Love Life of a Cheltenham Lady

by Dinah Brooke, Emma Cline (foreword)

Miranda, an Oxford graduate, drifted into marriage with Louis, an attractive American actor, because she had nothing better to do an because she was expecting his child.

But beneath her cool exterior lie the seeds of deep sexuality; alone in a holiday villa in Tuscany she meets a bitter and unsuccessful Italian actor who releases this tremendous sexual energy within her.

Their affair is a corrosive mixture of desire and contempt and leads to a painful and searing climax where Miranda becomes an agent of death.

Genres: Italy, 20th Century, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 23, 1971

Reviews

[sofía · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is a deranged travel book of an english woman trying to find herself in italy but instead disintegrating like a ripe fruit rotting under the unforgiving tuscan heat. it's nauseating how we all try to fit into our own idea of becoming our "real self" (specially if you were raised up as a woman, specially if you happen to become a mother, like the main character in this novel is) and follow desire as a way to find ourselves through the things we feel drawn to, but realize we had no fucking clue what we were stepping into whenever we made "our decisions" and clung to the things that felt exciting or right at the time. we can't help but be in this harrowing journey of attaching ourselves to experiences, to people, that we think will help us mold our lives into an archetype of happiness, success, love; only for time to reveal that these were provisional and many times faulty illusions of meaning

love mcnally editions for putting this back into circulation and love the prologue emma cline wrote for this and i feel so weird that reading a book that feels like stepping out of an existential nightmare is something i seek in books sometimes

[Noël Cades]

I can't rate this one, because while I think it's well-written and probably quite brilliant for what it is, I did not enjoy anything about it.

I bought it because I was intrigued by the title and cover, anticipating an amusing Harold Robbins-style 1970s risqué romp.

How wrong I was.

I don't even know why it's about a "Cheltenham lady" - she's not from Cheltenham, nor is the novel set there. It's set about 5% in Oxford then 95% in Tuscany. There is just one single reference in one paragraph about her once staying in a Cotswold hotel outside Cheltenham (top of p44). I can only imagine Cheltenham was used to give it some kind of 1970s ritzy upmarket suburban cachet.

It's a viscerally unpleasant read (literally - see excerpt below). The main character is unsympathetic and difficult to relate to from start to finish, the entire story is a kind of twisted nightmare, the sex scenes are revolting, and the ending is incredibly dark. This is not a "sexy" or erotic novel nor is it intended to be. It's a journey through someone's psychological descent into obsession and abasement.

Just to give you a taster, when Miranda is on the way to the first date with Louis where she loses her virginity, you suddenly get this (p25):

Physical processes which were certainly involuntary and should have remained decently below the level of consciousness made her walk more quickly and wriggle like a child wanting to go to the lavatory. The hairs round her nipples rose on end, the nipples themselves were constricted into hard balls, the processes of digestion made her intestines flap against her bladder like fish in a bucket, and residual turds jumped around like pieces of mercury in her rectum, causing it to itch intolerably.

The actual sex scenes are described with a similar vocabulary and tone.

[Annie Tate Cockrum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off okay and then really lost me. The writing is so cold and weird (negative) and it made it really hard to get into. Amazed that I was able to finish it.

The better moments of the book did feel akin to the guest by Emma Cline - probably why she was asked to write to forward for the McNally Editions edition.

[Annie Blum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, so when a quote on the cover of a book says "disturbing," I need to remember that sometimes that is not an exaggeration. Very reminiscent of Muriel Spark's "The Driver's Seat," which also offers a flighty, incomprehensible woman at the center and is very clearly building to something very sinister. Brooke is obviously a captivating and entertaining writer but it's hard to not feel like the gruesome ending is gratuitous.

[Minnia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly unhinged, you know it’s not going to end well (especially if you’ve read her other work Lord Jim at Home) yet you cannot look away. Horrifyingly told with original, deft, visceral prose. Well worth a read.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️ enjoyed the writing, especially the first half. I felt like I didn’t get a sense of any of the characters, they’re internal world was so at odds with the reality they were in, I struggled understanding them. I also found the relationships very hard to believe that any of them really cared for each other, I only felt Louis cared for Miranda and his daughter. And also the ending was viscerally unpleasant

[Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

At times I was able to start enjoying the book but then would get so frustrated or disgusted by it that it took all enjoyment out of reading it. Miranda’s choices are baffling and her reactions to things just made no sense to me, I couldn’t relate to her at all. The ending was just plain ridiculous.

[Chantel · Rating 3 out of 5]

To play a role feels intoxicating to someone who is a foreigner to themselves. I know this. I see myself in Miranda. Two sides of the same coin. Sometimes you pick up a book at the right place in your life. This was one of those instances.

[Halle Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this at a local bookstore and had no idea what I was getting myself into. The story was captivating in a way that gave me so much anxiety, I had to see it through. The end was horrific but almost comical? It’s a very unique and strange experience.

[Anneliese Gergen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really not what I expected. Every character in this book was severely unwell in mind, body and spirit. Reading this was psychological warfare. I think maybe that was the point?

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark dark dark. But the prose is air-tight, sometimes overwhelmingly beautiful in its horror. So an extra point.

[Emily Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me a serious ick in the best way.

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bourgeois family, necessarily organized around the heterosexual erotic, is a terror. Truly grotesque— always both repulsive and tantalizing.

[luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5!

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think I was smart enough for this book and I really hated how it ended but also I don't read dark fiction often (this book reminded me why)

[Connor Fitzharris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strangely captivating. Never thought I’d enjoy a book about a woman who cheats on her husband, but the way it was written kept me intrigued the entire way through.

Crazy ending too.

[Callie Zucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

good GOD what a book. delicious and cruel and sumptuous and terrible and gives you a pit in your stomach and THE LAST HALF PAGE what a jolt to end on

[Aria]

Day after finishing, realized this book gave similar good ick as a Catherine breillat film but 1/2 as good