Alcott Readathon 2018: A Long Fatal Love Chase
Alcott spent July 1865 to July 1866 touring Europe, first as a companion to Anna Weld and then on her own. When she returned she found the family once again struggling with money and set right away to making some. "Wrote two long tales for Leslie & got $200 for them. One for Elliott for which he paid $75, also a bit of poetry for $5.00. He wanted a long one in 24 chapters & I wrote it in a fortnight 185 pages, besides work, sewing nursing & company." But when she finished the novel "Elliott would not have it, saying it was too long & too sensational. So I put it away and fell to work on other things."
A Long Fatal Love Chase, originally titled A Modern Mephistopheles, is the story of Rosamund Vivian, an orphan living alone with her grandfather on a British island. After declaring "I'd gladly sell my soul to Satan for a year of freedom," grandfather's old friend Phillip Tempest arrives.
ROSAMUND: You're so exciting and mysterious! *hearteyes*
TEMPEST: You're so naive and isolated! *hearteyes*
ROSAMUND: It must be so cool to sail around the world on your yacht.
TEMPEST: Elope with me!
But after a year of happy marriage and sailing, Rosamund learns that Tempest committed bigamy. Instead of letting her leave him, he stalks her around the Continent. This will be my fourth time reading it and it hasn't gotten old. It's both melodramatic pulp fiction and a pretty realistic depiction of domestic violence, starring a brave, determined, and compassionate heroine.
Chapter 1
She bows to Tempest. Cool.
Tempest: "One may begin with youth, health, and liberty, may taste every pleasure, obey no law but one's own will, roam all over the world and yet at five and thirty be unutterly tired of everything under the sun." I told you we would see that sentiment again.
The dramatic irony kills me. Rosamund says he doesn't look like he has a wife or children. "You read faces well." Lying bastard.
Chapter 2
She walks along the edge of the roof. Badass.
Chapter 3
Lito taught her to waltz; that's so adorable.
List of figures Tempest gets compared to: Faust, Mephistopheles, the Wandering Jew, "Jacob's seven years."
Rosamund: Hero (as in Leander not Shakespeare), Miranda, Eve, Margaret/Gretchen.
Lito is Ganymede.
NO ROSE don't do it.
Chapter 4
Is titled "Rose in Bloom."
"Everything is possible to a strong will" is similar to "Nothing is impossible to a determined woman" from The Abbot's Ghost.
Rosamund is from Hythe.
Who does Lito look like? Who could it be?
You jerkface you're stealing her letters.
Chapter 5
How to commit such a perfect murder that you will never be caught.
"Women fainted as they knelt and were passed out over the heads of the throng." Funny mental image, that.
Poor Willoughby.
Tempest: I may do evil but at least I own up to it.
Yeah, well, you're still doing evil.
If only Rosamund had a female friend to say "My husband insists he has no conscience?" to. And she could tell her to run.
Chapter 6
"At five o'clock in the afternoon all the fashionable world at Nice may be seen at the Promenade des Anglais, so called because laid out and kept in repair by contributions from the English. It is a wide walk bordered by palms, roses and tropical shrubs, with seats all along, bathing pavilions on the beach which it overlooks and a fine drive between the walk and the hotels and villas standing on the outer edge of the bay along whose edge the Promenade extends.
"Every nation is represented, every language spoken, every costume worn, and of a sunny day the spectacle is as brilliant as any Carnival. Haughty English, gay French people, plain phlegmatic Germans, handsome Spaniards, uncouth Russians, meek Jews, free-and-easy Americans, all drive, sit, or saunter chatting over the news and criticizing the latest celebrity, be it the wicked old king of Bavaria, the dusky queen of the Sandwich Islands or Princess Dagmar mourning for her last Czarovitch. The equipages are as varied as the company, and attract as much attention, especially the low basket barouches in which ladies drive themselves, with a groom or page in the little seat behind, a pair of dashing ponies, a parasol, whip and a net to keep their voluminous flounces from overthrowing the diminutive vehicle."
Sound familiar? It was slightly altered and put in Little Women. Also I never realized until now that LMA doesn't believe in the Oxford comma.
I love that they have a pet antelope.
Chapter 7
This is legit gaslighting. Telling her that she didn't see what she thought she saw.
Chapter 8
Even though it's not meant as a joke I laughed at "Curse his precipitation!"
I like Marion as much as Rosamund.
Chapter 9
If I were to guess why Elliott didn't want to publish the book, it would be the divorce plotline.
GO ROSE.
Chapter 10
Rose thinking her life is over makes me so sad.
Yay, reunion with Lito!
Chapter 11
"He is neither groom nor gentleman. A bad face, I shall insult him if he comes often." Yeah, you insult that Tempest, Adolph the servant.
Chapter 12
Lito's heroine worship of Rose is my favorite thing ever.
Dun dun da dun, cliffhanger. Seriously, I want a movie so bad.
Chapter 13
Sins, Tempest? She's hardly sinned at all! Yeah, I know about nineteenth century attitudes towards sex outside marriage. But those are stupid. You can see how much they hurt Rose.
