Vera | 
When the doctor had gone, and the two women from the village he had been waiting for were upstairs shut in with her dead father, Lucy went out into the garden and stood leaning on the gate staring at the sea.
A very long first sentence
#firstlinefridays
@ShyBookOwl
My current read (another Elizabeth von Arnim) is a 1921 novel which anticipates the plot of Du Maurier‘s masterpiece, Rebecca.
Young Lucy Entwhistle is on holiday in Cornwall with her beloved father when he suddenly dies. Enter Mr. Wemyss; a man whose wife, Vera, has recently and mysteriously died. They immediately fall in love and it isn‘t until after they marry that Lucy begins to worry: what really happened to Vera?
pickA haunting story of what would now be termed as ‘coercive control‘. As Lucy mourns the death of her beloved father, she meets Wemyss, a man who seems to have all the answers; even the revelation that Wemyss‘ first wife, Vera, died only three months before in less than certain circumstances, can stop their engagement. When he takes his new bride home to The Willows, she begins to see a new side to him.
pickWhat starts as a comedy of manners accelerates at the midpoint into a gripping psychological-noir.
Written in 1921 Elizabeth Von Arnim‘s marital-chiller Vera predates Daphne Du Maurier‘s Rebecca by 16 years and makes for a fascinating comparison.
#vera #elizabethvonarnim #vintageclassics @penguinrandomhouse
pickWow, reading this book actually made me angry, but I couldn‘t put it down. What starts out as a dark-ish love story actually looks a lot like abuse by the end. And the ending—why can‘t I know just a bit more?!? I‘ve heard this was the inspiration for du Maurier‘s Rebecca and I could see some similarities for sure. Intense read!
