Talk:Wendelin von Benno Baumeister/@comment-99.77.125.137-20200619195113/@comment-45880342-20200619201708

Actually, I think the only case where it’s truly problematic is with Wilma, who’s only ~12 at the time of the marriage, which the novel makes clear did get consummated. Philine is only engaged, until she reaches appropriate age. He was 15 at the time of the first wedding. All the others are either his age (Elise, Iina, Louise - and IIRC one of them is like a month older and the other two are like a month younger) or distinctly older (Katarina is ~17 at the wedding, Katia is ~19-20 at the marriage which since it's later means about the same age as Katarina, Lisa is ~29). Even his mistresses are older (Amalie is the same age as Lisa, and became a mistress at 27, while Therese was 20 when they met but at least 22 when she became a side-piece). So while 3 of them are young by our standards, it’s normal in the world and also at least he’s roughly contemporary to their ages. Only Wilma stands out as both too young even in comparison to him and younger than what that world says is supposed to be allowed.