Description: A male painter is commissioned to paint the portraits of a couple living in a secluded English manor house. Rather than deal with the attention and demands of her husband, the mysterious Mrs. Oke flirts with the poet-ghost who seduced her namesake ancestor. Mr. Oke's jealousy and paranoia grows until the story reaches a deadly climax.
Brief description: Vernon Lee (1856-1935), the pen name of Violet Paget, was a queer intellectual, feminist, and pacifist. She wrote groundbreaking treatises on art and aesthetics, essays on topics from history to travel to music, and supernatural fiction. Widely respected despite her contentious nature, Lee attracted a large circle of literary friends including H. G. Wells, Edith Wharton, and Oscar Wilde.
Review Quotes:
About Vernon Lee: ". . . as dangerous and uncanny as she is intelligent . . ." -Henry James