I Read Books: Three Weeks

Three Weeks

This was considered pretty racy at the time, the Fifty Shades of its day. Paul Verdayne is sent abroad after he falls in love with an unsuitable woman (he is a wealthy nobleman, she a poor parson’s daughter). In Switzerland he observes a mysterious lady, The Lady, and the two intrigue each other. Eventually they meet and have an affair that last three weeks, the initial consummation taking place on a tiger skin rug.

They split up, she turns out to be the queen of a Russian dependent kingdom in Eastern Europe. She has a son, but before Paul can reunite she is murdered by her husband.

The best part is Paul’s fascination with The Lady before they meet, observing her at the hotel restaurant and comparing her meal and drink with his enviously. Everything else is rather overwrought melodrama. The novel itself inspired this bit of doggerel:

Would you like to sin

With Elinor Glyn

On a tiger skin?

Or would you prefer

To err with her

On some other fur?

The novel remained a touchstone for rude books for quite a while.

Read This: To discover the limits of scandalous books one could admit to reading in polite society in 1907
Don’t Read This: If you want something actually sexy
Out Of Copyright: And available to read online