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.