An illusionary reverie cossets sentiment and indulges some
decorative detail of the period when it transposes Melanie, as she
lies on her Victorian chaise longue, to an earlier identity as
Milly Baines. As Melanie, she has everything to live for- the love
of Guy and a new baby, and the protective care of Sister and Nanny
shrouds her as she convalesces from tuberculosis. But the dream in
which she becomes Milly Baines brings her into a nightmare world
where she is dying of consumption under the vindictive surveillance
of a sister; where the man she loves will marry another; where her
illegitimate baby had been taken from her; and where she faces the
terrifying duality of being Milly- or Melly... For Melly, this long
sleep is indeed a tortured time, but for the reader, presumably
feminine, it is at best a catnap- and a tour de force of more skill
than substance. (Kirkus Reviews)
This 'slim, brilliant, very scary novel' (John Sandoe Books) came
out in 1953, four years after "Little Boy Lost". It is about a
young married woman who lies down on a chaise-longue and wakes to
find herself imprisoned in the body of her alter ego ninety years
before. It impressed PD James, author of the "Preface", 'as one of
the most skillfully told and terrifying short novels of its
decade.'And Penelope Lively described it as 'disturbing and
compulsive', commenting: 'This is time travel fiction, but with a
difference...instead of making it into a form of adventure, what
Marghanita Laski has done is to propose that such an experience
would be the ultimate terror...so Melanie/Milly clings to the
belief that she is dreaming for as long as she possibly can; the
point at which she is forced to abandon this comfort and search for
other explanations is her plunge into nightmare. 'In the stifling,
menacing atmosphere in which Melanie finds herself there is another
dark, unspoken theme. Sex. Milly has been in some way
disgraced...Once again the chaise-longue is the hinge between the
two planes of existence. The site of rapture, of ecstasy - that is
the implication...'
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