Posted by John Richardson on July 22, 1998 at 21:34:36:
In Reply to: Re: Mary or Molly? posted by David Radcliffe on July 22, 1998 at 21:09:15:
I suppose David's comment is evidence (though Mr Farland might disparage it as 'circumstantial') that the two names can be the same. I havn't got P&M to hand and am sure that Nan would have quoted correctly, but my first thought was there had been a confusion....
Because isn't Mrs Walker's name Mary (end of WDMTGTS). Rather careless/artless of AR to give his two matriarchs similar names.
Whilst on the subject of Peggy/Margaret and Molly/Mary, because of AR, I though until about age 13 that Nancy/Ruth were, similarly, the same name.
I think Sarah Maitland pointed out in a 'My Hero' peice in the Independent on Saturday magazine some years ago, that it was modern and heartening of AR/Nancy to - when disatisfied with her name - pick another, independent and particularly feminine name - Nancy - as opposed to the tom-boy, sexually ambivalent choices of Blyton's George and Alcott's (spelling?) Jo.
Maitland points out, approvingly, that 'nowhere does Nancy express dissatisfaction with the state of being a girl - merely the artificial restrictions placed on it'.
A perceptive distinction that, and a choice by Ransome, which - especially in 1929/30, I think is one of the many things that marks him out as a great children's writer.