I have struggled mightily with this Arabella is a snake that lives in Diana’s Grove yet found a husband to buy Diana’s Grove yet he had no money so Diana’s Grove is in arrears but she’s going to live with her father and therefore wants to sell it to someone but is also going to marry Edgar so her money troubles are over.
It’s like watching giallo: Sometimes you just gotta say, this don’t make a lick of sense and enjoy the thing for what it is: A series of disjointed but occasionally cool imagery. Set to music by Goblin. OK, we don’t have any music by Goblin, but that’s a plus in my book.
The last eight chapters are the wind-up to the story, of course, and while we can rightfully acknowledge the quality of the pacing, it has to be admitted that these chapters do little for the cohesiveness of things.
Chapter XXXIII, “WAR À L’OUTRANCE”, which I believe means something like “overkill”, Adam decides to buy the Grove so he can better fight the worm. Sir Nathaniel adds that, hey, it’s a good investment ’cause of all the china clay—and that’s why the worm is white, by the way. The investment thing reminds me of the dialogue in The Big Lebowski.
Also, let’s not forget – let’s *not* forget, Dude – that keeping wildlife, an amphibious rodent, for uh, domestic, you know, within the city – that aint legal either.
As far as keeping your eye on the ball goes. This is another gem:
I suppose, by the way, that there is no offence in calling her an old lady, considering that she has been disporting herself in her own way for some thousands of years.
Yes, I suppose we have to be especially circumspect in how we address the ancient snake monster.
Nathaniel caps the whole thing by saying the snake has mastered all the elements but fire—one of those things that he just says and Adam goes along with—but he’s got an ingenious plan to fill the caves with sand, which will create tremendous friction.
Adam puzzles over this until Sir Nathaniel adds “Then we’ll blow it up with tons of dynamite.”
Ahem. If I may quote Lebowski again:
That’s a great plan, Walter. That’s fuckin’ ingenious, if I understand it correctly. It’s a Swiss fuckin’ watch.
But the whole thing really intensifies the contradiction of wtf would Arabella sell Diana’s Grove when she absolutely needs it to survive?
Chapter XXXIV, “Apprehension”, Adam buys the Grove, meets up with Arabella and they go visit Caswall—remember him?—and his kite, and Arabella asks him to measure the depth of the worm-hole before she goes.
…before she finally left Diana’s Grove, where she had lived so long, she had a desire to know the depth of the well-hole.
Yeah, I don’t even know. At least per cover story, she’s only lived there, what, ten years?
Then Lilla—remember her? We last saw her in Chapter XVIII—decides she’s going to marry Caswall, and also that their courtship will be rocky since Caswall can totally dominate her if she doesn’t have Mimi’s help. Chicks, amirite?
This is followed up, in Chapter XXXV “The Last Battle”, as Lilla’s prospective mate comes to kill her. For some reason. Edgar and Lilla get locked into a battle of wills, Lady Arabella comes in to support Edgar, which strengthens Lilla (because she hates Arabella?) and then Mimi rushes in to save the day. They actually blast Edgar back through the door but Lilla dies.
This is such a mess, narratively. Lilla has exceeded Oolanga levels of superfluity at this point. She exists in order for Edgar to kill her with mind bullets. Fortunately, we’ve been prepared for this. By not having her drop out of half the book, and giving her things to do and her own plans, we can make some sense of her existence.
Chapter XXXVI, “Face to Face” has Mimi mourning over Lilla, and apart from some oddly incoherent moments, like Mimi unclear as to when Lilla died even though she was trying to revive her, ends with Mimi running to Castra Regis to confront Edgar who does not know he has killed Lilla.
Chapter XXXVII has the great title of “Eritis sicut Deus”, “you will be as God”, the words whispered to Eve by the serpent in the garden. And you really get a sense of what Stoker didn’t have the wherewithal to pull off (at that point in his life). The White Worm should have been running around corrupting people, doing deals and what-not. As opposed to…doing nothing…but killing Oolanga and trying to get hitched.
In this chapter, however, we have Mimi thinking she’s chasing Arabella into Edgar’s castle when in fact it’s Arabella chasing her into Edgar’s castle. There is more of the moment-to-moment incoherency, and for some reason Mimi feels comfortable pursuing Arabella even though she knows now, somehow, that Arabella is the snake and also that the snake “might never be seen again”.
From a purely practical standpoint, we go from Mimi running into Castra Regis to confront Edgar in Chapter XXXVI—to Mimi running into Castra Regis in Chapter XXXVII so that she can confront him in Chapter XXXVIII.
Meanwhile, we just hear that Adam is going ahead with his plans. He, somehow, doesn’t know about Lilla. Mr. Watford is gone. Nothing from Richard or Nathaniel. And Edgar’s about to go Full Dracula.
Needless to say, a lot of the subplots we set up earlier on are going to have to be fleshed out for any of this to make sense.
Lair Of The White Wyrm 