Sleep Pale Sister - Softcover

Harris, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 009927051X ISBN 13: 9780099270515

Publisher: Random House UK, 1994

Synopsis

Henry Chester, a domineering and puritanical Victorian artist, is in search of the perfect model. In nine-year-old Effie he finds her. Ten years later, lovely, childlike and sedated, Effie seems the ideal wife. But something inside her is about to awaken. Drawn by her lover, Mose, into a dangerous underworld of intrigue and blackmail, she meets Fanny Miller, the brothel-keeper, and her shadowy daughter, Marta - murdered ten years ago on the day of Henry's weekly visit...And as friendship becomes possession and Henry's secret past is revealed, Effie and Marta plan their revenge together.

About this title

About the Author:

Joanne Harris is the author of the international bestsellers Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters Of The Orange and Coastliners, the number one bestseller Holy Fools, a collection of short stories Jigs & Reels and with Fran Warde, The French Kitchen: A Cookbook. She lives in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, with her husband and daughter.

From Publishers Weekly:

In the first American release of her 1994 second novel, Chocolat, author Harris dives headlong into a ferocious Gothic ghost story. Henry Chester, the son of a stern Oxford minister and his unapproachable wife, develops an unhealthy interest in virginal young girls and a chloral habit after a life-altering experience during puberty. A gentleman artist of independent means, he disguises his unsavory sexual preference in his painting, frequenting lower class neighborhoods in search of models. On one trip, he encounters the hauntingly beautiful, fatherless Effie .She spends more and more time with Henry as model and protégé, and, despite a 23-year age difference, they marry when she's 17. Soon Effie becomes pregnant then miscarries. Though Henry keeps her drugged with laudanum, Effie eventually falls for Moses Harper, a rival painter and ne'er-do-well. Harper in turn introduces her to Fanny Miller, the occultist madam of a brothel that Henry frequents; she mothers the fragile Effie, and this trio cultivates a scheme to deal the despicable Henry a loaded hand. The pages fly by through multiple plot twists in a wash of drugs, ghosts and illicit sex in a tale that easily ranks among the best of the genre.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Random House UK
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 009927051X
• ISBN 13: 9780099270515
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 352