Wendell Bambleby's Encyclopedia of Emily

by begonia

Summary:

Wendell begins to keep an observation diary. His journal is a compilation of lasting encounters with Emily big and small. | Basically, our unreliable narrator needed an equally unreliable narrator telling his side of things.

Notes:

Hello! I just finished the book and I have to say the romantic path really kept me on my toes! Mostly because, honestly, I was unconvinced that Wendell was suitable for Emily for most of the book! lol. Anyway, I was won over in the end because I love a man pining after an oblivious lady but I felt we were robbed of some key pining and fawning on Wendell's end because we are only getting Emily's side of the story. So here is where I lay down my own selfish desires for more Wendell observations!

Chapter 1: A Note from the Author

It is said, dearest Em, that keeping a journal of facts and findings is of utmost importance when setting out to accumulate great knowledge. As this is said by you in particular, I think you might be obliged to agree with me that my newest undertaking is paramount to my own venture— convincing you of my sincere affection. So, I find myself— despite my usual aversion to such exertions— writing a diary of my finding and observations of you, Professor Emily Wilde.

You will find within these pages accounts of… varying nature of our interactions. Some may baffle you to read, as I am sure you think me to be a perfunctory buffoon of a man. But this is not so, my dear scholar! I am always, always watching, even as I may be appeasing my crowd of adoring fans, whom you so desperately avoid. You with your scowl, hair askew, and eyes fixed prudently on anything else but my own gaze back at you…

I get ahead of myself. All of this is to say, Em, I am truly, madly, and inexplicably enraptured by your very existence. You are my dear friend, my astute colleague, and my improbable partner in this quest of mine. Never had I seen you so equally and enthusiastically interested by my own self and my own writing as I had seen you become over my quaint few entries during your absence at the ice palace. At least, I had never been granted the honor of witnessing such a scene and I found that I quite enjoyed watching you reread my entries late in the night side by side in front of the fire.

And so, while you are nose deep in your endless piles of research and fieldwork, willfully turning blind eye to my efforts, great and small, I have deemed it necessary to pursue my own research. A record of my very own, an observation diary of you.

I do hope you enjoy it as much as I have.