The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski

The book is not really about the paranormal, or time-travel, but more a study of morals, of identity and the changing attitudes towards women, illness and death.

It is Melanie’s cunning that helps her in the nightmare situation in which she finds herself, trapped and powerless inside Millie’s body. Not that I’d call her clever, rather cunning – his thoughts checked, a little shocked at the word he had chosen, but he continued resolutely – yes, cunning as a cartload of monkeys if ever she needed to be. Her doctor observes to himself after hearing a conversation between Melanie and her husband, Guy:īut Melanie isn’t the fool he thinks her, not by a long chalk, she’s simply the purely feminine creature who makes herself into anything her man wants her to be. She is indulged by her husband and although she affects a silly, giggly manner she is not stupid. Melanie is a spoilt, pampered young woman, who is recovering from tuberculosis and the birth of a baby. No one believes that she is anyone other than Millie, a very sick young woman.

It’s about Melanie, a young woman who falls asleep on a Victorian chaise-longue in 1953 and wakes up in a different body, that of Millie, in 1864. After I finished reading Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski I wanted to read more by her and borrowed The Victorian Chaise-Longue from my local library. It’s very different from Little Boy Lost and although it’s described as ‘a little jewel of horror’, I didn’t find it very horrifying, or even the slightest bit frightening.

The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski