Description:
Set in the late 19th century, Anita Shreve's novel begins when professor of English Nicholas Van Tassel meets and falls in love with Etna Bliss, whose prospects are dim. Nicholas offers her marriage, and, though she doesn't return his passion, she accepts. But Van Tassel is unable to accept his wife's lack of love for him, and over the years he stoops to a variety of despicable acts related not only to his doomed passion for Etna, but also to his unbridled ambition.
Word from the Publisher
Years after escaping from a hotel fire and encountering an elusive woman, whom he subsequently married and divorced, a man travels from New England to Florida by train, and reflects on his obession with this ultimately unknowable woman.
Set in the late 19th century, Anita Shreve's novel begins when professor of English Nicholas Van Tassel meets and falls in love with Etna Bliss, whose prospects are dim. Nicholas offers her marriage, and, though she doesn't return his passion, she accepts. But Van Tassel is unable to accept his wife's lack of love for him, and over the years he stoops to a variety of despicable acts related not only to his doomed passion for Etna, but also to his unbridled ambition.
Word from the Publisher
Years after escaping from a hotel fire and encountering an elusive woman, whom he subsequently married and divorced, a man travels from New England to Florida by train, and reflects on his obession with this ultimately unknowable woman.