Father Dominic and Tempest being friends is a really good coincidence.
Oh yeah, I bet you find Rose's "air of soft command" charming, don't you, Father Ignatius?
Chapter 14
According to LMA, only English women have perfect necks and shoulders.
Even when I was 12 and reading this for the first time I thought Rosalie Varian was a silly alias.
Sneaky sneaky Baptiste.
Chapter 15
"You have no right to forbid me anything." &ROSAMUND;
"Englishwomen soon learn that French customs permit a young lover as well as an old husband." OH NO YOU DID NOT PHILLIP TEMPEST.
Chapter 16
It's amazing how all the tactics Tempest uses on her are the exact same ones people use today. Telling others she is insane, lying to her about people being dead, isolating her from her only family member by stealing her mail.
Chapter 17
And now we're talking about the fucked-up-ness of 19thC asylums. LMA is awesome.
I know Rose trusting Baptiste is foolish, but it's still understandable. She's completely and utterly trapped and he's her only hope.
At this point the "she opened the door and there was Baptiste or Tempest" thing has gotten repetitive.
Chapter 18
"Speak to me, Rosamund, I cannot bear to see your face so white and stony, to feel that your heart is hardened against mine. I seem a brute, but it is my love which drives me to such harsh measures; when you relent I shall be your slave again." Channeling his inner Jareth the Goblin King here.
Oooh, she called him Phillip.
I don't know why nobody ever brings up Rose leaving for America.
Chapter 19
Ignatius: Sure, I throw him off a cliff but it was only a little one.
I love the gossiping Englishwomen who don't buy the father/daughter charade.
Chapter 20
w00t, Baptiste is dead.
Chapter 21
How cute are Lito and Marion Tempest? Very!
This would be so nice if it, you know, lasted.
"The neighbors regarding [Tempest] as a fiend incarnate." LOL.
Dude, let her have a week of happiness.
Darn it, Lito, hold your laughter in!
"By what right do you violently break upon my privacy?" Rosamund is awesome.
"In all the world no human creature loves, trusts or honors you." She's so great at telling people off.
Chapter 22
If you pretend this is the final chapter, the book has a happy ending.
Ignatius, maybe it's time to stop referring to your love interest as "dear child."
Chapter 23
One of the things I like about the book and the Rosamund/Tempest relationship is that I fully believe that he loves her and Lito, despite the stalking and lying. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
Aww Rose, I bet she was actually thinking of protecting Ignatius from Tempest.
Chapter 24
Another thing I like, even though I just realized it now, is that Tempest never hits her.
Oh yes, murder her friend, that will win her heart.
"Mine first - mine last - mine even in the grave!" Isn't that the greatest final line ever?
Part of me wishes Rosamund got a happily ever after. But I also love that ending.
Next: Little Women.
This entry was originally posted at https://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/39606.html
A Long Fatal Love Chase, originally titled A Modern Mephistopheles, is the story of Rosamund Vivian, an orphan living alone with her grandfather on a British island. After declaring "I'd gladly sell my soul to Satan for a year of freedom," grandfather's old friend Phillip Tempest arrives.
ROSAMUND: You're so exciting and mysterious! *hearteyes*
TEMPEST: You're so naive and isolated! *hearteyes*
ROSAMUND: It must be so cool to sail around the world on your yacht.
TEMPEST: Elope with me!
But after a year of happy marriage and sailing, Rosamund learns that Tempest committed bigamy. Instead of letting her leave him, he stalks her around the Continent. This will be my fourth time reading it and it hasn't gotten old. It's both melodramatic pulp fiction and a pretty realistic depiction of domestic violence, starring a brave, determined, and compassionate heroine.
Chapter 1
She bows to Tempest. Cool.
Tempest: "One may begin with youth, health, and liberty, may taste every pleasure, obey no law but one's own will, roam all over the world and yet at five and thirty be unutterly tired of everything under the sun." I told you we would see that sentiment again.
The dramatic irony kills me. Rosamund says he doesn't look like he has a wife or children. "You read faces well." Lying bastard.
Chapter 2
She walks along the edge of the roof. Badass.
Chapter 3
Lito taught her to waltz; that's so adorable.
List of figures Tempest gets compared to: Faust, Mephistopheles, the Wandering Jew, "Jacob's seven years."
Rosamund: Hero (as in Leander not Shakespeare), Miranda, Eve, Margaret/Gretchen.
Lito is Ganymede.
NO ROSE don't do it.
Chapter 4
Is titled "Rose in Bloom."
"Everything is possible to a strong will" is similar to "Nothing is impossible to a determined woman" from The Abbot's Ghost.
Rosamund is from Hythe.
Who does Lito look like? Who could it be?
You jerkface you're stealing her letters.
Chapter 5
How to commit such a perfect murder that you will never be caught.
"Women fainted as they knelt and were passed out over the heads of the throng." Funny mental image, that.
Poor Willoughby.
Tempest: I may do evil but at least I own up to it.
Yeah, well, you're still doing evil.
If only Rosamund had a female friend to say "My husband insists he has no conscience?" to. And she could tell her to run.
