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Beyond the Rocks: A Love Story
Beyond The Rocks Elinor Glyn Never before have such dramatic love scenes, such spectacular adventure been placed before the public. The love-drama with all the thrills and luxury of a lifetime! The one book you'll never forget! We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.
198 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1906
About the author
Elinor Glyn
236 books34 followersElinor Sutherland was born in St Helier, Jersey, the younger daughter of Douglas Sutherland (1838–1865), a civil engineer of Scottish descent, and his wife Elinor Saunders (1841–1937).
Her father died when Elinor was two months old and her mother returned to the parental home in Guelph, Ontario, Canada with her two daughters, Lucy Christiana and Elinor.
Back in Canada, Elinor was schooled by her grandmother, Lucy Anne Saunders, in the ways of upper-class society. This early training not only gave her an entrée into aristocratic circles on her return to Europe, but it led to her being considered an authority on style and breeding when she worked in Hollywood in the 1920s.
Her mother remarried a Mr. Kennedy in 1871 and when Elinor was eight years old the family returned to Jersey. When there her schooling continued at home with a succession of governesses.
Elinor married Clayton Louis Glyn (1857–1915), a wealthy but spendthrift landowner, on 27 April 1892. The couple had two daughters, Margot and Juliet, but the marriage apparently foundered on mutual incompatibility although the couple remained together.
As a consequence Elinor had affairs with a succession of British aristocrats and some of her books are supposedly based on her various affairs, such as 'Three Weeks' (1907), allegedly inspired by her affair with Lord Alistair Innes Ker. That affair caused quite a furore and scandalized Edwardian society and one of the scenes in the book had one unnamed poet writing,
Would you like to sin
With Elinor Glyn
On a tiger skin?
Or would you prefer
To err with her
On some other fur?
She had began her writing in 1900, starting with a book based on letters to her mother, 'The Visits of Elizabeth'. And thereafter she more or less wrote one book each year to keep the wolf from the door, as her husband was debt-ridden from 1908, and also to keep up her standard of living. After several years of illness her husband died in 1915.
Early in her writing career she was recognised as one of the pioneers of what could be called erotic fiction, although not by modern-day standards, and she coined the use of the world 'It' to mean at the time sex-appeal and she helped to make Clara Bow a star by the use of the sobriquet for her of 'The It Girl'.
On the strength of her reputation and success she moved to Hollywood in 1920 and in 1921 was featured as one of the famous personalities in a Ralph Barton cartoon drawn especially for 'Vanity Fair' magazine.
A number of her books were made into films, most notably 'Beyond the Rocks' (1906), which starred Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson, and she was a scriptwriter for the silent movie industry, working for both MGM and Paramount Pictures in the mid-1920s. In addition she also had a brief career as one of the earliest female directors.
In 1927, by which time she had published 32 novels, she once again appeared in some verse of the day. Songsmith Lorenz Hart immortalised her in his song 'My Heart Stood Still' when he wrote,
I read my Plato
Love, I thought a sin
But since your kiss
I'm reading missus Glyn!
She was so universally popular and well-known in the 1920s that she even made a cameo appearance as herself in the 1928 film 'Show People'.
As well as her novels, she wrote wrote magazine articles for the Hearst Press giving advice on 'how to keep your man' and also giving health and beauty tips. In 1922 she published 'The Elinor Glyn System of Writing', which gives an insight into writing for Hollywood studios and magazine editors.
In later life she moved to the United Kingdom, settling in London. She wrote over 40 books, the last of which was 'The Third Eye' (1940) and she died in Chelsea on 23 September 1943, being survived by her two daughters.
Gerry Wolstenholme
November 2010
Her father died when Elinor was two months old and her mother returned to the parental home in Guelph, Ontario, Canada with her two daughters, Lucy Christiana and Elinor.
Back in Canada, Elinor was schooled by her grandmother, Lucy Anne Saunders, in the ways of upper-class society. This early training not only gave her an entrée into aristocratic circles on her return to Europe, but it led to her being considered an authority on style and breeding when she worked in Hollywood in the 1920s.
Her mother remarried a Mr. Kennedy in 1871 and when Elinor was eight years old the family returned to Jersey. When there her schooling continued at home with a succession of governesses.
