[Vision2020] Moscow's fortune cookie crumbles?

[melyndahuskey at earthlink.net]

Phil Nesbit writes:

>Significance of the 1869 Blackmore Book was that he ‘froze it in time’ by 
> writing the whole of the speech and style in 17th century English.  There 
> have been ten remakes of the movie and a mini-series over the years.
>
> In the movie version the nasty old Doone’s are high grading tax funds and 
> living in a castle, which they have actually stolen from its rightful
owner, 
> none other than Lorne, who is really the daughter of the displaced
nobleman, 
> though nobody knows it.  It seemed pretty similar to the state of affairs 
> claimed by some for the current situation here in Moscow.

Uh huh.  Or, as PeeWee Herman used to say, "I meant to do that."

I'm stumped--and that dissertation on Victorian popular fiction isn't
helping me a bit.  Who or what in Moscow represents the displaced nobleman?
And who's the lovely Lorna?  What's the castle?  And how exactly do we get
from historical novel to "frozen in time"?

Melynda Huskey

P.S. to Doug F.--the word you're looking for is "hiatus," my name is
spelled "Melynda," and I didn't miss you much, either.