OUIDA [Marie Louise de la Ramée]
Strathmore
"Those swift, silent Strathmores, they are very cold, they say, and love very rarely; but when they love, it must be imperiously, passionately, madly, tout au rien."
Originally published by Chapman and Hall in 3 volumes in 1865.
“One of Ouida’s early, garish efforts. Strathmore is highborn and ambitious. He falls in love with ‘the Vavasour’, an unscrupulous reigning beauty, and supposed to be the wife of the Marquis of Vavasour and Vaux. Mischievously, the Vavasour incites Strathmore (now her paramour) to duel with his bosom friend, Erroll (who has spurned her). Strathmore kills Erroll; then, in his turn, spurns the Vavasour. He discovers that she is not the wife, but the mistress of the Marquis whose name she bears, and vengefully publicises the fact. In reparation he adopts, and later marries, Erroll’s daughter. As the critic, W. C. Phillips, pungently puts it: And so Strathmore lives happily ever after in the affection of the young wife whose father he murdered for a harlot.” (Sutherland, p.610)
Bookseller blind stamp to ffep, corners bumped, otherwise a reasonably bright example.