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A young Englishwoman returns home, taking leave of the convent in Brittany where she has learned to live as a nun. At the country estate where Elinor stays, Leslie, a student at Oxford, is spending his summer vacation with Laura, the woman he hopes to marry. Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife is a novel by Caroline Clive.
About the author
Caroline Clive (1801-1873) was an English poet and novelist. Born in London, Clive was the daughter of Edmund Meysey-Wigley, Esq., M.P. for Worcester, and Anna Maria Meysey. From the age of three onward, Clive suffered from physical disabilities brought on by a sudden illness. In 1840, she published
IX Poems to critical acclaim and popular success, albeit under the pseudonym "V." That same year, Clive married Reverend Archer Clive, with whom she raised a son and a daughter. Over the next decade, she published four more collections of poetry, including
The Queen's Ball (1847) and
Valley of the Rea (1851). In 1853, Clive published a sensational novel, Paul Ferroll (1855), an immediate commercial success. A pioneering work of detective fiction published years before the work of Wilkie Collins,
Paul Ferroll marked the apotheosis of Clive's literary career. A sequel,
Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife (1860), and another novel,
John Grewold (1864), would follow.
Summary
Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife (1860) is a novel by Caroline Clive. Published to widespread critical and commercial acclaim, Paul Ferroll gained comparisons to Jane Eyre and predated the rise of popular detective fiction, but has since been largely forgotten.
Five years after its publication, Clive returned to the themes which made Paul Ferroll successful; through close analysis of Victorian social conventions and a skillful use of Gothic horror, she produced Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife, a sequel in theme as opposed to narrative. Rather than reprise the characters of her last novel, Clive sought to emphasize the universality of tension and violence in the relationships of men and women by creative a separate scenario capable of expanding upon the first. In this novel, she investigates the motives that lead to murder, illuminating the condition of the male psyche with expert precision.
A gathering convenes at an English country estate for a summer of rest and relaxation. Leslie, an Oxford student, joins his sweetheart Laura for walks in the woods and dinners with friends and family. Intending to ask for Laura’s hand in marriage, Leslie is entirely unprepared for the arrival of Elinor, a young woman on leave from a convent in Brittany. As his feelings for this religious, reclusive figure grow, he finds himself questioning his heart while slowly losing control of his formidable, yet vulnerable mind.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Caroline Clive’s Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.
