Robin Humphries
The CBB -> Book Discussions
#1: Robin Humphries Author: Josie, Location: London PostPosted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:43 am

Please discuss Robin here:

 

#2:  Author: Ruth, Location: Physically: Lincolnshire, England. Inwardly: The Scottish Highlands PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 1:42 pm

I love the Robin. I wish more children were so nice. It is a pity, I think, that she went to be a Nun - she would have made a splendid junior mistress.
I like the way she does not get conceited when she is praised (so unlike Sybil Russell!)

 

#3:  Author: Joey, Location: Cambridge PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:18 pm

I love Robin - she's always been one of my favourite characters. (Insert shameless plug for Robin's Story in St. Agnes's House!)

I do think Madge and Jem's treatment of her, as described by EBD, is deeply misguided. Anyone heard of "smothering"? I know it was well meant, and rooted in love, but it was mistaken.

I always felt it was right that Robin should be a nun. It seemed entirely appropriate and natural. We can see how good she is at her job in the first chapters of Adrienne!

 

#4:  Author: Ruth B, Location: Oxford, UK PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:47 pm

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Robin, especially post-Exile When she's begun to grow up a bit. I think we have to give Joey and Jack a bit of credit for that. They seem to allow her to act her age in a way Madge and Jem never did. I have to say I did get rather tired of old men crooning over "as Englekind" in the earlier books!!

As for her becoming a nun: The problem I have is that it came completely out of the blue! I would have preferred to see her take orders while they were either in the UK or Switzerland so we could have seen some of the process. I think that these days the Novice Guardian might have clicked that one of the major reasons she was entering the convent was to escape her oppressive background!!

 

#5:  Author: Robin, Location: London PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 4:48 pm

I always liked Robin because I had the same name as her! But it did annoy me a bit how she was so worshipped and protected, and, as Ruth said, how her beauty was always described in the most golden of terms, when she was young (jealousy?!?).

I thought more of her as she grew up, esp in Exile when she has to deal with the spy business, and in Highland Twins, I think she became a lot more like a normal girl and was so good with the triplets and supporting Joey.

As for the nun business, I think it was a bit of a convenient device to get her out of the stories, but it was definitely a shame that we didn't get to see more of her later on.

 

#6:  Author: Joyful, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 7:26 pm

I think she's so sweet when she's little though...I've always loved the bit in Princess where she stands up to Miss Bubb (and she's so obviously right!)

As for the smothering (poor child!) at least it doesn't seem to affect her over much later on...she must have some good character in her to not end up spoiled and selfish!

 

#7:  Author: Guest,  PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 11:59 pm

It's interesting how spoiling Robin is fine, with everybody, including random strangers, cooing over her beauty, but the exact same thing with Sybil is wrong.

Robin seems to jump drastically in age from Exile onwards. I love the comment in (I think) Goes to It, where one of the mistresses comments that Robin has always been old for her age! Before Exile she's very much a very little girl - she seems to stay about about seven or eight in terms of maturity, while in Exile she suddenly morphs into a much more mature young girl. She's sweet as a little girl, but rather unrealistic, although the way she's treated by Madge and Jem (and Joey in the earlier books) would serve to keep her very immature.

 

#8:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 1:07 am

Anonymous wrote:
It's interesting how spoiling Robin is fine, with everybody, including random strangers, cooing over her beauty, but the exact same thing with Sybil is wrong.


I think that was because, as we are told so often, Robin is not spoilt. Sybil, on the other hand, has 'a very high opinion of herself'.

And I think the difference in Robin's age comes from the fact that the series was not meant to go beyond Jo Returns. EBD could get away with Robin only being a little girl for all that time, but suddenly there was the possibility for a much longer series and Rob couldn't remain that little forever.

 

#9:  Author: samw,  PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 5:51 am

I think that as a little girl, especially in Headgirl, Robin is a bit unrealistic. How many eight year olds have naps in the afternoon? Also How many would want to?
She is coddled, but probably grows up more in exile, as she flees Austria. This probably woke Jack and joey up to the fact she is growing up and is probably stronger than they thought, especially as they don't have time to protect her as they seem to do previously.

 

#10:  Author: Steph, Location: Blackpool, Lancashire PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:15 pm

I also love (the) Robin and think it was a shame that she disappeared out of the series whem she became a nun, although I agree it is a fitting vocation for her and I love it when she returns in Adrienne.

One thing I did wonder about- in Wrong Hilda and Nell are discussing Joey's letter and there's some news of Robin:
Quote:
"What on earth is she driving at?" Miss Wilson demanded. "Has Robin developed a young man by any chance?"
"You know as much as I," her friend retorted. "Everyone says that T.B. isn't hereditary, but I know that Jem has always hoped she wouldn't marry. After all, her mother died of it and there has always been the fear for her."


