Product Description

Considered by many to be von Arnim's finest work, VERA is a startling exploration of sex and violence. Lucy Entwhistle's beloved father has just died, and aged twenty-two, she finds herself alone in the world. Leaning against her garden gate, dazed and unhappy, she is disturbed by the sudden appearance of the perspiring Mr Wemyss.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #294888 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
'A remarkable novel' Rebecca West *'Von Arnim was keenly aware of the powerlessness of an intelligent woman in a male-dominated world' Kate Saunders

About the Author
A greatly admired literary figure of her time, Elizabeth von Arnim was born in 1866 and brought up in England. She spent later years in Switzerland, the French Riviera and America, where she died in 1941.

Customer Reviews

Thanks be for modern divorce.............
This is a wonderful portrait of a controlling psychopath of a husband married to a naive and much younger wife - said to be a thinly veiled portrait of the author's own second husband - and I can believe it, it has the ring of truth. The Vera of the title is the first wife who, in the days when there were no "no fault" divorces and having a monster of psychological cruelty for a spouse was not considered grounds for divorce, has, in desperation at her inescapable lot, committed suicide by jumping from a window. Personally, I'd have pushed him out or spent some time resarching undectectable poisons rather than suicide - even if she had been detected she'd have been no more dead facing hanging and at least she would have rid the world of of a self absorbed dictator who consistently leaves a trail of misery in his wake as all around him walk on eggshells. I suspect the servants, and all their social acquaintances would have rallied to her support regardless of any suspicions of foul play, though such prolonged psychological abuse had probably rendered her incapable of action.

It's also a precursor in outline of du Maurier's "Rebecca" except that the recently deceased first wife is not the nemesis of her successor but a sympathetic presence as the extent of Wemyss' awfulness is revealed. Max deWinter he certainly isn't.

As a picture of social entrapment it's a feminist tract as well as a good novel but shame on Virago for having raised their prices so high on books now out of copyright and very obviously printed photgraphically from the originals so not incurring original typesetting costs.