Elinor Glyn ... was a beautiful woman with red hair and green eyes who was in the news constantly and courted the press. ... Elinor really cared about what the critics said about her books. Elinor Glyn was married to Clayton Glyn, a country squire. They lived a life of ease filled with parties and travel. ...Elinor began to write books to pass the time. Her first book was The Visits of Elizabeth, [1900] a series of letters from a young debutante. The book was quite popular with critics and readers and Elinor wrote several others, all of them romantic comedies. In 1903, Queen Draga of Serbia was assassinated, an event that had a profound effect on Elinor. Several years later, as her marriage was deteriorating, ...[she used such an event in] ...her best known book - Three Weeks [1907].
Three Weeks is the story of Englishman Paul Verdayne, who is sent abroad by his aristocratic parents to break up an unsuitable love affair (he has fallen for a parson's daughter). In Lucerne, he meets a mysterious woman dressed all in black who exudes an hypnotic fascination. Paul and the Lady, who is a Balkan queen on the run from her degenerate and cruel husband, begin a passionate affair. She and Paul spend three weeks together where they make love on tiger skins amid masses of exotic flowers. When the three weeks are up and the Lady leaves Paul, he faints and is ill for a time. Months later, Paul receives a message from the Lady that his son has been born. Still later, Paul finds out that the Lady was killed by her degenerate husband who was himself killed by the Lady's servants. Paul's son is now the ruler and the Regent grants Paul permission to go to the ceremony and see his handsome young son proclaimed King.
Three Weeks is written in a full-blown passionate style dripping with purple prose. Here is a sample from the book:
The light of all the love in the world seemed to flood the lady's face. She bent over and kissed him and smoothed his cheek with her velvet cheek, she moved so that his curly lashes might touch her bare neck, and at last she slipped from under him and laid his head gently on the pillow. Then a madness of tender caressing seized her. She purred as a tiger might have done while she undulated like a snake. She touched him with her finger-tips, she kissed his throat, his wrists, the palms of his hands, his eyelids, his hair. Strange subtle kisses, unlike the kisses of women. And often, between her purrings she murmured love words in some fierce language of her own, brushing his ears and his eyes with her lips the while.
The critics hated the book. And the public? Sales figures are incomplete, but it is estimated that Three Weeks sold over five million copies. ....
Elinor received gifts of tiger skins from several admirers. She was bewildered by the fuss the critics raised about the "immorality" of Three Weeks. ... There is lots of kissing, caressing and writhing around on the tiger skin in the book, but there are no descriptions of sex. A large part of the book is devoted to the Lady's lectures to Paul to be true to his race and heritage, but according to most critics, an adulterous affair, especially one the author seemed to condone, was not acceptable subject matter for a novel in 1907.
After Three Weeks was published, Elinor found out that her husband was practically penniless. She supported the family by her writings for the rest of her life. Elinor made a lot of money, but was a very poor business woman and was often in financial straits, especially after her attempt to start her own movie production company. Elinor Glyn continued to write books and magazine articles for almost her entire life. She remained in the public eye and her books were popular with the public (if not with the critics), for her entire life.
Elinor Glyn is today mainly remembered because she put the quotes around the pronoun 'it.' As in"the IT girl." Regarding the use of the word Elinor Glyn wrote in the February 1927 issue of Cosmopolitan:
To have 'It', the fortunate possessor must have that strange magnetism which attracts both sexes... 'It' [is demonstrated]... in tigers and cats—both animals being fascinating and mysterious, and quite unbiddable..
This photograph of the author, by Claude Harris, and dated to late 1920's, shows how adorable "it" can be.
This photograph of the author, by Claude Harris, and dated to late 1920's, shows how adorable "it" can be.
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