Physical description

Hard cover book. Maurice Guest
Author: Ethel Florence Lindesay ( Pen Name Henry Handel Richardson)
Publisher: William Heinemann & Co
Date: 1929
Further Information: Red Cloth front hardcover with lettering in black. Rebound reinforced spine with red reinforced cloth strip. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.

Publication type

fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on the spine with typed text PAT 823 RIC
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute and Free Library. Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute

Summary

Set in the 1890s music world of Leipzig, Germany, the novel follows Maurice Guest, a young Englishman studying piano at the Conservatorium, who falls into an obsessive, ultimately destructive love affair with Louise Dufrayer, an Australian woman already entangled with a gifted but caddish violinist, Eugen Schilsky. The story follows Maurice's violent passion for the indolent, sensuous Louise, who is the mistress of the talented violinist Eugen Schilsky. Maurice consoles himself with another woman, but a scandal drives Schilsky away, after which Maurice and Louise come together. Maurice is forced to confront his own mediocrity as a musician, and Louise's chequered past comes to light through a former lover, leading to a violent confrontation, further betrayals, a suicide, and finally Louise leaving Maurice, who then walks into the countryside and shoots himself. It is essentially a naturalist tragedy of obsessive love and thwarted artistic ambition, set against a vividly rendered expatriate music-student milieu.