Lady Athlyne [Paperback]

Bram Stoker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2007

Joy Ogilvie, the beautiful young daughter of a Kentucky colonel, plays a joke with her friends, pretending to be "Lady Athlyne", after hearing a story about the dashing Irish nobleman Lord Athlyne. Little does she know that half a world away, the real Lord Athlyne is a prisoner of war in a South African camp, where word reaches him that a woman in America is impersonating his wife.

Upon his release, he decides to investigate the situation and travels to New York, where a near-fatal accident introduces him to Joy and her father. Athlyne and Joy fall instantly in love-but a series of misadventures and dangerous obstacles threatens to prevent their marriage. And when Colonel Ogilvie learns of their affair and challenges Athlyne to a duel to the death, their love just may end in tragedy!

One of the most remarkable treatments of the theme of mutual and passionate love in English literature, Lady Athlyne reveals Stoker to be a versatile and multi-dimensional author. Poorly received upon its initial release in 1908, it has remained out of print and unobtainable for a century. This Valancourt Books edition follows the text of the exceedingly rare 1908 New York edition held by the Library of Congress.

About the Author

Bram Stoker (1847-1812) is best known for his horror novels Dracula (1897), Lady of the Shroud (1909), and Lair of the White Worm (1911), although he also wrote a number of romantic adventure novels, including The Snake's Pass (1890), The Mystery of the Sea (1902), and Lady Athlyne (1908).

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Valancourt Books (January 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979233240
• ISBN-13: 978-0979233241
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,755,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very different side of Bram Stoker, November 12, 2010

By 

Patto (Vermont) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lady Athlyne (Paperback)

What was the author of Dracula up to, when not occupied with the undead? Surprisingly, he was writing romances. This book is worth acquiring just to see an entirely different side of Bram Stoker.

The story begins with a girlish joke. Joy Ogilvie, an American beauty, is on an ocean voyage with her family. The Irish stewardess tells Joy there's only one man in the world worthy of her: the Earl of Athlyne, whom Mrs. O'Brien nursed as an infant. Joy, her aunt and Mrs. O'Brien take to calling Joy "Lady Athlyne," and the jest spreads to their circle back home.

Eventually a rumor reaches Lord Athlyne that a woman in New York is claiming to be his wife. As he prepares to investigate incognito, the plot is set in motion.

I'll say no more about the ensuing coincidences, misunderstandings and misadventures in store for the reader, so you may come to them fresh. For me the most astonishing quality of this 1908 novel is its eroticism. A tremendous magnetic attraction arises between Joy Ogilvie and Lord Athlyne from their first meeting. There's no explicit sex, but plenty of smoldering passion. The author exults the physical love between soul mates as an awe-inspiring force of nature, "the last and final touch of the creator's hand."

Bram Stoker was writing this novel at the time of fast changing gender politics. He's by no means a feminist, but he's doing his best to get with the phenomenon of the independent, openly sexual New Woman.

Some of characters are a bit one-dimensional, and their actions obviously contrived to further the plot. But still, Lady Athlyne has a certain charm, with touches of humor, and I'm finding this transitional literary period interesting to explore.