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God's Enigma: Ellen Glasgow in Love: Book One: Fin-de-siè·cle Richmond
Born into an aristocratic but gloomy family in Richmond, Virginia, Ellen Glasgow is privately rebellious but publicly shy, moody, and socially insecure. Due to an overly indulgent mother, at the age of nineteen she has been virtually unschooled. Thanks to her father’s extensive library, she has read widely. She wants only one thing in life -- to write serious novels. For the last several years she has been certain such a career would be impossible if she marries.
At her sister’s high-society March wedding in 1892, emboldened by her repeated visits to the sherry-infused champagne punch bowl, Ellen boldly starts a conversation with a seasoned “man-about-town” Beauregard Dandridge. Their conversation quickly exposes Ellen’s intelligence, which makes the handsome Harvard graduate unsure about what he finds most Ellen’s singular intelligence or her well-turned ankles and well-endowed bosom.
Knowing her life plan has no room for any romance that might tempt her into marriage, Ellen ignores Beau's subsequent calling cards. She also tries to dismiss her occasional midnight dreams of his tall and broad-shouldered presence. At bottom, she is deathly afraid of ending up being thought a fool for ever even thinking that Beauregard Dandridge -- whose previous romantic attachments have often been newspaper fodder for the society section of the Richmond Times -- could ever find her more than a passing fancy.
As spring slowly surrenders to summer in Richmond, Ellen accidentally spies Beau at a distance in Hollywood Cemetery. Though she desperately wants to, she can't find the courage to "accidentally" bump into him. Later, accompanying her best friend Elizabeth Patterson to a literary event, she finds herself spellbound by Beau's sonorous voice and ardent sincerity as he reads aloud an essay by Robert Louis Stevenson. Finally, and most dramatically, Ellen witnesses the kindhearted Beau heroically rescue an elderly lady’s hat from being run over by a trolley car. From her peeking squat at her window on West Main Street, she slowly turns around and slumps down to the floor, where she finds herself in the throes of “a panic of the heart.”
When Beau's best friend Peyton Harper sees a society item in the Richmond Times that notes a "Rose Party" hosted by Miss Patterson where Ellen was paired with Lizzie's brother Malvern, he advises his "If you are serious about this Miss Glasgow, you better get to work. Malvern is even more eligible than you." Beau seeks out Elizabeth, who despite her engagement to Elmer Crutchfield finds herself attracted to Beau, but tells him she will be happy to "liaise" things between her two friends.
At the Strawberry Moon Ball on the grounds of the elegant Forest Lodge just outside Richmond, Peyton hopes to accomplish some type of "liaison" himself. His liaison is of the late-night, horizontal variety, concluded in a secluded lakeside "love nest." Unfortunately for the besotted Mr. Harper, a trio of practiced con women (led by the ravishing young seductress) have successfully trapped him into being vulnerable to blackmail. As Book One ends, Peyton unknowingly faces ruin because of a breach-of-promise law the nineteenth century ironically termed “heart balm.”
At her sister’s high-society March wedding in 1892, emboldened by her repeated visits to the sherry-infused champagne punch bowl, Ellen boldly starts a conversation with a seasoned “man-about-town” Beauregard Dandridge. Their conversation quickly exposes Ellen’s intelligence, which makes the handsome Harvard graduate unsure about what he finds most Ellen’s singular intelligence or her well-turned ankles and well-endowed bosom.
Knowing her life plan has no room for any romance that might tempt her into marriage, Ellen ignores Beau's subsequent calling cards. She also tries to dismiss her occasional midnight dreams of his tall and broad-shouldered presence. At bottom, she is deathly afraid of ending up being thought a fool for ever even thinking that Beauregard Dandridge -- whose previous romantic attachments have often been newspaper fodder for the society section of the Richmond Times -- could ever find her more than a passing fancy.
As spring slowly surrenders to summer in Richmond, Ellen accidentally spies Beau at a distance in Hollywood Cemetery. Though she desperately wants to, she can't find the courage to "accidentally" bump into him. Later, accompanying her best friend Elizabeth Patterson to a literary event, she finds herself spellbound by Beau's sonorous voice and ardent sincerity as he reads aloud an essay by Robert Louis Stevenson. Finally, and most dramatically, Ellen witnesses the kindhearted Beau heroically rescue an elderly lady’s hat from being run over by a trolley car. From her peeking squat at her window on West Main Street, she slowly turns around and slumps down to the floor, where she finds herself in the throes of “a panic of the heart.”
When Beau's best friend Peyton Harper sees a society item in the Richmond Times that notes a "Rose Party" hosted by Miss Patterson where Ellen was paired with Lizzie's brother Malvern, he advises his "If you are serious about this Miss Glasgow, you better get to work. Malvern is even more eligible than you." Beau seeks out Elizabeth, who despite her engagement to Elmer Crutchfield finds herself attracted to Beau, but tells him she will be happy to "liaise" things between her two friends.
At the Strawberry Moon Ball on the grounds of the elegant Forest Lodge just outside Richmond, Peyton hopes to accomplish some type of "liaison" himself. His liaison is of the late-night, horizontal variety, concluded in a secluded lakeside "love nest." Unfortunately for the besotted Mr. Harper, a trio of practiced con women (led by the ravishing young seductress) have successfully trapped him into being vulnerable to blackmail. As Book One ends, Peyton unknowingly faces ruin because of a breach-of-promise law the nineteenth century ironically termed “heart balm.”
352 pages, Paperback
Published June 9, 2020
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