Second paragraph of third chapter:

Novels had ruined me by the age of sixteen, when Maman invited me into her salon and told me in a hushed and solemn manner, as if she were imparting to me my catechism, that she was arranging for me a mariage de raison with a wealthy sugar merchant from Tours. Instead of thanking her and being blushingly excited, as was proper, I merely said that I was honored by her consideration, but I would wait. I was waiting for true love, you see, for my novels had told me that it existed, somewhere. They had also given me a suspicion that maman’s arrangement had more to do with money and position and less to do with love—in fact, she hadn’t even used that word when she outlined for me my future happiness. My novels had also told me that true love rarely had an auspicious ending, but that seemed of little importance to me at the time.

For some reason, my post about William Wordsworth, Annette Vallon and their daughter Caroline is one of the most popular of this entire blog, regularly picking up more hits than anything of my more recent entries. I assume that it has hit some popular special interest resource and spiralled from there.

The facts about Annette Vallon’s life after she bore Wordsworth’s daughter are patchy, and leave a lot of room for imagination. Tipton has put together an exciting tale where she not only helps her Royalist family escape murderous revolutionaries, but she becomes a chouanne, one of the guerillas waging armed resistance against the Republic in the northwest of France, and has many exciting adventure and narrow escapes.

I am sure that this is wishful thinking. I also suspect that when Wordsworth finally met up with her and their daughter Caroline in 1802, Annette already knew that Wordsworth was planning to marry Mary Hutchinson a few weeks later, but Tipton has used story-teller’s privilege to make it as dramatic as necessary for the narrative he wants to tell.

Still, a charming enough combination of wishful thinking with historical events. You can get Annette Vallon here.

This was my top book acquired in 2023 and the non-genre novel that had lingered longest on my unread selves. Next in those sequences are Last Exit, by Max Gladstone, and The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe. The latter will have to wait until I have completed my 2023 pile (and I have not yet finished 2022).