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Chapter 3
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Girls of Slender Means, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender
Youth and Romantic Idealism
Authenticity and Humility
Trauma
Summary
Analysis
It’s July 1945, and Nicholas Farringdon is 33 years old. No one at the May of Teck Club is much impressed by him—indeed, they consider him a bit slouchy and odd, though he comes from a respectable English family. Jane Wright turns to Rudi Bittesch for information about Nicholas. Rudi describes Nicholas as a young man who can’t decide what he wants. A pacifist at the start of the war, Nicholas later joined the Army—only to later seek out a psychoanalyst to get him excused from duty for medical reasons. None of what Rudi says makes Jane dislike Nicholas.
Rudi’s description of Nicholas portrays Nicholas as an aimless young man who doesn’t know who he wants to be, what he believes in, or what he wants out of life. He oscillates between radically different vocations and ideologies, starting out as a pacifist before switching course to join the Army—only to abandon that pursuit, as well (mental health struggles are real and valid, but Rudi’s description heavily implies that Nicholas only feigned poor mental health to the psychoanalyst in order to get out of his military duties).
Active
Themes
When Jane shows Nicholas’s The Sabbath Notebooks to Rudi in the club’s recreation room one day, Rudi insists that George would be crazy to publish it. Rudi reads aloud some passages to impress upon Jane the book’s mediocrity, but Jane finds it rather profound. As Rudi reads, Jane remembers a girlfriend Nicholas once had. She asks Rudi about the woman, and Rudi vaguely mentions something about the young woman being imprisoned “for pacifism,” though he’s not really sure.
A May of Teck girl who was practicing piano starts up again. Rudi suggests they move to the drawing room to finish their chat, but Jane disagrees—it’s loud everywhere. Rudi continues to read from Nicholas’s book, mocking its many inconsistencies. Rudi declares Nicholas a confused “mess.” Before he leaves, Rudi asks Jane to consider one final passage from Nicholas’s book, in which Nicholas describes anarchy as a “home-made bomb” for “modern times,” which “can only take one effective form: Ridicule.” To this, Jane only comments on the grammatical error of putting “only” before “take.”
After Rudi leaves, Jane continues to mull over his criticisms of Nicholas. She suspects she can’t take Rudi’s advice seriously because she knows him too well. In 1945, Nicholas has not yet started to “sleep on the roof with Selina,” nor has he “witnessed that action of savagery so extreme” it compels him to convert. At this point, he is still doing Intelligence work for the Foreign Office, though the war has ended. Presently, he lives in a drab rented room and feels rather aimless.
Active
Themes
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One night, Nicholas Farringdon has dinner at the May of Teck Club. He observes Selina, lying alluringly on the couch. Several days later, he takes Jane to a party and introduces her to the bohemian types she has longed to meet: young male poets and young female poets (or perhaps young women who are merely having sex with the male poets).
Nicholas takes Jane to poetry readings too, which evoke the atmosphere of a “resistance movement.” Some of the men were unfit to serve in the war; others are still in uniform. Nicholas himself was recently discharged after Dunkirk, from which he managed to escape with only a minor injury to his thumb. He was released after suffering a nervous break. At the readings, Nicholas appears out of place and standoffish, even among his friends. It’s clear he’s just there so Jane can enjoy herself. Later that evening, it occurs to Jane that he wants her to invite him back to the May of Teck Club.
Some of the poets who perform at the readings are talented, others mediocre. Among the good ones, some leave the arts to pursue more practical careers. One poet, Ernest Claymore, goes on to become a well-known stockbroker in the 1960s. But now, in 1945, Ernest is a young poet. Jane, observing his mannerisms and inferring that he is “orthosexual,” wonders whether she should pursue Ernest or stick with Nicholas. In the end, she doesn’t have to make a decision: Nicholas brings the “stockbroker to be” to the readings after party. Jane introduces herself and makes plans for a later date.
Active
Themes
At that same party, hosted by communist intellectuals, Nicholas asks Jane for more information about the May of Teck Club. Jane insists the club is “just a girls’ hostel.” Then Nicholas asks Jane about Selina. Jane, for her part, has forgotten why she’s here—“to reduce Nicholas’s literary morale as far as possible”—and has been treating Nicholas as the literary genius he believes himself to be. Nicholas, meanwhile, has decided to do whatever it takes to appease Jane (other than have sex with her) to accomplish two ends: getting his book published, and ingratiating himself with the May of Teck Club in order to get to Selina. Jane has yet to learn of Nicholas’s poetic interest in the club, or of his present aimlessness. She herself doesn’t see the May of Teck Club as anything so “ideal” or special.
Active
Themes
Nicholas asks Jane to tell him about the elocution teacher, Joanna. Then he asks “about the borrowing and lending of clothes.” Jane pauses for a moment, wondering if there’s anything she can get from Nicholas in exchange for answering his questions. She suggests they discuss Nicholas’s book—George, she claims, has lots of questions—but Nicholas ignores her and instead asks again about Selina. Jane, assuming that Nicholas is just interested in having sex with Selina (who is not a virgin and would probably be game) suggests that Nicholas just come over for lunch on Sunday.
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Themes
Jane redirects the conversation to Nicholas’s book, The Sabbath Notebooks. George wants “a genius,” and his expectations are high. She asks which parts of Nicholas’s book are “most important.” Nicholas insists that everything in the book is important. After he tries to ask about Selina again, Jane grows frustrated, lamenting the shepherd’s pie she’s been picking at, tediously removing the unhealthy bits. Nicholas decides that Jane is rather endearing, and he kisses her. Then, looking at her bare legs, he tells her he’ll get her a pair of stockings from an American he works with. He’ll also give her his egg-ration, and his tea-ration too—he doesn’t drink tea, he explains, and gets his coffee from the Americans.
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Themes
Jane, warming to Nicholas, considers halting her mission to take him down—maybe she can think of some way to trick George and not screw over Nicholas. Nicholas suggests they go fetch his tea. He and Jane have just risen to leave when Rudi Bittesch enters. Rudi greets Nicholas and asks how he’s been. Nicholas explains that he’s working with the Americans. Rudi jokingly suggests Nicholas is a sellout. He invites Nicholas and Jane to come join the party. Jane mentions Nicholas’s anarchy book, which Rudi mocks.
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Themes
In the present, Jane calls Rudi to tell him of Nicholas’s death. Rudi asks how Nicholas died, and Jane clarifies that he was “martyred,” in Haiti. She doesn’t know all the details yet, but Reuters has reported he was a causality of “a local rising.” Then Jane vaguely mentions she’s been thinking about Nicholas’s unpublished manuscript for The Sabbath Notebooks. Rudi confirms that he has it—and that it could be worth a lot of money in the aftermath of Nicholas’s intriguing death. He tries to ask for details about the circumstances of the death, but the connection is bad, and he and Jane struggle to hear each other. Frustrated, Rudi tells Jane he’ll call her back later.
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