Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim.
His mansion "The Willows" is pervaded by the spectre of his dead wife Vera, with whom Lucy becomes obsesse.
Naive Lucy Entwhistle is swept into marriage by widower, Everard Wemyss.
In outline the story of this utterly unromantic novel anticipates DuMaurier\'s Rebecca.
Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim is a black comedy based on her disastrous second marriage to Earl Russell: a mordant analysis of the romantic delusions through which wives acquiesce in husbands\' tyrannies.
Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim