Finished the Parasol Protectorate and sad it's over. Perfect summer reading. I do wonder though about some language points. The author's dress research sounds perfect, but I wonder if English people really said 'pretty darn (adjective)' in the 1870s. I mean, there are surprises in language, like the first usage of 'literally' meaning 'figuratively' dating to the mid-18th century, and Fanny Burney a generation later writing 'Tell it to the marines!' But the first known use of sadist is 1888, ten years after Lyle says it. Maybe shifting Krafft-Ebing and Freud's dates earlier is part of the A/U, but I think it's just our present unconscious use of psychiatric vocabulary.
Something the same with PD James' Austen. One needn't expect pastiche, but it sounds odd to me when a housekeeper says 'There's a bed in the adjoining room. I can get it made up with pillows and blankets.' 'Can get' to my ears is modern, and not suitable servant's language. Doing a fast search through Pride and Prejudice suggests that 'get' has a slightly invidious sense:
( I mean, look at who's involved in all of these )
It doesn't feel at all like the neutral verb we now use it as.
Something the same with PD James' Austen. One needn't expect pastiche, but it sounds odd to me when a housekeeper says 'There's a bed in the adjoining room. I can get it made up with pillows and blankets.' 'Can get' to my ears is modern, and not suitable servant's language. Doing a fast search through Pride and Prejudice suggests that 'get' has a slightly invidious sense:
( I mean, look at who's involved in all of these )
It doesn't feel at all like the neutral verb we now use it as.
