Synopsis:
If you are the housewife of a very good, very kind husband, parade your bad attitude in the most careless fashion possible. Refuse to have children. Fall in love with the resident ghost. Obsess over your namesake, doppelgänger ancestor. Wear her musty clothes to the dinner party instead of the ones your husband wants you to wear. Stoke his jealousy for weeks. When he accuses you, gaslight him: “No one was walking with me near the pond, at five o’clock or any other hour.” Spend your days in the yellow room, luxuriating in love letters written to your beloved murderess. Do this all while eluding the gaze of the male portrait painter, yet another man who would define you. With echoes of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” A Phantom Lover creates an otherworldly space for this provocative femme fatale to live and love as she pleases.
Edition:
Paperback, Creature Publishing (although many, many editions exist)
Triggers:
Hover for Trigger WarningMy Thoughts:
Vernon Lee was a pen name of Violet Paget, a prolific British writer of essays on music, travel, and art. Vernon Lee was a very singular personality in her time. She purportedly took to using the name Vernon even in her private life. She dressed primarily in men’s clothing, and is speculated to have been in long-term relationships with three women. I don’t know if that was at the same time, but during her lifetime, I don’t think that would have made her any more or less an object of curiosity. She was also a vocal feminist and pacifist, who was strongly and openly opposed to World War I. I’ve learned an important lesson when it comes to classic literature. The most interesting stories are almost always written by the most transgressive figures.
Under the pseudonym of Lee, Paget was the author of many notable works of supernatural fiction. Although 1886’s A Phantom Lover has undoubtedly had the most staying power. Although it is framed as the story of a portrait painter hired on by a man whom he believes to be a a provincial dullard to paint himself and his wife, it is very much not his story. See, something very strange is going on at Okehurst. And it all seems centered around the lady of the house – Alice Oke. The painter finds himself quickly drawn into the mystery of the house, and of this bizarre woman.
“There was something heady and oppressive in this beautiful room; something, I thought, almost repulsive in this exquisite woman. She seemed to me, suddenly, perverse and dangerous.”
Alice is a woman obsessed. And her obsession centers around an ancestor with whom she shares not just her namesake, but also her looks. They don’t just resemble one another – the painting of Past Alice could be mistaken for Current Day Alice. Like many gothic tales, this one centers heavily on the reliability and relative stability of its female protagonist. Is Alice mad? Or is she really interacting with the ghosts of her ancestors? Is she the reincarnation of Past Alice, maybe?
Above and beyond the fascinating elements of this incredibly rich and spooky novella, I have a particular love of the Creature Publishing edition of A Phantom Lover on account of the Note from the Publishers. It is included before the story. In this note, publishers Amanda Manns and Olivia Batker Pritzker discuss Lee’s life, the merits of this story, and why it is still as impactful today as it was in 1886.
“Is Alice Oke haunted by a long-dead poet or by the opportunity to live an alternative narrative, one outside the attention and demands of men?”
About the Author:
Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the British writer Violet Paget. She was born October 14, 1856 and died February 13, 1935. She is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics.
Rating:
Although I recognize that it can be difficult to put a rating on a story that is nearly 150 years old when viewed through a modern lens, I feel that many of the themes in A Phantom Lover still feel fresh. This to me makes it deserving of 5 stars even if by today’s standards it’s not overly “scary.” For the record, I also find it incredibly depressing that these themes remain so fresh feeling.
A Phantom Lover By Vernon Lee Creature Publishing Published: February 19, 2020 Originally Published: 1886 ISBN: 9781951971007 Paperback 116 Pages Publisher's Website
