A Love Story Reversed 1898
()
Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy (1850-1898) was an American journalist, novelist, and political activist. Born in Chicopee, Massachusetts, he was the son of Baptist minister Rufus King Bellamy and his wife Maria. Educated at public school, he attended Union College for just one year before abandoning his studies to travel throughout Europe. Upon returning, he briefly considered a career in law before settling on journalism. Before his life was upended by tuberculosis at the age of 25, Bellamy worked at the New York Post and Springfield Union. After his diagnosis, he sought to recuperate in the Hawaiian Islands, returning to the United States in 1878. Thereafter, he pursued a career in fiction, publishing such psychological novels as Six to One (1878) and Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process (1880). His first major work was Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888), a utopian science fiction novel which became an immediate bestseller in the United States and Great Britain. Its popularity spurred the founding of Nationalist Clubs around the country, wherein readers of Bellamy’s work gathered to discuss the author’s revolutionary vision of a new American society. In 1891, Bellamy founded The New Nation, a political magazine dedicated to the emerging People’s Party. A left-wing agrarian populist, Bellamy advocated for animal rights, wilderness preservation, and equality for women. His novel Equality (1897), a sequel to Looking Backward, expands upon the theories set out in his most popular work and was praised by such political thinkers as John Dewey and Peter Kropotkin. At the height of his career, Bellamy succumbed to tuberculosis in his hometown of Chicopee Falls.
Read more from Edward Bellamy
Equality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Duke of Stockbridge: A Romance of Shays' Rebellion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Equality (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ultimate Sci Fi Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Future of Darkness: 30+ Dystopias in One Edition Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/515 Great Science Fiction Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDr. Heidenhoff's Process Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLooking Backward (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): 2000-1887 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Miss Ludington's Sister Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLooking Backward, 2000 to 1887 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Anthology of the Greatest Horror Classics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Summer Evening's Dream: 1898 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collected Works of Edward Bellamy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLooking Backward Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLooking Backward & Looking Further Backward Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World of Macabre - Ultimate Collection: 500 Supernatural Mysteries, Weird Tales & Horror Classics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Blindman's World 1898 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to A Love Story Reversed 1898
Related ebooks
A Love Story Reversed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEdward Bellamy – The Complete Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEdward Bellamy: The Complete Works Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of Summer Romance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Watsons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spinster Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThis Is the End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Potts's Painless Cure 1898 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost World: Illustrated Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWanted—A Match Maker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPretty Madcap Dorothy; Or, How She Won a Lover Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTainted by Association Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlasses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Powers and Maxine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Lady Hoyden's Secret: Bluestockings Defying Rogues, #2 Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Complete Works of Edna Lyall Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost World (World Classics, Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTell Me a Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlasses: Classic Short Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Watsons (Romance Classic) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Way We Live Now Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMrs Craddock (A Dramatic Love Story) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wood Queen: An Iron Witch Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lost World (Silver Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Powers and Maxine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Daughters of a Genius Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Victorian Ghost Story - Volume 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for A Love Story Reversed 1898
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
A Love Story Reversed 1898 - Edward Bellamy
The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Love Story Reversed, by Edward Bellamy
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: A Love Story Reversed
1898
Author: Edward Bellamy
Release Date: September 21, 2007 [EBook #22711]
Last Updated: December 17, 2012
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LOVE STORY REVERSED ***
Produced by David Widger
A LOVE STORY REVERSED
By Edward Bellamy
1898
Contents
I
The golden hands of the parlor clock point glimmeringly to an hour after midnight, and the house is still. The gas is turned almost out, but the flickering of the dying sea-coal fire in the grate fitfully illumines the forms and faces of two young women, who are seated before it, talking earnestly in low tones. It is apparent from their costumes that they have been spending the evening out.
The fair girl in the low chair, gazing pensively into the fire, is Maud Elliott, the daughter of the house. Not generally called handsome, her features are good and well balanced, and her face is altogether a sweet and wholesome one. She is rather tall, and the most critical admit that she has a fine figure. Her eyes are blue, and their clear, candid expression indicates an unusually sincere and simple character. But, unfortunately, it is only her friends who are fully conversant with the expression of her eyes, for she is very shy. Shyness in little people is frequently piquant, but its effect in girls of the Juno style is too often that of awkwardness. Her friends call Maud Elliott stately; those who do not like her call her stiff; while indifferent persons speak of her as rather too reserved and dignified in manner to be pleasing. In fact, her excess of dignity is merely the cloak of her shyness, and nobody knows better than she that there is too much of it. Those who know her at all well know that she is not dull, but with mere acquaintances she often passes for that. Only her intimate friends are aware what wit and intelligence, what warmth and strength of feeling, her coldness when in company conceals.
No one better understands this, because no one knows her better or has known her longer, than her present companion before the fire, Lucy Mer-ritt. They were roommates and bosom friends at boarding-school; and Lucy, who recently has been married, is now on her first visit to her friend since that event. She is seated on a hassock, with her hands clasped over her knees, looking up at Maud,—an attitude well suited to her petite figure. She is going home on the morrow, or rather on the day already begun; and this fact, together with the absorbing nature of the present conversation, accounts for the lateness of the session.
And so, Maud,
she is saying, while she regards her friend with an expression at once sympathetic and amused,—and so that is what has been making your letters so dismal lately. I fancied that nothing less could suggest such melancholy views of life. The truth is, I came on this visit as much as anything to find out about him. He is a good-looking fellow, certainly; and, from what little chance I had to form an opinion to-night, seems sensible enough to make it quite incredible that he should not be in love with such a girl in a thousand as you. Are you quite sure he is n't?
You had a chance to judge to-night,
replied Maud, with a hard little laugh. "You overheard our conversation. 'Good-evening, Miss Elliott; jolly party, is n't it?' That was all he had to say to me, and quite as much as usual. Of course we are old acquaintances, and he 's always pleasant and civil: he couldn't be anything else; but he wastes mighty little time on me. I don't blame him for preferring other girls' society. He would show very little taste if he did not enjoy Ella Perry's company better than that of a tongue-tied thing like me. She is a thousand times prettier and wittier