The Victorian Chaise-Longue
by Marghanita Laski
Blurb:
A young married woman lies down on a chaise-longue and wakes to find herself imprisoned in the body of her alter ego ninety years before.
My Reaction:
I've had this one on my list for years, but now that I've finally read it, I never want to read it again—and that's not because it's so horrifying that I couldn't bear to revisit it. Though this work of psychological horror certainly is unsettling—and it also happens to feature the type of horror that probably bothers me most, body horror, health horror, medical horror—it's not calculated to leave me sleepless or anxious.
Sadly, I wouldn't care to read it again because I didn't find it a satisfying reading experience. Though it's already short, as a novella, it felt in need of yet more pruning. It could easily have been cut even shorter, and I believe it would have been more effective if it had been. As it was, it felt repetitive in a way that numbed and stupefied rather than heightening the tension. (On the other hand, it could have been fleshed out into a more engaging full-length novel, but the repetitiveness still would have needed to be addressed.)
There were some interesting ideas to explore here, especially the way that a culture's standards of morality and acceptable behavior shift over time. What would be an unpardonable sin during one period of time might be almost a mere foible a hundred years later. When (not to mention where) we are born can be the difference between life and death, joy and misery.
As for the ending, maybe it's just a matter of taste... I know some people like open-ended stories, but I'm not one of them. A little ambiguity can be okay, but this felt disappointing. At least it was short!
