От себя: захватывающая готическая история любви с элементами мистики и магии
Sleep, Pale Sister is a reissue of Joanne Harris's (Chocolat) second published book. It's quite a departure from her more recent works. Sleep, Pale Sister is written in a style reminiscent to that of the gothic novel and is narrated by several different characters, each confessing to an audience, the reader, their version of what really happened to two of the main characters. Effie is introduced as a young girl who gains the attention of artist Henry Chester, who for some reason is attracted to little girls such as she and spends his time painting them, aspiring to becoming a well-known and respected artist. Effie grows up under the eyes and guidance of Henry, with the approval of her mother, and he eventually marries her when she is seventeen and he is in his forties.
The most important character in this book is probably Henry Chester, a very troubled man who will at first gain the reader's respect; but as the novel progresses, troubling details about Henry's personal views and desires will be revealed, demonstrating the type of person Henry really is. His obsession over the young Effie is definitely that: an obsession. And while he professes to truly love her, his love is a selfish one in which he imprisons her mentally and physically so that she eventually becomes ill. Her life becomes such that she cannot make a move without his approval.
Henry's viewpoint of this story is one of an innocent loving man, and that he has been tempted by Effie's ways as if she were a sorceress. He views sex as a sin and a form of disgusting pleasure; thus he finds ways to avoid being with her as "husband and wife." He has always been attracted to her purity and virginity, and as she grows up he tries to shape her into the type of woman he thinks God intended her to be. In his world, women as a whole are born with sin and grow up to tempt men to do things that are impure. Effie, in his eyes, was the exception, at least in the beginning.
When Effie narrates the story from her viewpoint, she tells her tale of woe, being married to a very controlling man such as Mr. Chester (she is not allowed to call him by his first name). She grows up learning from her parents that sex is nothing to be ashamed of, that it is a healthy manifestation of love between a husband and a wife. She is bewildered after she learns that Mr. Chester wants nothing to do with her physically and tries to keep her chaste and pure. When they do engage in sex, he feels that she's tempted him, and he blames her for her wicked ways.
Effie is typical of the women of her day (the late 1800s), weak and often taken to sick - or at least that is what it often seems like to the casual observer, and especially to Henry. But it is Henry who makes sure she is constantly given her laudanum, so she is nearly always in a state of what appears to be fatigue. Effie is now in a loveless marriage, and after a miscarriage, she
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