And Only to Deceive

Location, location, location...

I have tried to use actual places as often as possible in And Only to Deceive. Sadly, many of the mansions that lined Berkeley Square in the nineteenth century were pulled down in the twentieth, but in 1890, the square was one of the most fashionable in London. Hyde Park and the British Museum are of course familiar to those even casually acquainted with the city, and all of the objects Emily sees in the museum were there in 1890, with one notable exception: The Judgment of Paris vase is, alas, fictional.

Travel to Paris was common for wealthy Britons, many of whom would come in January after they'd tired of country house life and before the start of the Season in London. Carriage rides in the Bois de Boulogne, strolls through the Jardin des Tuileries, trips to the Opéra, parties, and balls filled the days and nights of Englishmen abroad.

The Hôtel Meurice still offers some of the most luxurious accommodations to be found, although extensive renovations completed in 1907 have altered it since the time of Emily's visit. The Café Anglais closed in 1913. As with the British Museum, everything Emily sees in the Louvre would have been found there at the time the book was set.

It is impossible to overstate the glow that comes from hours spent walking through the lovely streets of the French capital. Emily's solitary wanderings in the city come at a difficult and sad time for her, but even in such circumstances, the solace one could find in Notre Dame or Sainte-Chapelle is unparalled. If one must be miserable, it might as well be in beautiful surroundings.

Although Emily did not make it all the way to Africa, it was not unheard of for women in the period to travel extensively. Some went on tours, some traveled with male guardians, but a not insignificant number traveled with female companions, letting their own interests guide their itineraries. There are a number of fascinating travel memoirs written by Victorian women, including Amelia Edward's Thousand Miles Up the Nile, Gertrude Bell's Persian Pictures, and Mary Kingsley's Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco, and Cameroons.

A widow in Emily's situation would find herself in a very different London from the one she occupied while her husband was still alive. Wealthy women had social schedules that could exhaust even the heartiest of souls: rides in the park, luncheons, garden parties, afternoons making calls, tea parties, dinners, soirées, balls, the opera, theater. The death of one's spouse brought an immediate stop to such activities.

When Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria entered a period of mourning that would last the remainder of her life. No one was expected to emulate the queen's devotion to the memory of her dear departed, but at least a year of deep mourning was required of widows, a time during which they would dress in unrelenting black and wear jewelry fashioned either from jet or from the hair of the deceased. Thank heavens that Colin Hargreaves did not have the presence of mind to snip some of Philip's hair to return to Emily!

An article that appeared in Harper's Bazaar on April 17, 1886, comments on women who were not devastated to lose their spouses:

A heartless wife who, instead of being grieved at the death of her husband, is rejoiced at it, should be taught that society will not respect her unless she pays to the memory of the man whose name she bears that "homage which vice pays to virtue," a commendable respect to the usages of society in the matter of mourning and of retirement from the world.

Once she entered the period of half-mourning, the widow would start her gradual return to society. Black gowns gave way to grey, mauve, and lavender, and could now be made from silk instead of crape or bombazine. To alert the members of her circle that she was ready to face society, a widow would leave calling cards at the houses of her acquaintances. She would begin to accept more invitations, always being careful only to attend events that were not too joyful and to behave in ways respectful of the memory of her husband.

It is during this phase of Emily's life that the action of And Only to Deceive takes place. I wanted her to be somewhat isolated from society so that she would come to see that she did not, in fact, miss it as much as she might have thought. Because she, like the heartless wife of Harper's Bazaar, is not truly grieving Philip; it's an awkward and uncomfortable period for her, and a perfect time for her to look for intellectual stimulation.