Joan’s Reviews > The House of Doors > Status Update

Did falling truly in love help Lesley become more sympathetic to people whose love crossed racial & gender boundaries?

a question of class bias?
p. 102 “The wives of Robert’s friends were quick to enlighten me that Ethel’s father, the chief of the fire brigade, was a person of no consequence” and by extension neither was Ethel.

Would a higher class woman have bern charged — some things never change

I wonder, in 1910, if a wife was told by her doctor that pregnancy would be bad for her, how would a loving husband view his responsibility to avoid impregnating her. Depo-provera, hormonal IUDs and birth control pills didn’t exist.

Somerset Maugham was a master of creating a lush, foreboding atmosphere in his short-stories.
Eng seems to be trying to set up a similarly ominous feeling. It’s not working for me — instead of anticipating the revelation, I just want him to get on with it, already.