The Leaven of Sappho
I've just finished two more Goodwill books...wow.
The Leaven of Love, by Clara Louise Burnham. 1908.
This book really should have been called The Three Hotties, because really it is about three hot ladies with stuff happening to them. They are:
Violet Chamberlain; lovely but troubled. She carries a coronet of silky, raven-black hair and possesses blue eyes set in a fair brow, and has been called "Violet indeed!" for her tendency to wilt like the beautiful flower. She has left her husband for the sin of flirting with another woman, and is miserably spending her time at a beach resort in Southern California.
Sibyl Raynor; lovely and untroubled. "A light-footed, brown-haired maiden as fresh as the spring," she is often called "Sibyl indeed!" though I'm not sure what a Sibyl is. Her aunt keeps a boarding house near the resort, and she spends her time in happy contemplation of God's love for her. She sprinkles a little wisdom on an unwilling Violet.
Belle Armitage; lovely but evil. "Her dazzling skin showed brilliant above the leaf-brown of her coat, and her cap was set firmly upon masses of red hair", and she is often called "Belle indeed!" for her unbelievable beauty. She and her father have escaped to the same Southern California resort after she caused a scandal through Boston by flirting with another woman's husband (guess whose!)
Soon enough Violet's husband Richard tries to escape the gossips of Boston by coming to...yes...the same Southern Californian resort. There he meets Belle, but not Violet, who has run into hiding at Sibyl's boarding house. Belle's chauffeur is Sibyl's brother Claude, who meets Richard through her and offers Sibyl's services as a stenographer to him to write the book he has decided to write on the subject of proper choir-boy training. When Sibyl meets Richard, she keeps from him the fact that she knows his wife and instead tries to plant the seeds of reconciliation in his mind. Eventually Richard realizes how hateful Belle really is, and turns back to his wife with new and impassioned love. And, as Sibyl says, it was all because we believed in God. Yay!
Sappho in Boston, by Anonymous. 1908.
I had hoped that this book would be as hot as the title implies, but really the main characters only go to see the play Sappho in Boston and agree that it was terrible.
This one was essentially about an English gentlemen who meets the loveliest woman he has ever seen on the train to Boston, while returning from big game hunting with Teddy Roosevelt out West. The lady is described fabulously:
"As for her countenance, I thought, and still think, the world holds no other face like it. Not for its extreme purity of outline, not for its chiseled regularity of feature, not for its amazing delicacy of tintage, not for its intelligence or passion. It was wrought of all these in, I venture to think, a supreme sense. But its uniqueness was in its piquancy - its lovely, mischievous, incomparable piquancy."
He doesn't catch her name, but he meets her again at the play. There they renew their acquaintance, and she invites him to dinner. She introduces herself at Patricia Pierpont and asks him a most personal favor: to pretend to be her lover in order to make her ex-husband jealous. He readily agrees, only wishing that he could be doing what he is pretending to be doing.
They paint the town red, and engage in sparkling conversation such as:
"'I do not believe in right angles for a small party,' she said, as I took my seat beside her at a round table.
'Yes, I agree with you. It is one of the many cases when what is right is wrong.' I replied.
'I think angles generally are wrong.'
'Yes, I believe we Saxons held that opinion at an early date.'"
Hee! Get it? With the Angols...and the Saxons...well, anyhow. They also occasionally run into Mr. Pierpont, who is described thusly:
"His physique would have made him bread and butter as a sculptor's model. His head was a great mound of manlike beauty. His countenance was like a piece of noble landscape. His voice was deep, mellow, flexible, and musical as Apollo's lute. He looked all compact of masculine charm and muscular wit, of lion grace and strength; while his eyes whispered of a soul, an intellect, of the same terrible lure."
Phew! Also, as our gentleman (whose name is Derek) falls in love with Patricia, he keeps running into a strange old gentleman named Peperel, who has an unnerving habit of pulling huge, priceless gems out of his pockets and juggling them.
The whole thing falls apart when Derek's older brother dies and makes him the Earl of Mountsyre, so he has to return to his vast estate in the English countryside and his amazingly clever sister Dian. He invites Patricia to visit, and she does, but seems to still be in love with her husband. Derek holds out hope that she'll love him, but Peperel soon arrives and crashes his carriage into an urn and makes a nuisance of himself.
But! In the last two pages it is revealed that Peperel, not Pierpont, was Patricia's husband, and Pierpont her maiden name and Mr. Pierpont her cousin. Peperel has seen that Derek was some worthy competition and decides to take Patricia back, and Derek's heart is broken forever. The end.
