Strange Love: A Novel of Abnormal Passion

A Strange Love: A Novel of Abnormal Passion was first published in French as Escal-Vigor in 1899, the English translation nine years later. It is as relevant today as it was a century ago, treating the torture of coming out to oneself, the fear and loneliness of isolation, the high cost of coming out to others, and the high value of personal integrity. The protagonist, Count Henry Kehlmark, is a highly educated heir to a large fortune, nurtured by loving and nearly selfless women. The author gradually reveals Henry’s secret, implied by the title, through a series of insinuations much clearer to the reader than to the other characters, as is fitting in a tragedy. His return to his family estate begins to erode the dearly bought prudence of his boarding-school youth. His finding a talented and like-minded student with whom to share the wealth of his mind leads to crises at home and at last to scandal in the community. Although the age of the lad is eighteen when he meets the count, the author's insistence on a significant age difference between the partners (calling the lad a "child" or even a "little boy") makes the friendship appear much too Greek for our comfort in twenty-first century America. A reader unfamiliar with French needs to know that the second-person singular (thou/thee/thy/ thine) is the intimate form of address; the plural (you/your/yours) is formal. (Summary by T. A. Copeland)