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Monday, January 21, 2008

Something About Crankforth

A driving force.

Crankforth is a figure from the siege of Grisly Grange of 982 and a distant ancestor of Sir Bertram Crabtree-Gore (The Pedant and the Shuffly, 21). He is credited with defending his castle with only twelve men and a "cellarful of crabapple preserves" by devising the plan to heat the preserves and catapult it onto the attacking army.

Bowen noted that Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield (1850) (“which Bellairs had undoubtedly read [1]”) featured an important character named James Steerforth, thusly described:. 

A student at Creakle's school who befriends young David, even as he takes over David's money. He is condescending to other social classes, a snob who unhesitatingly takes advantage of his younger friends and uses his mother's influence, going so far as to get Mr Mell dismissed from the school because Mell's mother lives in an almshouse. Although he grows into a charming and handsome young man, he proves to be lacking in character when he seduces and later abandons Little Em'ly. He eventually drowns at Yarmouth in a fierce storm at sea, washing up on the shore after the merchant ship breaks apart.[2]

"Add the fact that the steering mechanism of an automobile is located close to the crankcase and what do we have? Ultimately not a lot [1]."

References

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