Chapter 6
"At five o'clock in the afternoon all the fashionable world at Nice may be seen at the Promenade des Anglais, so called because laid out and kept in repair by contributions from the English. It is a wide walk bordered by palms, roses and tropical shrubs, with seats all along, bathing pavilions on the beach which it overlooks and a fine drive between the walk and the hotels and villas standing on the outer edge of the bay along whose edge the Promenade extends.
"Every nation is represented, every language spoken, every costume worn, and of a sunny day the spectacle is as brilliant as any Carnival. Haughty English, gay French people, plain phlegmatic Germans, handsome Spaniards, uncouth Russians, meek Jews, free-and-easy Americans, all drive, sit, or saunter chatting over the news and criticizing the latest celebrity, be it the wicked old king of Bavaria, the dusky queen of the Sandwich Islands or Princess Dagmar mourning for her last Czarovitch. The equipages are as varied as the company, and attract as much attention, especially the low basket barouches in which ladies drive themselves, with a groom or page in the little seat behind, a pair of dashing ponies, a parasol, whip and a net to keep their voluminous flounces from overthrowing the diminutive vehicle."
Sound familiar? It was slightly altered and put in Little Women. Also I never realized until now that LMA doesn't believe in the Oxford comma.
I love that they have a pet antelope.
Chapter 7
This is legit gaslighting. Telling her that she didn't see what she thought she saw.
Chapter 8
Even though it's not meant as a joke I laughed at "Curse his precipitation!"
I like Marion as much as Rosamund.
Chapter 9
If I were to guess why Elliott didn't want to publish the book, it would be the divorce plotline.
GO ROSE.
Chapter 10
Rose thinking her life is over makes me so sad.
Yay, reunion with Lito!
Chapter 11
"He is neither groom nor gentleman. A bad face, I shall insult him if he comes often." Yeah, you insult that Tempest, Adolph the servant.
Chapter 12
Lito's heroine worship of Rose is my favorite thing ever.
Dun dun da dun, cliffhanger. Seriously, I want a movie so bad.
Chapter 13
Sins, Tempest? She's hardly sinned at all! Yeah, I know about nineteenth century attitudes towards sex outside marriage. But those are stupid. You can see how much they hurt Rose.
Father Dominic and Tempest being friends is a really good coincidence.
Oh yeah, I bet you find Rose's "air of soft command" charming, don't you, Father Ignatius?
Chapter 14
According to LMA, only English women have perfect necks and shoulders.
Even when I was 12 and reading this for the first time I thought Rosalie Varian was a silly alias.
Sneaky sneaky Baptiste.
Chapter 15
"You have no right to forbid me anything." &ROSAMUND;
"Englishwomen soon learn that French customs permit a young lover as well as an old husband." OH NO YOU DID NOT PHILLIP TEMPEST.
Chapter 16
It's amazing how all the tactics Tempest uses on her are the exact same ones people use today. Telling others she is insane, lying to her about people being dead, isolating her from her only family member by stealing her mail.
Chapter 17
And now we're talking about the fucked-up-ness of 19thC asylums. LMA is awesome.
I know Rose trusting Baptiste is foolish, but it's still understandable. She's completely and utterly trapped and he's her only hope.
At this point the "she opened the door and there was Baptiste or Tempest" thing has gotten repetitive.
Chapter 18
"Speak to me, Rosamund, I cannot bear to see your face so white and stony, to feel that your heart is hardened against mine. I seem a brute, but it is my love which drives me to such harsh measures; when you relent I shall be your slave again." Channeling his inner Jareth the Goblin King here.
Oooh, she called him Phillip.
I don't know why nobody ever brings up Rose leaving for America.
Chapter 19
Ignatius: Sure, I throw him off a cliff but it was only a little one.
I love the gossiping Englishwomen who don't buy the father/daughter charade.
Chapter 20
w00t, Baptiste is dead.
Chapter 21
How cute are Lito and Marion Tempest? Very!
This would be so nice if it, you know, lasted.
"The neighbors regarding [Tempest] as a fiend incarnate." LOL.
Dude, let her have a week of happiness.
Darn it, Lito, hold your laughter in!
"By what right do you violently break upon my privacy?" Rosamund is awesome.
"In all the world no human creature loves, trusts or honors you." She's so great at telling people off.
Chapter 22
If you pretend this is the final chapter, the book has a happy ending.
Ignatius, maybe it's time to stop referring to your love interest as "dear child."
Chapter 23
One of the things I like about the book and the Rosamund/Tempest relationship is that I fully believe that he loves her and Lito, despite the stalking and lying. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
Aww Rose, I bet she was actually thinking of protecting Ignatius from Tempest.
Chapter 24
Another thing I like, even though I just realized it now, is that Tempest never hits her.
Oh yes, murder her friend, that will win her heart.
"Mine first - mine last - mine even in the grave!" Isn't that the greatest final line ever?
Part of me wishes Rosamund got a happily ever after. But I also love that ending.
Next: Little Women.
This entry was originally posted at https://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/39606.html