Annis Wychwood to give her respectability. I find her quite aggravating when she drops in on Annis' (and others') conversations, interrupts, and even resorts to tattling when she writes Annis' brother about what she, a grown-up woman, is doing. It's horrid how she intrudes on her when she's ill in bed, wearing her out with her prattling. Not accepting a "no" for an answer is behaviour that tramples on personal boundaries, with little or no consideration for the welfare of the others.

On the other hand, just reading those one-sided conversations is hilarious. Heyer did an excellent job of portraying this kind of woman - I wonder if she had anyone specific in mind? ;) Following her convoluted thoughts as they jump from one to the next, never finding their way back to where they started, is most amusing.

What do you think of her?

Less inspired by life (at least I hope for poor Georgette's sake, she's not!) than by the wonderful Miss Bates in Emma, I would have said. And for both writers it is a remarkable achievement to so accurately depict everything that make a character a "dead bore" without being in the least bit boring.

She's also a good reminder of the era - that we would, like Mr Carleton, remove from our lives anyone so wearing and intrusive, but an Annis would have to be positively grateful to have someone give her as much freedom as Maria's presence does.

And she's a good revealer of other people's characters. I can only gape in wonder at Annis's patience and tact. I'm afraid Lucilla and Oliver's reactions are closer to what I would do.

I found a faint echo of Maria Farlow's incessent chatter in Sarah Thane, who acted like that in The Talisman Ring. This sentence particularly amused me:

Isn't that a hilarious metaphor?!

Later, she says of herself in this role:

Doesn't that sound similar to both Maria Farlow and Miss Bates?!

Maria Farlow was so beautifully drawn as the MOST annoying human possible....and I was totally humbled by your observation, jo7hanna, because I know I would have been so impatiently rude and short with her after about 3 1/2 seconds that my charactor would be totally revealed!!
I read the book absolutely anticipating Maria's next annoying scene and riotous and richly deserved put down. The only other Heyer situation I felt the same about was that awful mother-in-law in Venetia where I kept on reading to get to the next offensive comment and well earned retalliation. It is interesting that Georgette Heyer can do it so well and really without ever crossing a certain line of believability and civility/incivility.

Maria bothered me throughout the book. One of the reasons why I fell inlove with Heyer and Regency as a whole is the fact that books of that time draw amazingly rich conversations. Especially in Lady of Quality, the flow of words between the characters was amazing, but Maria (the mos unimaginably tedious person I've ever encountered) just made me grit my teeth. Well, the important thing is that after so many pages I learnt first to ignore her, then to laugh at her, and finally build up the patience that Annis holds. I'm not really a patient person, you see, but Maria turned me into one the hard way. I just can't skip through the lines like some people, it sort of doesn't seem right.

Just had to say I don't like Annis much either. She grates on me something rotten :D She's boring and oh just annoying. I dislike re-reading this book cos of her!

Maria Farlow--a character who is fun to read about but who would be so very irritating in real life! It's great to see that Annis's brother finally realizes what an interfering bore she is by the end of the book.

One difference between Maria Farlow and Jane Austen's Miss Bates, though, is that Miss Bates is a well-meaning and kind woman, whereas Maria Farlow has a malicious side.