The Madness of a Seduced Woman

by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer

Agnes is on her way to Montpelier, when she sees a young man rescue a girl from a burning building. Agnes falls in love with this man, a local stonecutter, but the hero is also a betrayer, the apex of a triangle that eventually leads Agnes to commit murder.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Psychology, Literary Fiction, Historical, Mental Illness, Romance

656 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Susan Fromberg Schaeffer was an American novelist and poet who was a Professor of English at Brooklyn College for more than thirty years. She won numerous national writing awards and contributed book reviews for the New York Times.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Fr...

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this many years ago and it has stayed with me. A tale of how obsessive love can poison a person. Characters who stay with me for decades are rare. These characters did.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand what the author attempted to do here, but for me, it honestly didn't work. I was looking forward to the idea surrounding this; a woman accused of murder, which occurred because she was driven mad by the seduction of a man.

My issue was Agnes herself. She was a solid irritation to me. She seemed snobbish, and was constantly moaning about one thing or another. What I wasn't expecting was who Agnes murdered. I was actually hoping it was someone else.

I couldn't say that the man in question was much of a catch, either. He seemed boring, therefore having a complete lack of character, and not really a person one could imagine having such an unhealthy obsession about.

The writing was itself was good enough, but the content was disappointing, repetitive and quite frankly, tedious. The best aspect of the book is the title.

[Karin Slaughter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I re-read this book recently and was blown away all over again. I seldom re-read because I tend to remember details too sharply, but for some reason this one still surprised me. I was so immersed in the character's psyche that the rest of the world became completely blocked out (thanks, cat, for scaring the crap out of me)

I guess you could say the story is kind of like one Flannery O'Connor might have written had she gotten older and writing so frankly about sex became more acceptable. Then again, she was very religious, so maybe not. On the other hand, she loved using violence to talk about the human condition, so why wouldn't she use sex?

The only thing I'm certain of is that she would have no idea what GoodReads is, and probably be like my grandma worrying that her credit card number is going to be stolen by Russian hackers even though she doesn't even have a computer and has never been online.

[Mary Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book over 25 years ago. The pictures created and emotions felt have stayed with me like no other book. The subject of obsessive love that cast you into its spell!

[Linda Lou McCall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of the best books I've ever read in lifetime which includes over 10,000 titles. I read it in the early 1980s when it was first published. Yet, for some reason, the story still stays in my soul over 30 years later. I don't know why.......

[Phoolani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really almost defeated me; the only thing that kept me going was the fact that I'd got so far into it, I had to finish it (I've given up on only two or three books ever). And I was really glad I did. The heroine, whilst well and sympathetically written had annoyed the life out of me at times, but in the last half of the book, I grew to love her and really understand her. In the end it was a most affecting book. If you're half way through, don't give up!

