Skip to main content

Three Weeks by Elinor Glyn: "Considerable Mental Tribulation Over a Woman"

THIS WEEK in Elinor Glyn's Three Weeks, week 4!

Paul continues to live in a weird fever dream

You really get a glimpse inside Elinor Glyn's head here:

"My Paul, I want you never to forget this night—never to think of me but as gloriously happy, clasped in your arms amid the roses. And see, we must drink once more together of our wedding wine, and complete our souls' delight."
An eloquence seemed to come to Paul and loosen his tongue, so that he whispered back paeans of worship in language as fine as her own. 

"as fine as her own." Is that what it is?

She continues to whisper languorously and writhe sinuously and I am once more reminded that all this would be ruined by someone farting.

The three weeks end! There's the title. They end by Unnamed Woman fleeing in the night and leaving an extremely overwrought (could it be anything else?) note for Paul. Paul collapses with brain fever, which immediately reminded me of the movie Soapdish when Jeffrey has to read the teleprompter without his glasses.

Jeffrey Anderson : [as Dr. Randall] I'm afraid the results are very disturbing. It seems that Angelique has a rare case of brake fluid... [pause]

Jeffrey Anderson : Bran... fluid. Bran flavor.

His brain will laterally explore within the next three houses

Paul's father is my new favorite character when he arrives in Venice and writes home saying  "D—d hard luck the boy getting fever like this! But one never could trust foreign countries' drains!"

I must say, after the constant over-30-shaming on The Bachelor this season, it's something of a relief to hear a "thirty-three to thirty-five" year old talked about as completely amazing and "the most lovely lady I ever did see at times," even if she wouldn't make it on The Bachelor herself because instead of opening up, she'd do something like dramatically throw herself into the pool.

We always talk about suspected gay people in these readalongs, but the book has focused so intensely on Paul and Whassername that the only hint of absolutely anything is when Tompson the Servant calls Paul "so handsome." So. There we go.

Whassername sends Paul a dog collar for his dog Pike, WHICH IS ACTUALLY SWEET this is the first uninsane or over the top thing she's done (although the collar is leather and gold).

He goes back to England and is, of course, bored by everything, but starting to Make a Name for Himself because of her broadening of his horizons via tiger skins and references to the Greeks.

Is anyone else confused that he was given a gun and that gun hasn't been fired? That's not how the game is played, Glyn! Fix this immediately!

We're finishing the book for next time, so read to the end! I'm assuming she's pregnant from Paul and will continue his Anglo-Saxon line. Wait. Is this a weird colonization book? We should look into it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't

How to Build a Girl Introductory Post, which is full of wonderful things you probably want to read

Acclaimed (in England mostly) lady Caitlin Moran has a novel coming out. A NOVEL. Where before she has primarily stuck to essays. Curious as we obviously were about this, I and a group of bloggers are having a READALONG of said novel, probably rife with spoilers (maybe they don't really matter for this book, though, so you should totally still read my posts). This is all hosted/cared for/lovingly nursed to health by Emily at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads) because she has a lovely fancy job at an actual bookshop ( Odyssey Books , where you can in fact pre-order this book and then feel delightful about yourself for helping an independent store). Emily and I have negotiated the wonders of Sri Lankan cuisine and wandered the Javits Center together. Would that I could drink with her more often than I have. I feel like we could get to this point, Emily INTRODUCTION-wise (I might've tipped back a little something this evening, thus the constant asides), I am Alice. I enjoy