Did they not want her to marry in case she had children and passed T.B onto them? Or did they think the strain of childbirth would be too much for her?
If this was the case, then maybe EBD thought the only plausible thing for her to do was become a nun. After all, if she had become a teacher there was always the threat of doctors hanging over her Laughing

 

#11:  Author: Bunty, Location: London PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:19 pm

It is curious how Robin's beauty entitles her to be fussed over, whereas for Sybil and Joyce Linton that fussing is regarded as a major cause of their character flaws. Two observations: first, that EBD emphasises how the Robin was 'trained to obedience' - her continental (early) upbringing ensured that she responded to authority and was unlikely to develop an over-inflated view of herself; second - and perhaps more interestingly - that her beauty is very much a childlike one (see the wonderful description of her in Jo of the CS on Christmas Day). As she grows older we hear less about her beauty, which is perhaps in essence an aspect of her unspoiled childlikeness. Adult/adolescent/pubescent beauty such as Joyce's is dangerous and bad; that which belongs to childish innocence is good - but inevitably fleeting.

 

#12:  Author: claire, Location: South Wales PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:15 pm

I hate the way she is so babies in the earlier books (in Jo of, sleeping in a cot she has to be lifted out of) how old is she? two? (although my fifteen month old has recently worked out how to climb out of his cot so maybe younger)

 

#13:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 11:00 pm

Even in the earliest books she was six - my six year old niece would be horrified if anyone attempted to treat her in that way!

 

#14:  Author: Pado, Location: Connecticut, USA PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 1:09 am

While EBD clearly wasn't familiar with developmental stages of young children and times were different then... Confused

...At the same time, I can sort of see how the "petting the Robin" thing came about. My preteen/teen aged kids share a music class with a precocious, very pretty 4 year old, who is very sweet and has fallen into the role of "class pet." Audience members would say "das Engelkind" if they knew the term when they see her. And yet she's totally immune to it all.

Maybe the kid will become a nun?

 

#15:  Author: Gabrielle, Location: Near Paris, France PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 6:04 am

I like Robin, although I agree her babyness is overdone. I think the difference between Robin and Joyce and Sybil is temperment. Joyce Linton is a vain little thing who has always been told how wonderful she is and it went to her head. Sybil too, to a certain extent, although that should have been stopped sooner Confused
Robin is just naturally sweet natured. I do think EBD made her a nun because she was so saintly it would be hard to imagine Robin as a mother, although she would have made a good one.

 

#16:  Author: Kitty,  PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:28 am

I like Robin, but it amuses me to read her described as a "baby" at 6 years old. Most 6yos I know what resist that description with a "I'm not a baby, I'm a big girl"!

I think part of her lack of vanity is that her pretty looks are not the only thing people adore about her. "Englekind" goes beyond merely pretty looks - she's good and obedient as well. For Joyce on the other hand, it's all about looks and looks alone. Her character is never praised but people react to her looks.

 

#17:  Author: Joyful, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2005 4:36 pm

Just reading Carola and came to the bit where Joey's telling Biddy about Robin (who is incidentally in Switzerland for winter sports...)

EBD wrote:
"What's Rob doing now, by the way? I know Daisy's heart and soul in her doctoring."
"Oh, my dear! Of all the things she insisted on taking up social service! We let her try, but she isn't strong enough, and she caught a cold which she couldn't shake off.
(................)
What she'll do when she comes back - which won't be until that cold is cleared up for keeps - I couldn't tell you. Rob's a darling, but she knows her own mind, I can tell you. Mercifully, she's generally open to reason."


Mad made me cross Mad
"We let her try" - how patronising! And if she really does have a strong mind and will of her own, then why were they trying to stop her anyway? Are they just wanting to be in control or at least think they are?

 

#18:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2005 10:45 pm

Considering her medical history, I imagine the social service people got a letter from Dr Jem explaining Robin's health situation and bastically giving permission for her to work there, so I think there might well have been a sort of 'letting her', rather than her just doing it.

 

#19:  Author: Joyful, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2005 10:15 am

oh ok, that makes more sense...didn't think of it like that!
Embarassed maybe shouldn't have been quite so cross...but still a bit!

 

#20:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 1:25 pm

When Robin was a little girl, it seemed to me that she was always as good as gold and never disobeyed anyone. Was this completely realistic?

Joey kept on saying that Robin had to be watched over because she was so delicate. But I think Robin should have had more of a chance to stand on her own two feet.

 

#21:  Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle PostPosted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:51 pm

I love Robin as a little girl and as a grown up. I know judging her by todays standards treating her as a baby at six is far too much, but at the time the books were set she would be kept much more as a little girl for a lot longer. I think, too, that given her supposed heritage from her mother she would also be kept a lot quiter than normal children. My friend's mum spent a long while in a sanatorium with TB and though she escaped with her life she did lose a lung and a very close eye was kept on my friend through her childhood to ensure she did not inherit her mum's symptoms. Needless to state she didn't and went on to live a very healthy life with 4 wonderful children.

 

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