Grizel and money
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#1: Grizel and money Author: claireLocation: South Wales PostPosted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:07 pm


Did Grizel have an allowance from anywhere? (I have a vague recollection of maybe her Grandmother leaving her something) if so howmuch and when did it start
Thanks


#2:  Author: jenniferLocation: Taiwan PostPosted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:19 am


I think she had an allowance from her father that was started from the point she left school to go to Vienna. It was contingent on her following his wishes careerwise, which was why she had to go into music rather than follow her own wishes. Possible he would pay for her tuition and board directly, and the allowance would cover daily living expenses.

She had an inheritance from her Father after his death, but wasn't allowed control of the bulk of the money until she was 35 - it was managed by her stepmother and her father's lawyer, and her stepmother wouldn't allow her access to it. This was described in Carola.


#3:  Author: claireLocation: South Wales PostPosted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:19 pm


When did her Dad die then? I had some thought of her getting money from her Gran


#4:  Author: KBLocation: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 12:20 am


I'm not sure we're ever told exactly what book he died in. He's certainly gone by Carola and, by the sounds of it, has been for quite a while.


#5:  Author: MiaLocation: London PostPosted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:40 am


jennifer wrote:
She had an inheritance from her Father after his death, but wasn't allowed control of the bulk of the money until she was 35 - it was managed by her stepmother and her father's lawyer, and her stepmother wouldn't allow her access to it. This was described in Carola.


35 is a very strange age to inherit isn't it? I presume it is pure EBD plot device but are there any other RL or literary instances of inheritance at 35 and not 21?


#6:  Author: LottieLocation: Humphrey's Corner PostPosted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:42 am


A Town like Alice by Nevil Shute. Jean Paget won't inherit her uncle(?)'s money until she is thirty five, and I think his solicitor persuaded him to reduce the age to as low as thirty five!!!


#7:  Author: RóisínLocation: Gaillimh, Eire PostPosted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:55 pm


Didn't the age to vote used to be 35?


#8:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:19 pm


It was 30 for (those) women (who could vote) from 1918 to 1928, but I'm not sure it was ever 35 - could be wrong though. I suppose it's not unrealistic that Grizel's dad should've specified that she couldn't have control of the money until she was 35 if he knew she really wanted to be a P.T. mistress and thought that by then she might think it was too late to retrain, or even if he just thought she couldn't be trusted with the money, but it seems a really nasty thing to do, especially given that she and her stepmother couldn't stand each other. EBD really seemed to have it in for Grizel until Carola, maybe even until Reunion.

Having said which, there would've been plenty of people who trained as P.T. mistresses or whatever without financial support from their parents, and Joey says something about Grizel not having "enough of her own" to manage on so she must've had some money from her mother or her grandmother or both which she could've used to help support herself even if she hadn't had the money from her father Rolling Eyes . Or am I talking rubbish (not for the first time!)?


#9:  Author: TiffanyLocation: madthesispanicargh PostPosted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:33 pm


Mia wrote:
35 is a very strange age to inherit isn't it? I presume it is pure EBD plot device but are there any other RL or literary instances of inheritance at 35 and not 21?


In The Importance of Being Earnest Gwendolyn doesn't come of age to inherit until she's thirty-five (I think!) though again it's a plot device.


#10:  Author: SamLocation: Essex, UK PostPosted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:50 pm


Eustacia doesn't come of age until her late 20s/early 30's if I remember rightly- her father thought that as she was a girl she was incapable of spending it in a proper fashion! (I think this was cut from the pb)


#11:  Author: PhilLocation: London UK PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 6:12 pm


Quote:
KB Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 12:20 am
I'm not sure we're ever told exactly what book he died in. He's certainly gone by Carola and, by the sounds of it, has been for quite a while.


claire

When did her Dad die then? I had some thought of her getting money from her Gran


When I tried to make sense of the CS timeline, I estimated Mr Cochrane dies round about Lavender laughs or Gay from China. I think he is mentioned in Lavender Laughs, of course I could be imagining things, having been driven bonkers by various EBDisms!


#12:  Author: jenniferLocation: Taiwan PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 7:14 pm


Perhaps the late inheritance date was to encourage the woman to marry - if she came into her money at 21, she would have independant means and no need to marry or follow her guardian/trustees wishes for financial reasons. By 35 if she wasn't married, she'd have been written off as a spinster and the money would keep her from being a burden on her family.

Okay, maybe a bit cynical, but not much more than the idea that women were incapable of handling finances until they were 35!


#13:  Author: KBLocation: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 11:14 pm


Phil wrote:
When I tried to make sense of the CS timeline, I estimated Mr Cochrane dies round about Lavender laughs or Gay from China. I think he is mentioned in Lavender Laughs, of course I could be imagining things, having been driven bonkers by various EBDisms!


He is indirectly mentioned in Lavender, but not in a way that clarifies his state of life:

Quote:
Miss Cochrane herself, feeling ready ‘to fight with a feather,’ as her old housekeeper, once Cookie in her father’s household, would have said


However Gay is rather more descriptive:

Quote:
Apart from the fact that she is an excellent teacher, I know that both Madame and Hilda like to fell that she’s where they can keep an eye on her. She has no home now that Mr Cochrane’s dead; and she’s done some wildly wrong-headed things at intervals all her life.


This suggests he may not have been gone very long, although it's rather flexible by its very wording.

 




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