Chapter 5 - The MacKenzie

This chapter is a great insight into some of the customs of the clan leader.  To be sure, life in a castle had to be a hard life, compared to today's standards. Claire finds this out in the opening scene.

"I was warm, and the surrounding room was piercingly cold. I tried to burrow back into my cocoon of quilts, but the voice that had wakened me was still nagging."

I once read that four-poster beds originated with the goal of keeping the occupants warm inside the curtains, since the rooms were not heated. Kind of like camping in a tent, and then you find out it's 30 degrees colder outside once you unzip the flap. The four-poster also kept illness inside the curtains (it was thought), not spread around.

While this chapter is brief, obviously introducing us to Colum MacKenzie has great foreshadowing. What is the leather pouch that is seen in his attendant's hand before Colum excuses himself and leaves the room? Interesting...

Actually, as appears to be the case with my brief experience in this novel, I am greatly drawn to the scenes surrounding the action and the characters. My favorite excerpt from this short chapter is actually picturing Claire as she is inspecting the volumes on the shelves:

"There were perhaps two dozen books on this shelf; more on the opposite wall. Hurriedly I flipped the opening pages of each volume. Several had no publication dates; those that did were all dated from 1720-1742. Colum MacKenzie obviously liked luxury, but the rest of his room gave no particular indication that he was an antiquarian. The bindings were new, with no sign of cracking or foxed pages within."

*Gasp* Okay, for all of you who say you like reading the sex scenes in the series, all I have to say is that for me, as an avid researcher of old texts, this is better than any sex scene. This is...like...like porn for history buffs.

"No sooner had the door swung shut behind him than I was at the bookshelf, running my hand along the leather bindings."

Yeah, Claire, that's it, baby. Run your hand along those leather bindings...

Seriously, can you imagine looking through these old 18th-century texts in mint freakin' condition, and recognize them for the luxuries that they would have been in that day and age? I would have loved to inspect every one. Rudely, then, the narration pulls Claire away from the books over to the desk; obviously she is wanting to find out what date/period she is experiencing in this castle since falling through the stones...but who cares about that; I want her to go back to reopen those volumes so I can find out what is in those books! Aaaaaaghh! Go back to the books, Claire, go back to the books! 

Dangit.

After re-reading this post so far, I'm pretty sure for all of you Gabaldonian purists out there that I have just blown your mind.

As I pictured those volumes, though, I was reminded of a recent old text that I stumbled across online that anyone interested could review for themselves at Internet Archive, if they were so inclined by clicking here. It was actually a primer from a similar time period (originally mid-1600's) that just fascinates me to no end. It was designed as a grade-school primer in scientific theory with illustrations, English descriptions on the left and Latin equivalents on the right. Here is a page below of Johannes Comenius' Orbis Pictus (The World in Pictures).

Johannes Comenis Orbis Pictus, ca. 1727, scant years from Claire's adventure at the castle.

Interesting how it says "A wind underground causeth an earthquake." Now we know. (I know, I know, it's geeky and eclectic, but this is the kind of stuff that I love to peruse).

Dangit, Claire, go back to those books...