[Jeff Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary novel. Has stayed in my mind for years after reading it.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ho dato 4 stelle a questo libro solo perché si è riscattato nel finale. Se le merita perché ha avuto il pregio di tenermi incollata alle ultime 200 pagine.
Facendo una valutazione complessiva, credo che quasi 700 pagine siano troppe, ci sono pagine che, a mio parere, sono superflue nelle descrizioni, come se la scrittrice amasse sentirsi parlare. Perché scrive bene Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, con uno stile ricco e poetico, riflessivo e pacato.
Nella copertina è scritto “una struggente storia d’amore, passione e vendetta alla fine del XIX secolo”: si tratta di una espressione scritta a scopo pubblicitario, per spingere all’acquisto del libro quelle romanticone, come la sottoscritta, che avrebbero voluto immergersi in una bella storia d’amore per sognare ad occhi aperti, necessità che ho sentito dopo aver terminato la lettura di Richard Yates, che mi aveva gettato nello sconforto. Io ci scriverei invece: “la vita di Agnes Dempster, una mezzaluna strappata all’altra metà, che si è polverizzata e dispersa in cielo, sotto forma di stelle…”
Si narra l’esistenza di Agnes, segnata fin dal momento della nascita dalla mancanza d’amore: sua madre Helen, ultima rappresentante di una famiglia di donne bellissime che pittori e scultori vengono a visitare per farne modelli delle loro opere, quando la vide per la prima volta in braccio alla nonna, scosse il capo e disse:”Prendila tu”. Non poteva dimenticare la figlia maggiore tanto amata morta per un banale ma drammatico incidente domestico. E la vita di Agnes si svolge tutta alla ricerca di quell’amore negatole fin dalla nascita, un amore assoluto, perfetto, che riempie la vita e che deve essere affermato sopra ogni altra cosa. L’amore non può che colmare ogni angolo dell’esistenza. “La moglie perfetta è quella che dispensa quotidianamente un amore fervido, ardente, devoto e assoluto. Un amore che non conosce limiti: lei è incantata, attratta e rapita, tramutata in pietra di fronte alla sua apparizione; un amore torrenziale che travolge tutto e accetta le imperfezioni dell’amato, ingigantendo all’inverosimile i lati piacevoli e amabili del suo carattere. Colei che arriva a tanto scopre il paradiso in terra, cui accede mano nella mano con l’essere amato, come io farei sicuramente con te”: queste parole scrive Agnes al suo amato Frank.
Sembrerebbe tutto rose e fiori, è bello essere amati così, o no?
In ogni caso, accade sempre che la realtà si scontri con i desideri, e lo scontro si realizza in modo tanto più violento quanto più assoluta è la convinzione di Agnes, che vive proiettata con tutto il suo animo nell’oggetto del suo amore, accecata nei confronti del resto del mondo che potrebbe anche scomparire senza che lei se ne accorga. La tragedia incombe nell’aria e si compie purtroppo. Ecco scoppia la malattia, che viene diagnosticata dai medici con poche semplici parole, “la follia di una donna innamorata”. E’ una malattia? E’ una “smania dell’intelletto” che unita alla passione sessuale fa perdere il controllo delle proprie azioni, come teorizza il dottor Train, o è una “smania dell’istinto”, come ipotizza l’avvocato Kingsley che difende Agnes nel processo che segnerà la sua vita, perché siamo tutte creature biologiche e se operiamo in contrasto con la biologia, siamo destinati ad essere sconfitti?
Alla fine di tutto, ho deciso: me ne torno a leggere Yates.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing,totally amazing book I am in pieces I don't think I will ever be able to forget it I don't have words enough to praise the wonderful writing and feelings described in the book,what a fantastic portrayal of mental anguish and obsession it certainly wrung out every emotion in me and oh how I felt so deeply for Agnes, totally captivating ..5 stars and more

[Rick Urban · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books stays with me 20 years after I read it. A truly amazing story.

[boat_tiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book, right up to the last few chapters, then it seemed to drag a bit. It was totally consuming until then though. I could not put it down. I enjoyed every minute of it. Two thumbs way up!!

[BB Bux · Rating 5 out of 5]

I try to tell everyone about this book because I think it is one of the greatest novels of the last 100 years, yet it’s criminally unknown. Reading this book is like having a fever. It’s one of the most brilliant depictions of girlhood and womanhood I’ve encountered. It’s deeply disturbing and undeniably beautiful.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous, this book catches you up in its velvet wind. A startling tragedy with an amazing heroine.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I genuinely wanted to like this book. I think I get what the author was trying to do but it just didn't work for me. Obviously the central argument of the book is against the court verdict that said Agnes was suffering from 'the madness of a seduced woman', that she was some kind of passive doll on which a man worked his puppetry but then he is somehow also magically absolved of blame for the seduction which drove her mad. It's a confusing theme that tries to have things a number of different ways, and while I appreciate that the author was trying to get across the complexity of Agnes' real motivations and the confusion of her mental breakdown, I still had problems with the book.

My main problem was Agnes herself. She was just dreadful - a whining, entitled little snowflake. I suppose I was expecting a kind of Ruth Ellis character, a woman who commits murder but is sympathetic largely because the man she puts six feet under is far, far worse than herself. Of course, this doesn't happen, because Agnes doesn't shoot Frank and instead murders the blameless new girlfriend, which pretty much destroyed any sympathy I had left after a thick chunk of book listening to Agnes drone on about how special, different and sensitive she was. I know that this was based on a real case in Vermont but I must admit I questioned the author's decision in writing about this case. In many ways it was a brave decision to write about a woman who kills another woman over a man, but again it largely hinged on creating sympathy for Agnes, in which I'm sorry to say she didn't - for me, anyway.