The Leaven of Love, by Clara Louise Burnham. 1908.
This book really should have been called The Three Hotties, because really it is about three hot ladies with stuff happening to them. They are:
Violet Chamberlain; lovely but troubled. She carries a coronet of silky, raven-black hair and possesses blue eyes set in a fair brow, and has been called "Violet indeed!" for her tendency to wilt like the beautiful flower. She has left her husband for the sin of flirting with another woman, and is miserably spending her time at a beach resort in Southern California.
Sibyl Raynor; lovely and untroubled. "A light-footed, brown-haired maiden as fresh as the spring," she is often called "Sibyl indeed!" though I'm not sure what a Sibyl is. Her aunt keeps a boarding house near the resort, and she spends her time in happy contemplation of God's love for her. She sprinkles a little wisdom on an unwilling Violet.
Belle Armitage; lovely but evil. "Her dazzling skin showed brilliant above the leaf-brown of her coat, and her cap was set firmly upon masses of red hair", and she is often called "Belle indeed!" for her unbelievable beauty. She and her father have escaped to the same Southern California resort after she caused a scandal through Boston by flirting with another woman's husband (guess whose!)
Soon enough Violet's husband Richard tries to escape the gossips of Boston by coming to...yes...the same Southern Californian resort. There he meets Belle, but not Violet, who has run into hiding at Sibyl's boarding house. Belle's chauffeur is Sibyl's brother Claude, who meets Richard through her and offers Sibyl's services as a stenographer to him to write the book he has decided to write on the subject of proper choir-boy training. When Sibyl meets Richard, she keeps from him the fact that she knows his wife and instead tries to plant the seeds of reconciliation in his mind. Eventually Richard realizes how hateful Belle really is, and turns back to his wife with new and impassioned love. And, as Sibyl says, it was all because we believed in God. Yay!
Sappho in Boston, by Anonymous. 1908.
I had hoped that this book would be as hot as the title implies, but really the main characters only go to see the play Sappho in Boston and agree that it was terrible.
This one was essentially about an English gentlemen who meets the loveliest woman he has ever seen on the train to Boston, while returning from big game hunting with Teddy Roosevelt out West. The lady is described fabulously:
"As for her countenance, I thought, and still think, the world holds no other face like it. Not for its extreme purity of outline, not for its chiseled regularity of feature, not for its amazing delicacy of tintage, not for its intelligence or passion. It was wrought of all these in, I venture to think, a supreme sense. But its uniqueness was in its piquancy - its lovely, mischievous, incomparable piquancy."
He doesn't catch her name, but he meets her again at the play. There they renew their acquaintance, and she invites him to dinner. She introduces herself at Patricia Pierpont and asks him a most personal favor: to pretend to be her lover in order to make her ex-husband jealous. He readily agrees, only wishing that he could be doing what he is pretending to be doing.
They paint the town red, and engage in sparkling conversation such as:
"'I do not believe in right angles for a small party,' she said, as I took my seat beside her at a round table.
'Yes, I agree with you. It is one of the many cases when what is right is wrong.' I replied.
'I think angles generally are wrong.'
'Yes, I believe we Saxons held that opinion at an early date.'"
Hee! Get it? With the Angols...and the Saxons...well, anyhow. They also occasionally run into Mr. Pierpont, who is described thusly:
"His physique would have made him bread and butter as a sculptor's model. His head was a great mound of manlike beauty. His countenance was like a piece of noble landscape. His voice was deep, mellow, flexible, and musical as Apollo's lute. He looked all compact of masculine charm and muscular wit, of lion grace and strength; while his eyes whispered of a soul, an intellect, of the same terrible lure."
Phew! Also, as our gentleman (whose name is Derek) falls in love with Patricia, he keeps running into a strange old gentleman named Peperel, who has an unnerving habit of pulling huge, priceless gems out of his pockets and juggling them.
The whole thing falls apart when Derek's older brother dies and makes him the Earl of Mountsyre, so he has to return to his vast estate in the English countryside and his amazingly clever sister Dian. He invites Patricia to visit, and she does, but seems to still be in love with her husband. Derek holds out hope that she'll love him, but Peperel soon arrives and crashes his carriage into an urn and makes a nuisance of himself.
But! In the last two pages it is revealed that Peperel, not Pierpont, was Patricia's husband, and Pierpont her maiden name and Mr. Pierpont her cousin. Peperel has seen that Derek was some worthy competition and decides to take Patricia back, and Derek's heart is broken forever. The end.