Vera (novel)

Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim is a novel based on her disastrous second marriage to Earl Russell: a frightening analysis of the naivete of a young woman as she falls into the power of a pathologically narcissistic husband. In outline the story of this utterly unromantic novel anticipates DuMaurier's Rebecca. Naive Lucy Entwhistle is swept into marriage by widower, Everard Wemyss. His mansion "The Willows" is pervaded by the spectre of his dead wife Vera, who Lucy gradually comes to suspect has committed suicide rather than endure marriage to Wemyss. An extraordinarily black vision of a young wife who gradually begins to understand that her husband will accept nothing less than total intellectual and motional servitude. Many of von Arnim's other books, including the wonderful "Enchanted April," are written with verve, humor, and a delight in the romantic. Vera is closer to nightmare.

(1983) ISBN 0-86068-316-8 (2000) ISBN 2-264-02389-9

Transposed blurb from Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English, blurb by Anthea Trodd at Keele University.

It is not easy to get hold of copies of the 1983 edition of this book (only available in the UK).

However an electronic version is available at The Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/veraarni00arniuoft


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