I think another problem was that Frank fails as a plausible subject for obsession. He's a schlub, a bland lump - he's just there. Obviously a large part of Agnes' fixation is pure projection; she's feverishly scrawling her own absurd fantasies (he must be a hero, he must be an artist) on this bore of a man, but again, it's a symptom of Agnes' self-obsession.

The second half of the book could have been much better, since the POV shifted to third omniscient, thus sparing us any more of the angst-ridden droning that passed for Agnes' mental processes, but then it fell flat because it was just retreading what happened in the first half. Again, I think I can see what the author was trying to - to show us what life was like outside of Agnes' head and so underscore how wrong her thought processes were. Unfortunately, if you just thought Agnes was wrong all along and in need of a nice hot cup of tea and a slap, it doesn't work.

It's a shame. I bumped up my initial rating for this book because I think it could have been great. It would have worked very well if the second and first halves were switched over, because then we would have had the excitement of the court case and the details of Agnes' crime unfolding bit by bit. As it was you had the court case going through the details of what she did when you knew everything from the first half anyway. The tension was already blown. I respect that it was a brave attempt to try and create sympathy for a character like Agnes, but I'm afraid I just found her shallow, selfish and manipulative.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's an awesome story set in my hood and there's a ton of historical detail (which is likely the boring part for you folks who aren't from here...) which made it all the better. I love that it encompasses all that can go so wrong by being so sheltered and throwing your whole life to another person to hold in their hands. I recommend this book to any woman who has ever done something stupid or regrettable in the name of love. It has a kind redemptive quality for you as the reader.

[Bettye McKee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in the 1980s and it left a lasting imprint on me. Sometimes I forget how deeply it affected me until, like right now, I encounter some memory from the book. I just read the name Frank Holt in another book and immediately knew that name was from The Madness of a Seduced Woman.

The book is not available as an e-book but is still available in paperback. If I was required to make a list of books that affected my life, this title would make the list.

[Betsy Ross]

Best book I have ever read. Haunting alive and real. A true psychological portrait of how a young innocent can, in the right circumstances, fall over the edge with no return. I cherish this book. Made me a true devotee of SFS. So sad when I learned of her death.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I don't read books much anymore because I don't much care about how things turn out; they either turn out well or badly, and if the authors are at all truthful, they don't turn out very well or very badly. What interests me, I suppose, is how people get to where they find themselves in the end. I used to think I was interested in how lives turned out because curiosity was the last of the passions to die, but now I think there's more to it than that. I suppose I still want to know if my life had to turn out as it did." ~Pg. 13, Chapter 2 - North Chittendon

This is a chunkster of a a book, and it took me a while to slog through it. I had it on my To Read list from someone somewhere along the line - I forgot exactly. It sounded like a real page-turner. A young woman commits murder over love spurned. And the title is certainly eye-catching. In fact, no less than four people asked me how the book was with raised eyebrows when they saw the title as I was carting it around over the weeks. I had borrowed the hardcover edition from the library and had to renew it to finish it up. My response to each inquirer was - in a word - insufferable.

Agnes is our murderess and we get to spend hours upon hours revisiting her young life's miserable history. The time is set in the early 1900's in Vermont. She is the only (surviving) child of a wealthy farm family with a beautiful home perched up on a hill in picturesque New England. She is also gorgeous - from a line of women so attractive that stone carvers have traveled to their town over the years to carve their likeness into statues. But sadly for Agnes, she also comes from a long line of mental illness at a time when such things were not understood, diagnosed, or treated well.

Despite the fact that we are told about how horrible Agnes has suffered mentally because the original, perpetually favored, daughter died before she was born, and the fact that she attempted suicide as a young teen, it is truly hard to root for her. Agnes flees her family in her mid-teens to escape a life her mother and grandmother before her never could. She finds her way to the closest city and takes up in a boarding house, finding work as a seamstress. She is ready to take on the world and make something of herself. But she is a roller coaster of emotions and overreactions - as I suppose many high-school aged girls often are. She lacks common sense and maturity, and is one of the most annoying female narrators I've come across in a long time. As I said, it was insufferable for me to get through the life history of Agnes. Where was all of the action and nitty gritty about the murder we are told from the opening chapters that she has committed?

