The importance of planning ahead

I exaggerated a bit on Friday when I said that I was up to page 350 of Pendennis because I discovered on my way home on the train that, on page 336, old WM says who Pendennis's worst enemy is.

And it's not anyone you might have suspected.

Mostly because people are either universally well-disposed to the young dandified pup or because Thackeray inserts minor contretemps into the action but resolves them far too quickly to have a sustained enemy for 550 pages.

Actually I suspect he chanced upon the front page of the first part of his serial again and realised he'd forgotten to include an essential ingredient, much like I did a few years ago when I made my wonderful healthy egg and dairy free chocolate cake for my former Beloved who was a vegan and I foolishly neglected to include the cup of raw sugar. The only way it was edible was with lashings and lashings of chocolate icing (made with olive oil margarine which is surprisingly bearabe). So too Pendennis appears to have a tacked on mortal enemy.

Likewise Warrington, his best friend who late in the piece is perceived by some as a potential rival for Pen's possible bride, has a very very very strange back story to expand on WM's obsession with young men ruining their prospects by marrying older women. Marriage seems to be a real social handicap for a young man in Thackeray's world.