Elinor married Clayton Louis Glyn (1857–1915), a wealthy but spendthrift landowner, on 27 April 1892. The couple had two daughters, Margot and Juliet, but the marriage apparently foundered on mutual incompatibility although the couple remained together.
As a consequence Elinor had affairs with a succession of British aristocrats and some of her books are supposedly based on her various affairs, such as 'Three Weeks' (1907), allegedly inspired by her affair with Lord Alistair Innes Ker. That affair caused quite a furore and scandalized Edwardian society and one of the scenes in the book had one unnamed poet writing,
Would you like to sin
With Elinor Glyn
On a tiger skin?
Or would you prefer
To err with her
On some other fur?
She had began her writing in 1900, starting with a book based on letters to her mother, 'The Visits of Elizabeth'. And thereafter she more or less wrote one book each year to keep the wolf from the door, as her husband was debt-ridden from 1908, and also to keep up her standard of living. After several years of illness her husband died in 1915.
Early in her writing career she was recognised as one of the pioneers of what could be called erotic fiction, although not by modern-day standards, and she coined the use of the world 'It' to mean at the time sex-appeal and she helped to make Clara Bow a star by the use of the sobriquet for her of 'The It Girl'.
On the strength of her reputation and success she moved to Hollywood in 1920 and in 1921 was featured as one of the famous personalities in a Ralph Barton cartoon drawn especially for 'Vanity Fair' magazine.
A number of her books were made into films, most notably 'Beyond the Rocks' (1906), which starred Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson, and she was a scriptwriter for the silent movie industry, working for both MGM and Paramount Pictures in the mid-1920s. In addition she also had a brief career as one of the earliest female directors.
In 1927, by which time she had published 32 novels, she once again appeared in some verse of the day. Songsmith Lorenz Hart immortalised her in his song 'My Heart Stood Still' when he wrote,
I read my Plato
Love, I thought a sin
But since your kiss
I'm reading missus Glyn!
She was so universally popular and well-known in the 1920s that she even made a cameo appearance as herself in the 1928 film 'Show People'.
As well as her novels, she wrote wrote magazine articles for the Hearst Press giving advice on 'how to keep your man' and also giving health and beauty tips. In 1922 she published 'The Elinor Glyn System of Writing', which gives an insight into writing for Hollywood studios and magazine editors.
In later life she moved to the United Kingdom, settling in London. She wrote over 40 books, the last of which was 'The Third Eye' (1940) and she died in Chelsea on 23 September 1943, being survived by her two daughters.
Gerry Wolstenholme
November 2010
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 23, 2013
I had to read this for my literature class this semester.
Glyn is good at romance, but romance is not the genre for me. I guess I'm too practical to fall into the dream of vows and swoons and such nonsense. Also, I don't care for protagonists that are one-dimensional. Theodora irritated me. She was too perfect. Characters with no grit bore me.
Oh, well. I hope I pass the quiz tomorrow night.
Glyn is good at romance, but romance is not the genre for me. I guess I'm too practical to fall into the dream of vows and swoons and such nonsense. Also, I don't care for protagonists that are one-dimensional. Theodora irritated me. She was too perfect. Characters with no grit bore me.
Oh, well. I hope I pass the quiz tomorrow night.
December 13, 2018
So, despite some of the disagreeable materialistic characters, despite the glorious -albeit unrealistic- beauty of the heroine, despite the annoying French sentences spoken by Esclarmonde de Chartres, and despite the convenient death, I loved this love story. ❤
It wasn't a very long read, it was sweet and romantic, it was very passionate without being crude; it was just beautiful. I liked all the people the authoress wanted her readers to like, and I disliked all the people that she wanted her readers to dislike. Most of all, I loved "Crow". I think he's a real treasure, and it must be nice to have a friend like him. I also loved the way the authoress wove the title into the story, giving it meaning and significance.
"... she wondered what Love was. It took a mighty hold upon her imagination. It seemed to her it must mean Life. " These are exactly my sentiments. I think Love means Life, and without Love, Life can be very hard and sad and empty.
I found this very funny:
"Theodora knew at once he belonged to the tribe whom Sarah had told her could never be husbands." Because sometimes I feel like that, that all the beautiful ones are taken or unavailable.
