Glamour in Glass: Mr. Vincent

In Shades of Milk and Honey, when Jane first sees the professional glamourist, Mr. Vincent, she describes him as, “Tall, and very broad of chest. His hair was chestnut and curled about his head like Bacon’s portrait of Jean- Baptiste Isabey.”

In Glamour in Glass, we see him again.

His brown curls were tousled in the fashionable wind- swept look which so many men struggled to attain, but which came naturally to him.He swept his hands through his hair so much, knotting them in place while he thought, that it was permanently dishevelled.

Note the word wind-swept? It is one of three places I knowingly cheated with the language. That word does not get coined until 1932, but the description for the hairstyle from the period was… not particularly helpful to a modern reader.

Would you have known what I meant by the “frightened owl” hairstyle?

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12 thoughts on “Glamour in Glass: Mr. Vincent”

  1. Yeah, I think I would have known what “Frightened owl” hairstyle meant.  Visually descriptive, very graphic.

        1. Haha. I was only joking. I thought of the first ridiculously bearded person that came to mind.

          In reality maybe Matthew Macfayden.

          Little Dorrit Matthew Macfayden. Not Three Musketeers Mathew Macfayden, despite the facial hair. He might not be broad enough though.

        2. I suppose so, but I first saw him in Little Dorrit, which is kind of sad and beautiful in a way that P&P isn’t quite for me.

          Plus I think he got to own the part of Arthur a little more than Mr. Darcy, since Colin Firth pretty much has his stamp on it.

          If someone gets to do your book as a movie (hopefully as a BBC miniseries) then I hope they’d really own the performance.

  2. I just finished Shades of Milk and Honey this afternoon and I can’t wait for Glamour in Glass. Two things of note:
    1. I pictured Mr. Vincent as a brooding Hugh Jackman. 2. I appreciate that Jane is not remotely fair/pretty in the traditional sense. I think it sends a positive message about they ways we can value ourselves as women. 

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