Posted by John Richardson on July 23, 1998 at 21:13:56:
In Reply to: Peggy posted by Emma Grunberg on July 23, 1998 at 04:13:09:
Winter Holiday was meant to be Peggy's big chance: Nancy out of the way with mumps, Peggy left to run the show and get to the North Pole because her local knowledge was still far superior to the Walkers' (and of course the D's).
But it doesn't happen: and it's not her failure, nor really is it Ransome's. She tries, he tries, but IIRC, it is made almost explicit within the text that she can never be Nancy. I don't have the book to hand, but I think at one point (maybe more than one) she tries a 'Jib-booms and Bobstays' or some such nautical Nancyism, and the commentary, if not the characters, remark that she fools no-one.
Is this a personal failure for Peggy? Or an artistic one for AR? Or both? I don't think so. Some people are just more dominant and vibrant in life - and if in life, so in books, especially ones that are meant to be realistic. I think AR would have failed as a writer if he had made Peggy more seamlessly slip into Nancy's role in WH. So WH is very much Nancy's book, and the North Pole Nancy's plan, even if she is off-stage for most of it.
It is noteable that Susie Altounyan is reported to have felt her alter ego Susan, was too good to be true when reading S&A upon publication. One of Ransome's great triumphs is when he deepens her character in WDMTGTS (see Chapter, A Cure for Sea-sickness). (Oh dear. I think I'd better stop as I am starting to parrot Brogan and Hardyment too much....)
Peggy never gets a chance like that, which is a shame, because even Bridgit is fully and beautifully realised in WDMTGTS - perhaps better than in SW, where paradoxically she has more to do...
Still, they also serve who only stand and wait.... And Peggy does more than that....