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All He Ever Wanted
"A marriage is always two intersecting stories." This realization comes perhaps too late to the husband of Etna Bliss-a man whose obsession with his young wife begins at the moment of their first meeting, as he helps Etna and her companions escape from a fire in a hotel restaurant, and culminates in a marriage doomed by secrets and betrayal. Written with the intelligence and grace that are the hallmarks of Anita Shreve's bestselling novels, this gripping tale of desire, jealousy, and loss is peopled by unforgettable characters as real as the emotions that bring them together.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2003
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About the author
Anita Shreve
107 books4,556 followersAnita Hale Shreve was an American writer, chiefly known for her novels. One of her first published stories, Past the Island, Drifting (published 1975), was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1976.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,245 reviews
November 9, 2007
Other reviews have commented on the style of this book in a negative way. It is true that the narrator is pompous, idiotic, and boring. He is also written about in a flat way, and it's difficult to feel any empathy for him. I believe this is intentional, however, and it demonstrates the author's skill. The protagonist moves from being a "bore" to an audacious oaf, to a despicable human being. The book is written in memoir form, and the fact that the entire novel is written from only his point of view demonstrates how shallow he is as a man. No other character is developed; very little is seen of the numerous people because the narrator has a microscope through which he views them...how he can get "all he ever wanted." A bit of irony exists in that the man is journaling his life but there is little, if any, introspection. This beauty of this book is subtle; the little action that occurs is retold without emotion, but it's still a fulfilling, if frustrating, read.
November 13, 2018
'All He Ever Wanted' by Anita Shrive is described by the publisher as a novel about 'obsessive love', and although I find using the word 'obsessive' to describe love problematic, I have to admit that I was transfixed by this story from the first page. The novel is narrated by 64-year-old antagonist Nicholas Van Tassel. He relates his story to readers over the course of a train ride he is taking from New England to Florida to attend to the burial of his sister. Readers are taken back 30 years into Nicholas Van Tassel's past where we become witness to the unraveling of his life. Nicholas begins his story in 1899.. the time in his life when his academic career was beginning at Thrupp College, a small college in New Hampshire. His future, which seemed to have opened up to wonderful possibilities, appeared even brighter when he caught sight of Etna Bliss. Nicholas and Etna had been dining in a hotel dining room (although not with each other) when a fire broke out. Nicholas began helping panicked people to safety and amidst the hysteria and chaos, his eyes were drawn to Etna Bliss, who was calmly standing in the street. Looking back on the totality of this story, this catastrophic fire seems to foreshadow the disaster that Nicholas and Etna's life would become.
Although the opening scenes of this novel would suggest that this story is one of 'love at first sight', it doesn't take long to realize that this isn't exactly true. In fact, Nicholas's own description of his feelings that night set off warning bells for me and left me feeling uncomfortable. He was too intense and his feelings developed much too quickly....
".... my eyes were caught, in the midst of this chaos, by the sight of a woman who was
standing near a lamppost.... there was about her a quality of stillness that was undeniably
arresting.... my desire for this unknown woman was so immediate and keen and
inappropriate that it quite startled me....."
Nicholas alludes many times when writing about his feelings for Etna, his awareness that his attraction and his feelings for her were too intense and even though he insists he was powerless to control those feelings, I began to suspect he wasn't as powerless as he proclaimed. In fact, through his own words, I began to see at times, a calculated manipulation behind some of his behaviors which was unsettling. Nicholas was determined to marry Etna Bliss and he set about methodically to make that happen.... regardless of how SHE felt about it.
We don't get a clear picture of Etna Bliss since everything we learn about her comes from Nicholas's writings. We learn that Etna's mother had recently died and she was staying with an uncle in the little New England village. As was common in Victorian society, Etna (as an unmarried woman) could look forward only to being a nanny for her sister's children and it was obvious that the thought of what her future held, felt suffocating to her. But it was also clear that in the social interactions between Etna and Nicholas that she did not share his amorous feelings. The two began seeing each other socially , according to expected traditional Victorian customs... they went for long walks, shared afternoon tea and exchanged favorite books. Despite Etna's continued emotional distance and aloofness, Nicholas's passion for her never cooled. In fact, he seemed to regard her distance as a challenge and he doubled his efforts. Finally, Nicholas proposed marriage to Etna. The proposal wasn't particularly romantic but rather was presented in a matter-of-fact way.. almost a business proposition and I suppose, in a sense, it WAS a business proposition because Nicholas realized that Etna had not warmed to him emotionally. But he also knew that her prospects for the future weren't appealing to her so he offered her something he believed she couldn't and wouldn't refuse.....
"... I offer you a life as mistress of your own household, as mother to your own children,
as wife to a man who adores you.... I offer you everything a man has to give a woman,
including his mind and heart and modest fortune."
Even Nicholas realized, as he looks back on this moment years later, that this was the event that set into motion events which he couldn't control after all, regardless of his schemes and manipulations. Etna accepted his proposal but if Nicholas was expecting her to fall into his arms, he must have been disappointed. Etna's response was less than enthusiastic and about as far from romantic as an acceptance of a marriage proposal can get....
"... I could not lightly turn aside so generous an offer, Professor Van Tassel. Nicholas.
What woman could when it is so sincerely meant? And I do have admiration for you, I do.
And some fondness.... But... This must be said.... I do not love you.... I shall accept your
proposal... We shall speak no more of love, either of its presence or its absence......"
