Oke Of Okehurst Or A Phantom Lover

Author : Vernon Lee
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781981428229
Total Pages : 74 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (282 download)

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Download or read book A Phantom Lover written by Vernon Lee and published by . This book was released on 2017-12-05 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gradually the embers grew paler; the figures in the tapestry more shadowy; the columned and curtained bed loomed out vaguer; the room seemed to fill with greyness; and my eyes wandered to the mullioned bow-window, beyond whose panes, between whose heavy stonework, stretched a greyish-brown expanse of sore and sodden park grass, dotted with big oaks; while far off, behind a jagged fringe of dark Scotch firs, the wet sky was suffused with the blood-red of the sunset... "Miss Violet Paget, whose nom-de-plume is Vernon Lee, has a strange genius, or, perhaps, one would rather say a genius for the strange and the horrible that sometimes falls little short of being grotesque. She has the divination that sees the possible hidden undercurrents of the tragedy of life. It may not improbably be the verdict of the future that Vernon Lee at the present time is not receiving anything like the recognition due her marvelous power." -The Literary News "Probably the best shilling story since 'Dr. Jekyll.' It is short; it is startling....One is fascinated, and offended, and finally appalled." -St. James Gazette "Vernon Lee has the enviable faculty of investing each and all her works with the charm of brilliant originality. Thus this 'fantastic story' has a grace and a weird pathos that distinguish it from other tales." -Morning Post "Everything Vernon Lee writes bears the stamp of genius." -Manchester Examiner "Her work has always disclosed a morbid tendency, and this story follows in the line of its predecessors. It is extremely well told, skillfully planned to produce and deep and definite impression by suggestion rather than by direct statement, and it is very interesting. As a psychological study it is full of acuteness and power." -The Book Buyer "Few persons besides the gifted an original author of 'Euphorion' and 'Baldwin' would have thought out this ingenious, weird, uncomfortable, psychological story. It is of about the compass of a magazine article, though made into a book by itself. It is a painter's narrative of what befell him in a fine old English country house while he was at work on the portrait of its mistress, Mrs. Oke. There had been a Mrs. Oke of Okehurst, centuries before, and her portrait was now hanging on the walls. That Mrs. Oke had had a lover, Christopher Lovelock, and Lovelock, so tradition ran, had been murdered by his mistress and her husband. The present Mrs. Oke is pleased to personate the former Mrs. Oke by means of dress and all other means in her powre, and in time teases her adoring husband into the hallucination that she is pursued by a phantom Lovelock lover as her namesake was in reality of old. Fired by this hallucination into a frenzy of jealous hatred, he levels his pistol at the supposed phantom and shoots his wife dead. The verdict was 'momentary madness.' This is Vernon Lee's story of it." -The Literary World "Whatever Vernon Lee attempts to do, she does with great order; she writes admirably....In 'A Phantom Love,' which is a hint, not a story, a dream not a reality, a mere piece of brilliant 'impressionist' work - her peculiar powers appear to excellent advantage....Rich in suggestion and color, she defines a little drama of love and jealousy, which belongs partly to this generation and in part is the revival of an old tragedy played out two centuries ago....The fantasy becomes credible in the rich, hazy, unhealthy atmosphere the author surrounds her actors with, as they move languidly and picturesquely through the dim, rich, storied rooms. The little book is the artistic product of very fine powers." -The American