How they loved him, Vol. 2 (of 3): A novel

About this book

The novel opens with a sweeping meditation on the inner life of its heroine, Fenella Barrington, whose feelings the narrator declares “almost impossible” to capture. In a richly descriptive opening, we learn that Fenella is a young, lonely girl without parental guidance, whose heart is “empty of affection, yearned so for it” that she surrenders entirely to the charismatic Geoffrey Doyne. Their courtship unfolds on the windswept sands of Ines‑cedwyn, where whispered promises and secret meetings are contrasted with gossip in the nearby village. The prose immediately establishes the central tension: Fenella’s idealised devotion against Geoffrey’s wavering moral courage, hinting at a love that is both intoxicating and fraught with danger.

Written in the florid, moral‑instructive style of mid‑nineteenth‑century English fiction, the narrative combines lyrical introspection with a social‑gossip chorus that frames the private drama. Readers who relish intricate psychological portraiture, period dialogue, and the moral dilemmas of youthful passion will find the book rewarding, while those preferring brisk plot over reflective language may feel the opening’s elaborate sentences a touch heavy.

Opening lines

To describe the feelings of Fenella Barrington at this period would be almost impossible. Not because no one has ever felt so deeply as she did, but because such thoughts are not to be adequately portrayed in black and white. Arraigned before the judgment of the world, they would appear foolish, romantic, overstrained, and perhaps culpable; to each individual heart alone, according to the circumstances under which they found it, must they answer for the consequences. Fenella’s heart was in an exceptional condition when the passion of love overtook and conquered it. In the first place, she was very young; and youth, like charity, ‘believeth all things and hopeth all things.’ She was too ignorant of human nature to doubt its truth--too ignorant of life to distrust its possibilities. And in the second place, she was very lonely and unhappy. …

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