For me this book has parallels with ‘More deadly than the
male’, also penned by Hadley Chase. The idea of a decent, naive young man
meeting an attractive, calculating ruthless young woman resonates again. Chase sure
knows how to present and unravel such men as hapless fools who lose it all!
They become enchanted with femme fatale and somehow cannot extricate themselves
from the maelstrom they find themselves in. How Harry in this work can not
discern that his Claire is a cheap whore beggars belief.
Yet it has to be admitted that Claire here does like Harry and realises he was a fine gentleman; she wanted to do good things for him, buy him nice things, which she does - the problem is that she never told him what she was all about, and he was too daft to piece it together himself. She also has a highly developed streak of irresponsibility, a penchant for getting them into trouble. And how she does so!
Yet it has to be admitted that Claire here does like Harry and realises he was a fine gentleman; she wanted to do good things for him, buy him nice things, which she does - the problem is that she never told him what she was all about, and he was too daft to piece it together himself. She also has a highly developed streak of irresponsibility, a penchant for getting them into trouble. And how she does so!
Hence at the end - just like in More deadly than the male -
Harry loses it all despite being the good one, as he even dies so young. Many
pundits reckon Chase was somewhat a misogynist, but it must be the other way
round, since men often suffer extraordinarily in his works! Again, think of the
end of EVE too with the spineless guy savagely whipped!
- Paul Lothane
Elicits a lot of melancholy
ReplyDeleteElicits a lot of melancholy
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