Fortunately, when the sheets had been washed previously, Rosa had made Liesel strip the bed and make it up.

[xiaomaomao]

Hi, I’m currently reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and I’m confused by the grammar structure of this sentence highlighted in pink below:

Four years later, when she came to write in the basement, two thoughts struck Liesel about the trauma of wetting the bed. Firstly, she felt extremely lucky that it was Papa who discovered the book. (Fortunately, when the sheets had been washed previously, Rosa had made Liesel strip the bed and make it up…) - p. 68

From my understanding, there are two past perfect phrases in this sentence:

1. When the sheets had been washed previously (past perfect passive)
2. Rosa had made Liesel strip the bed and make it up… (past perfect)

When it comes to the past perfect tense, I always thought it would pair up with the past simple tense, i.e. When Sarah arrived at the party, Paul had already gone home.

Could someone please explain why the author wrote both phrases in the past perfect tense? Did the author use this grammar structure to convey that these two events both happened before sometime in the past, just like any other stand-alone past perfect sentences, since they occurred before the present, which is technically the past, as the book is written in the past tense?

Thank so much you in advance

 

[Tarheel]

Yes, the past perfect is used twice in the same sentence. That's a bit unusual but not distracting.

Is there something wrong with using past perfect twice in the same sentence? Not necessarily. (My opinion.)

I don't know why the writer made that decision. Do you understand what is being said?

 

[jutfrank]

Did the author use this grammar structure to convey that these two events both happened before sometime in the past

Yes—before 'when she came to write in the basement'.

 

[Tarheel]

@xiaomaomao You supplied the necessary context, but then you ignored it. As for me, I was too distracted by the sentence in bold (and in red to boot!). Jutfrank is smarter than me, so he didn't let that distract him too much.

Context. Context. Context.

 

[xiaomaomao]

@Tarheel @jutfrank Thank you so much! I really appreciate your replies!

 

[probus]

@xiaomaomao please don't clutter the forum with thank you posts. Use the Thank button if you want to express gratitude.