Reading Rambo

You love me because I give you the stimulus of uncertainty, and so keep bright your passion, but once you were sure, I should become a duty, as all women become, and then my Paul would yawn and grow to see I was no longer young, and that the expected is always an ennui when it comes!"   "Never, never!" said Paul, with fervour. At least Glyn kind of knows what's up. Now that Paul has had his first amorous dalliance (with a foreigner, no less), he is completely scornful of his fellow English citizens. Coming into a restaurant hatless, really . So like them and their kind. Not like Paul. Paul is now a sophisticated man of the world. Because, you see, he has had sex. On a tiger skin, no less. He has, as he thinks of it, a "love-secret." This lady, however, the un-first-named (first names! so common!) Madame Zalenska, continues to dine alone and not speak to him, so you know something's UP. They decide to leave for some mountain retreat, with him in ...

Here we are at the start of a new year, reading some 1907 trash. Feels right. I never thought you could actually read Elinor Glyn's books; she seemed like some distant untouchable literary figure, referenced in The Music Man , but whose works were not to be seen by contemporary eyes. Well that is nonsense. They're right there on the internet for free. Glyn's first novel was published in 1900 ( The Visits of Elizabeth ) and her last in 1940 ( The Third Eye ). This readalong focuses on one of her more scandalous works, Three Weeks . It is termed an "erotic romance novel" and concerns a young English twit who falls in love with an older (i.e. in her 30s) Eastern European woman of MYSTERIOUS ORIGINS. It was the subject of an anti-vice campaign in Boston (what wasn't, amirite?) and mainly made its cultural mark through the means of a tiger skin, seen in the book cover above. This week is chapters 1 through 6. To convince you to read this amazing work, h...