Любовта на Мери-Лу

by Faith Baldwin, Фетез Болдуин

"Любовта на Мери-Лу" от Фетез Болдуин е занимателен разказ за взаимоотношенията между младата и романтична Мери-Лу и изпадналия в депресия след войната летец Ричард Лоримър. Приемайки да играе ролята на изгубената му годеница, за която той я мисли, момичето помага на Ричард да оздравее и да възвърне жаждата си за живот.

Измъчвана от ролята, коато играе, Мери-Лу е готова да жертвува щастието си в името на своя любим.

"Любовта на Мери-Лу" е роман, който вълнува и сгрява сърцата.

Genres: Romance

147 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Faith Baldwin attended private academies and finishing schools, and in 1914-16 she lived in Dresden, Germany. She married Hugh H. Cuthrell in 1920, and the next year she published her first novel, Mavis of Green Hill. Although she often claimed she did not care for authorship, her steady stream of books belies that claim; over the next 56 years she published more than 85 books, more than 60 of them novels with such titles as Those Difficult Years (1925), The Office Wife (1930), Babs and Mary Lou (1931), District Nurse (1932), Manhattan Nights (1937), and He Married a Doctor (1944). Her last completed novel, Adam's Eden, appeared in 1977.

Typically, a Faith Baldwin book presents a highly simplified version of life among the wealthy. No matter what the difficulties, honour and goodness triumph, and hero and heroine are united. Evil, depravity, poverty, and sex found no place in her work, which she explicitly intended for the housewife and the working girl. The popularity of her writing was enormous. In 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, she published five novels in magazine serial form and three earlier serials in volume form and saw four of her works made into motion pictures, for an income that year in excess of $315,000. She also wrote innumerable stories, articles, and newspaper columns, no less ephemeral than the novels.

Reviews

[Lexie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim while at a thrift store; as a pre-teen I had devoured books very similar to this (my primary school library had a wide selection of "girls" books from the 30's-60's) and felt an overwhelming urge to read one again. The cover caption says "An absorbing tale of mistaken identity that led to love" and strictly speaking this was very true.

Honestly I read for almost everyone in this book, but Travers "Lorry" Lorrimore. He was well and good, but Mary Lou was a joy to read, Larry (her best friend) was hilarious, Margaret (Travers' mother) was intriguing, Jenny was feisty and even Delight was engaging to read about. At times I found myself slightly uncomfortable with the premise, especially as the further along it got the further emotions came into play.

Looking at it from Lorry's point of view I could understand why he was so confused over "Delight" (his wife)'s reluctance to pick up where they left off ten years ago. For all that she was playing a part, Mary Lou's true self shown through and she couldn't keep her real feelings under wraps (even before she realized what she was feeling). So yeah, I'd be constantly puzzle and frustrated too.

But Lorry sometimes came on way too strongly. This is partially mitigated later when he realizes that as he got to know "Delight" once more the passionate but distant affection he had from years ago was replaced by a very real need to be close to the woman he loved.

And there's some unexpected courage and heroism after a nature. I'm always a sucker for mistaken identity stories so this was right up my alley. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think I will seek out more of Baldwin's novels to see if I should add her to my collection permanently.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the late 60s I found a hardback copy of this book in my mother's basement. I started to read it, and got as far as the part where Our Hero thinks he recognises The Girl. The book, as often happened in those days, vanished the moment I put it down never to be seen again; yet somehow that opening stayed with me. It occurred to me to look on the Internet Archive the other day, and there it was!

The story is very Mills and Boon of the old style: a misunderstanding, mistaken identity and of course lovely clothes and a huge and lovely home. The Lorrimers are so rich that even in 1930 the stock market crash (which is glossed over as something far away and unimportant) affects their wealth not one whit. They have horses, dogs of various breeds locked up in kennels and which apparently never interact with the family, airplanes and of course furs. Baldwin is apparently obsessed with furs, as sables, Persian lamb with various names and "lapin trotteur" (whatever that is or was, Google won't tell me) figure large as edging to the women's clothes. One of the things that brought me up short is that Baldwin, born to wealth herself (though not as astronomically well to do as the Lorrimers), consistently refers to women's employment of any kind as a "job" in quotation marks, as if the very idea of women working for a salary even at an important company were somehow laughable. Of course true love and marriage are the be-all and end-all in her books and that implies being a trad wife and mother. It was easier in those days, especially if the Hero was stinking rich.
I could see Jean Arthur in a movie of this book, rather like "Easy Living" or "You Can't Take It With You." I'm sure young women in furnished rooms read this book and sighed over it, dreaming themselves the main character. Shoot, I did myself, a bit.

[Anelia Popesku · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mu first book! I LOVED IT!!!

[Ana Belle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it! Very romantic and enjoying read. I could imagine everything! :)