Comments on: Wanted – your favourite Dunnett descriptions

By: Liz Cochrane

Liz Cochrane — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:51:39 +0000

From Disorderly Knights: “… the sky removed a man’s breath from the lip of the lung…” What an exact description! (I live in a similar climate to that of Malta, and believe me, it can be like that.)

By: JenniferNewton

JenniferNewton — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:30:32 +0000

The draper comment reminds me of another in Checkmate, when Lymond meets with Lord James Stewart in the draper’s shop in Dieppe. The conversation revolves around religious affiliations and Lymond is asked where his own faith stands. “‘Why?’ said Crawford with distinct querulousness. He added, ‘I thought we were discussing pourpoints’.” (CM Vintage p275) He had a wonderful way of bursting people’s figurative balloons.

I also love the wish Lymond would “talk – just once – in prose like other people” line in The Game of Kings. Yes, Gideon was a really good character, and among the first to see Lymond’s true colours.

By: bill

bill — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:38:29 +0000

Gideon was such an obviously nice guy, intelligent, insightful, loyal but able to see the bigger picture, a fine husband and father. I wish we could have had more of him. And yes, that is a must-have quote.

By: filomena20

filomena20 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:15:43 +0000

I agree Jennifer – “…there are squillions more.” Every year, I re-read or dip into Checkmate and from time to time Nicolo Rising. However this year, I have begun re-reading the entire Lymond series – in order. And these are two which (again) made me laugh out loud:-

(a) Gideon expressing total exasperation with Lymond (Game of Kings) saying something like “I wish to God you’d talk in prose like other people.”

(b) From The Ringed Castle – one of Diccon Chancellor’s talks with Lymond who says, “…….You receive the impression that I am personally ambitious. I receive the impression that you are a draper. We may both be right. …”

By: JenniferNewton

JenniferNewton — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:38:56 +0000

I also love the scene in The Disorderly Knights when Jerott asks Lymond what he misses in his life as a commander of men. Lymond replies to a somewhat stunned Jerott:
‘What does anyone want out of life? What kind of freak do you suppose I am? I miss books and good verse and decent talk. I miss women, to speak to, not to rape; and children, and men creating things instead of destroying them. And from the time I wake until the time I find I can’t go to sleep there is the void – the bloody void where there was no music today and none yesterday and no prospect of any tomorrow, or tomorrow, or next God-damned year.’ (DK Vintage p366)

Dunnett’s style is evident in sentences such as “Not to every young girl is it given to enter the harem of the Sultan of Turkey and return to her homeland a virgin.” (RC Vintage p3)

I think Dunnett’s writing excellence is mirrored in her description of Lymond playing the lute in the scene that finally reveals him as Thady Boy Ballagh:
‘His fingers flowed over the shining wood, plucking, snapping; dipping the phrases into acid and wiping them pure again.’ (QP Vintage p85)

By: bill

bill — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:14:22 +0000

Ahh, good selection. I had quite forgotten the Leonard Bailey one. And I do adore the young Philippa’s pronouncements – at once both innocent insight and worldly humour inherited from Kate.