Agnes falls in love, and out of love, and in love again. She lives and dies over her lover's every breath. She cannot separate herself from them as a unit instead recognizing she is an individual contributing to the pairing's success or failure. Basically, she is what today we would term "high maintenance" and "suffocating" within the relationship. She is utterly naive. She doesn't listen to solid advice or learn from experience. She crashes and burns.

I'm not going to give away the good part of the plot - which is when the book finally turns the corner and gets to the meat of the murder issue - the act, the aftermath and its impact. And I suppose it wouldn't be as engaging were it not for all of the history we sat through to get there. To be able to feel for Agnes in any compassionate way, when she is at her worst, we know her inner workings and can see that things are not always as they seem.

This is an interesting perspective on the point in history where women's lives were so constrained and determined largely by their ability to find a man, get married and have a family. For those who did not want or go through the motions toward these "achievements" in social mainstreams, it was a hard row to hoe. Mental illness was something to be managed or survived, rather than treated in most circumstances. Serious living was begun when people were so young in their experience. And life was all around plain hard. Having the historical setting allowed for greater compassion towards a less than likable narrator. I wish that the pace had not been long, drawn out and yes, insufferable. Because the end was a worthy journey - finding out how Agnes got to where she found herself in the end.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, one of Fromberg Schaeffer's early novels, may well be her best. In the guise of an old-fashioned-appearing love story, its first 3/4ths actually explore our relation to life and mortality and love from our first recognitions that we must sometime die, our early empathy with all, human an animal, around us, our later struggles for love, and our giving of love, to--in the book's last quarter--a meditation, really, on time and inner change, on the self and proportion and the temporality of meaning. A remarkable and brilliant book--one of the best of the 20th century; it is astonishing how little recognized this masterpiece now is. And of Fromberg Schaeffer's books, only Time in Its Flight--and her shorter "middle period" novels of the returned-lover-from-the-woman's-youth, with their focus too on death and love--can come near matching this work.
Read this one. You won't forget it.

[Consuelo Roland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Agnes Dempster's obsessive infatuation with a young stone-cutter leads her to commit a horrific crime of passion.

I have a narrow dark-wood bookshelf where I put all the books that seduce me with their own brand of madness. Each of them has its own distinct voice, a voice that seems to come from another world. The purity of Agnes Dempster's obsession, the questions the book raises about societal norms and the limits of a legal system, shifted my world view a little. This astonishing book is one of 'them', the special ones; those books that create a tear in the known order of things, making us look anew at what it means to be human.

[Selma · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the best book i've ever read. and i know this because i'm writing this review 6 years after having read it, and i remember next to nothing about it, just that i loved it and was also horrified and repulsed by it. the prose is so beautiful i wanted to cry. everyone who knows me knows of this book. i will be buried with a copy of it.

[Talia · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING! I felt every moment of this book inside myself. Tragic, but wonderful. I saw myself and many women inside this character, and felt horrified but awed by what it showed me about myself....

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

All time favourite - I've read it a number of times.

[K.Z. Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few books I've read that wouldn't get out of my head after I'd finished it.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have ever read! Brilliant.

[Kath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stayed with me like a scar....hypnotic and memorable

[Paola Calvetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno di quei (rari) libri, per quanto lungo e corposo, che non vorresti mai finire. E quando chiudi l'ultima pagina, piangi.

[Shree · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel had me hooked for the first few chapters . I was intrigued by the character and her complex story. However in the middle of the story I felt it just dragged on and I lost interest. Not one to ever quit a book I persevered and the last portion of the book was rewarding , although slightly predictable.

[susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t believe i actually managed to finish this. The first 2/3 I’d give 1 star, it was just dull. The dialogue between Agnes and Frank was so boring I started to skim read. Agnes herself was boring and whining. From the trial onwards, I enjoyed it. Much more interesting characters and the story retold, only without all the whining. A great story overall, but could have been 150 pages shorter.

[Carmen Marciante · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magnifico, libro da leggere!
Essendo un libro molto corposo e molto dettagliato, potrebbe risultare un po' impegnativo, per qualcuno. Io l ho amato dall'inizio alla fine.