I believe that souls can be connected from ages ago, from even before we were born:
" 'No—do you not feel that sometimes in life one's friendships begin by antipathy—sometimes by indifference—and sometimes by that sudden magnetism of sympathy as if in some former life we had been very near and dear, and were only picking up the threads again, and to such two souls there is no feeling that they are strangers.' "
This speaks for itself:
" But when they reached the automobile and he bent over to tuck the rug in—and she felt the touch of his hands and perceived the scent of him—the subtle scent, not a perfume hardly, of his coat, or his hair, a wild rush of that passionate disturbance came over her again, making her heart beat and her eyes dilate.
And Hector saw and understood, and bit his lips, and clenched his hands together under the rug, because so great was his own emotion that he feared what he should say or do."
I love that this book shows that there is hope, that true love exists, that dreams can come true, and that the patient ones are rewarded in the end. 😍
It wasn't a very long read, it was sweet and romantic, it was very passionate without being crude; it was just beautiful. I liked all the people the authoress wanted her readers to like, and I disliked all the people that she wanted her readers to dislike. Most of all, I loved "Crow". I think he's a real treasure, and it must be nice to have a friend like him. I also loved the way the authoress wove the title into the story, giving it meaning and significance.
"... she wondered what Love was. It took a mighty hold upon her imagination. It seemed to her it must mean Life. " These are exactly my sentiments. I think Love means Life, and without Love, Life can be very hard and sad and empty.
I found this very funny:
"Theodora knew at once he belonged to the tribe whom Sarah had told her could never be husbands." Because sometimes I feel like that, that all the beautiful ones are taken or unavailable.
I believe that souls can be connected from ages ago, from even before we were born:
" 'No—do you not feel that sometimes in life one's friendships begin by antipathy—sometimes by indifference—and sometimes by that sudden magnetism of sympathy as if in some former life we had been very near and dear, and were only picking up the threads again, and to such two souls there is no feeling that they are strangers.' "
This speaks for itself:
" But when they reached the automobile and he bent over to tuck the rug in—and she felt the touch of his hands and perceived the scent of him—the subtle scent, not a perfume hardly, of his coat, or his hair, a wild rush of that passionate disturbance came over her again, making her heart beat and her eyes dilate.
And Hector saw and understood, and bit his lips, and clenched his hands together under the rug, because so great was his own emotion that he feared what he should say or do."
I love that this book shows that there is hope, that true love exists, that dreams can come true, and that the patient ones are rewarded in the end. 😍
July 31, 2011
The title of this book refers to the river Lethe in Greek mythology--those who drink of it experience forgetfulness of all memories. But for the heroine, oblivion seems unattainable beyond the rocks...
This novel is about a young girl who is sold into a high society marriage and knows nothing of love until she meets a dashing philanderer. The ensuing story focuses on their romance and struggle to take the moral high ground.
While this book does not reach the emotional or intellectual depths of novels such as Wharton's "Age of Innocence," and is slighty predictable at times, nevertheless it is an enjoyable read.
This novel is about a young girl who is sold into a high society marriage and knows nothing of love until she meets a dashing philanderer. The ensuing story focuses on their romance and struggle to take the moral high ground.
While this book does not reach the emotional or intellectual depths of novels such as Wharton's "Age of Innocence," and is slighty predictable at times, nevertheless it is an enjoyable read.
February 5, 2012
Better than the movie!
January 12, 2016
Light period romance by one of the era's best selling novelists. Completely predictable, but no less enjoyable for it.
March 24, 2019
Thought I should read at least one Elinor Glyn in my life, and this was it. For its time it was probably somewhat shocking, though not as much so as other Glyn novels reportedly were. The story concerns a physically beautiful woman with a beautiful nature, a lovely all-round person, who is sold into a marriage for the financial survival of her father and sisters, and who subsequently meets and quickly falls in love with her soul mate. The novel is told from both her and his points of view, and presents a full psychological picture of the troubles they encounter when they try to do the honorable thing and part, but fate is not going to let them.
I have to say that this didn't read much like a British novel of the period. It felt very French, and I see from Wikipedia that Elinor Glyn came from the Channel Island of Jersey, so that explains that.
I have to say that this didn't read much like a British novel of the period. It felt very French, and I see from Wikipedia that Elinor Glyn came from the Channel Island of Jersey, so that explains that.
