I logged in to post a response that would have looked almost identical to yours, above,
Catlady.
But also...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
Quite early in the book, at the party, there is the statement that "Mrs Violet Gamart, the natural patroness of all public activities in Hardborough, came towards them". Clearly, this included the arts because she was wanting Old House to be turned into an Arts Centre. [...]
At the end, she kept two of the Everyman editions after selling the rest of her stock, one by Ruskin and one by Bunyan, each with its old bookmarker. She rescued those books because they wouldn't have sold and would probably only been thrown out. Isn't that love?
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Highlights our differing interpretation. I see Violet's interest in an arts centre as being first about her as the "natural patroness" of all things; she isn't interested in the arts for themselves, but as they might highlight her place (as she sees it) in the community. This whim might have fallen aside if not for Florence inadvertently standing in her way and becoming a target.
And the saved Everyman editions seemed much like keeping some antique thimbles from that hypothetical haberdashery: mementos. It might be possible to make something of the authors of these two books, but I never had the impression that Florence had done much more than look at the front and back matter. She appears to like books as objects, things on shelves, but she never speaks of what is in them - which is where I get the impression that she is not a lover of books, but perhaps I should say, not a lover of stories.