Yeah, the "smelly" comment does seem prejudiced and a throwback to previous decades. But then again, baths might have been difficult or a royal pain amongst a caravan of wagons. Or fun, depending on level of immodesty. Imagine hauling the hot water.
I don't know what I think about a modern writer commenting. Sure, we may bathe more now than most groups of people did in the past, but we have to bathe more. Most people don't know it, only Environmental Illness patients like me, but people use half a dozen artifically-perfumed bathroom products, then that combines with sweat, then artifically-perfumed deodorant is added to the cocktail. A big part of why humans stink is that cocktail. It's perfume residues in mainstream detergents, too, and other things.
Man-made perfumes added to products are the biggest factor creating Environmental Illness (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities) in people. They're the first thing you react to once you get EI (MCS). And a lot of those products could be avoided in the first place. There's more unscented stuff out there to buy all the time. Some really isn't, but I'm veering off-topic enough as it is. I can talk about this somewhere else (where?) if anyone knows someone who might have EI. MCS/EI wrecks people's lives, so if you were wondering, yes, it's a serious thing.
Magda could probably stand to have her mouth washed out with soap occasionally, I'm guessing. All that cursing.