December 27, 2023
🖊 My review: While this has a good premise, the story was sluggish for me, and somewhat overwrought with drama in many places. It is important to mention that this book is filled with French phrases and commentary, so if readers do not know French, this might be a hindrance in reading with a smooth pace. I found the French to add that je ne sais quoi factor to the story.
🔥 Dénouement: “. . . beyond the rocks.” 🙄
🔻 Genre: Fictional romance.
✔️Published in 1906.
👁 Point of view: Third person.
🖋 The writing style: Good, but dreadfully over dramatic at times.
🗝 What I learned: This was made into a movie in 1922 with Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson.
💫 What I like best: Finishing this book.
📌 Would I read this again? No, and I will watch the movie at some point, which I hope is a good adaptation.
🤔 My rating 🌟🌟
◼️ Fun fact: Some readers will like this book.
🟣 Media form: Kindle version.
🟢 Media form: Project Gutenberg.
🎥 Media form: Movie version, 1922 .
🔲 Excerpts :
🔥 Dénouement: “. . . beyond the rocks.” 🙄
🔻 Genre: Fictional romance.
✔️Published in 1906.
👁 Point of view: Third person.
🖋 The writing style: Good, but dreadfully over dramatic at times.
🗝 What I learned: This was made into a movie in 1922 with Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson.
💫 What I like best: Finishing this book.
📌 Would I read this again? No, and I will watch the movie at some point, which I hope is a good adaptation.
🤔 My rating 🌟🌟
◼️ Fun fact: Some readers will like this book.
🟣 Media form: Kindle version.
🟢 Media form: Project Gutenberg.
🎥 Media form: Movie version, 1922 .
🔲 Excerpts :
🔸 "Darling—my queen," he said. "I will do whatever you command—but oh, it need not be good-bye. Don't let me sicken and die out of your presence.”
🔸 Captain Dominic Fitzgerald was irresistible, and had that fortunate knack of looking like a gentleman in the oldest clothes. If married for the third time—but this time prosperously, to a fabulously rich American—his well-born relations would once more welcome him with open arms, he felt sure, and visions of the best pheasant shoots at old Beechleigh, and partridge drives at Rothering Castle floated before his eyes, quite obscuring the fading smoke of the Paris train.
🔸She gave a little, inarticulate cry. If a wounded dove could sob, it might have been the noise of a dove, so beseeching and so pathetic. "Oh, please—you must not," she said. "Oh, what have you done!—you have killed our happy day." And this was the beginning of his awakening. He sat for many moments with his head buried in his hands. What, indeed, had he done!—
January 6, 2017
Elinor Glyn descrive con nostalgia la squisita e perversa bellezza di un mondo che si sta ormai dissolvendo, con una splendida storia d'amore e d'onore. Come avrebbe mai potuto, l'ingenua Theodora, resistere al fascino di Hector Bracondale, se anche Mrs. McBride, la smaliziata e matura vedova americana, non può fare a meno di ammirarlo?
"She looked at him. His long, lithe limbs stretched out, every line indicative of breeding and strength. She noted the shape of his head, the perfect grooming, his lazy, insolent grace, his whimsical smile. Englishmen of this class were certainly the most provoking beautiful creatures in the world"
"She looked at him. His long, lithe limbs stretched out, every line indicative of breeding and strength. She noted the shape of his head, the perfect grooming, his lazy, insolent grace, his whimsical smile. Englishmen of this class were certainly the most provoking beautiful creatures in the world"
Want to Read
October 10, 2018Elinor Glyn was a popular writer or risque (at the time) novels, and this one was adapted for the screen. The film was considered lost for decades when it surfaced a few years ago.
Read this book for free through Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16692/...
Read this book for free through Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16692/...
January 19, 2017
Nice story. I saw the movie a few years ago, but I think I like the book, better. It makes more sense. I did picture Valentino in the role of Bracondale. But that was a good thing.
February 19, 2019
Like the the found silent classic film.
I was very pleased to have the lost film Beyond the Rock with Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valetino. Now the book more dimension in the rich narrative of newly rediscovered classic.
I was very pleased to have the lost film Beyond the Rock with Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valetino. Now the book more dimension in the rich narrative of newly rediscovered classic.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews