Synopsis: |
Our heroine, Eline Vere, is beautiful, lively, flirtatious and accomplished. She finds it easy to attract men but is mostly envied by women. When we meet her she is acutely aware of the pressure to conform to the strict rules and customs of what she finds to be the stifling society of The Hague. She would like to break free but it is not in her nature to do so. Eline thinks she has a chance when love, in the form of three quite different men, comes along to help her: Otto, Baron van Erlevoort ter Horze, the 'perfect match', Vincent Vere, her beloved but sickly cousin, and his friend Lawrence St Clare, the dependable and sensible American. She tries travelling but she discovers that you can never travel away from yourself. So, in the end we are left with the question - why did this happen to Eline? |