The Devil in Love is #24 in the Bantam series and was published in October 1975. Francis Marshall paints 2 very different pictures for this book. The Bantam one shows our couple at a railway station. Note the travelling dress of the heroine. It looks like our hero is trying to stop her from leaving. By the 1890's, train travel was a usual form of transportation in England. Many places were linked by the railway and some estates had "halts" where people could be let off to visit these large houses!
The Corgi cover shows the couple at a restaurant, but is intriguing since she is dressed in riding habit; not appropriate for dining. The restaurant doesn't look very classy, either! Larisa's family is bereft after the death of her father and she takes a post as governess in France to help out with finances. Here she meets her pupil and his father, Raoul de Valmont. Many upper class homes had governesses to teach their young children, usually girls. Boys went to school at age 7 or 8, but girls were usually educated at home. Being a governess was one of the few options to work for an educated woman at that time. This book is set in the 1890's and my own grandmother served as a governess in England in the late 1910's!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteShe is in a riding habit in the first illustration because she rides from de Valmont's estate to Paris to warn him about a bottle of poisoned wine (that his father has poisoned incidentally) - as he's not at his town house, but dining out with two courtesans, she goes there to see him.
Love your blog, by the way. I just found it, and just the week I've been rereading my Barbara Cartland collection. :-)
Thanks,
Sonal