If Nicholas was disappointed by Etna's response, he remained undeterred. Nicholas and Etna married but from the beginning, the marriage was fraught with misunderstandings, miscommunications and secrecy and as the conflicts increased over the years, Etna became more distant and Nicholas grew more desperate. The final straw for this beleaguered marriage occurred when Philip Asher, the brother of Etna's former lover (whom Nicholas had known nothing about), took a teaching position at Thrupp College. Philip became not only a threat to Nicholas's professional ambitions but Etna's familiarity with this man and the ease with which she spoke to him, sent Nicholas into a rage. His jealousy and his burning anger led to his complete loss of self-control. He first began spying on his wife's every move and violating her privacy. He forced himself on her sexually and his last despicable act was using their own teenaged daughter in a plot which ultimately ended up ruining his life, his marriage and his family.
In 'All He Ever Wanted', Anita Shrive skillfully created the claustrophobic and oppressive atmosphere that characterized the life of women in Victorian society. It wasn't lost on me that in using Nicholas Van Tassel as narrator of this story, Etna's voice was completely suppressed. In the society in which she lived, she not only had no control over her independence and what her life would become but she even had no voice with which to tell her own story. The little we learned of Etna came through her husband's voice.. a voice that was self-satisfied and unreliable at best.
Having said all of this, I admit that Nicholas Van Tassel is one of those complex characters that I enjoy. Although he was pompous and arrogant and his behavior was abhorrent, I still felt sympathy for him at various points of the novel. Although a villain, Ms. Shreve did a terrific job of humanizing Nicholas Van Tassel. He married a woman he didn't really know and who clearly didn't love him... this made him sympathetic to me. After all, everyone wants to be loved. But in the end, although his actions were desperate, they were also despicable and he alone was responsible for the decisions he made and the damage that occurred.
This novel was a portrayal of the repressive nature of Victorian society and most interestingly, it was the story of an ill-conceived marriage that went terribly wrong. And perhaps the story was a kind of cautionary tale.. a warning of how misunderstandings, dishonesty and jealousy can fester and grow... leading to the ruination of a marriage and a family.
Although the opening scenes of this novel would suggest that this story is one of 'love at first sight', it doesn't take long to realize that this isn't exactly true. In fact, Nicholas's own description of his feelings that night set off warning bells for me and left me feeling uncomfortable. He was too intense and his feelings developed much too quickly....
".... my eyes were caught, in the midst of this chaos, by the sight of a woman who was
standing near a lamppost.... there was about her a quality of stillness that was undeniably
arresting.... my desire for this unknown woman was so immediate and keen and
inappropriate that it quite startled me....."
Nicholas alludes many times when writing about his feelings for Etna, his awareness that his attraction and his feelings for her were too intense and even though he insists he was powerless to control those feelings, I began to suspect he wasn't as powerless as he proclaimed. In fact, through his own words, I began to see at times, a calculated manipulation behind some of his behaviors which was unsettling. Nicholas was determined to marry Etna Bliss and he set about methodically to make that happen.... regardless of how SHE felt about it.
We don't get a clear picture of Etna Bliss since everything we learn about her comes from Nicholas's writings. We learn that Etna's mother had recently died and she was staying with an uncle in the little New England village. As was common in Victorian society, Etna (as an unmarried woman) could look forward only to being a nanny for her sister's children and it was obvious that the thought of what her future held, felt suffocating to her. But it was also clear that in the social interactions between Etna and Nicholas that she did not share his amorous feelings. The two began seeing each other socially , according to expected traditional Victorian customs... they went for long walks, shared afternoon tea and exchanged favorite books. Despite Etna's continued emotional distance and aloofness, Nicholas's passion for her never cooled. In fact, he seemed to regard her distance as a challenge and he doubled his efforts. Finally, Nicholas proposed marriage to Etna. The proposal wasn't particularly romantic but rather was presented in a matter-of-fact way.. almost a business proposition and I suppose, in a sense, it WAS a business proposition because Nicholas realized that Etna had not warmed to him emotionally. But he also knew that her prospects for the future weren't appealing to her so he offered her something he believed she couldn't and wouldn't refuse.....
"... I offer you a life as mistress of your own household, as mother to your own children,
as wife to a man who adores you.... I offer you everything a man has to give a woman,
including his mind and heart and modest fortune."
Even Nicholas realized, as he looks back on this moment years later, that this was the event that set into motion events which he couldn't control after all, regardless of his schemes and manipulations. Etna accepted his proposal but if Nicholas was expecting her to fall into his arms, he must have been disappointed. Etna's response was less than enthusiastic and about as far from romantic as an acceptance of a marriage proposal can get....
"... I could not lightly turn aside so generous an offer, Professor Van Tassel. Nicholas.
What woman could when it is so sincerely meant? And I do have admiration for you, I do.
And some fondness.... But... This must be said.... I do not love you.... I shall accept your
proposal... We shall speak no more of love, either of its presence or its absence......"
If Nicholas was disappointed by Etna's response, he remained undeterred. Nicholas and Etna married but from the beginning, the marriage was fraught with misunderstandings, miscommunications and secrecy and as the conflicts increased over the years, Etna became more distant and Nicholas grew more desperate. The final straw for this beleaguered marriage occurred when Philip Asher, the brother of Etna's former lover (whom Nicholas had known nothing about), took a teaching position at Thrupp College. Philip became not only a threat to Nicholas's professional ambitions but Etna's familiarity with this man and the ease with which she spoke to him, sent Nicholas into a rage. His jealousy and his burning anger led to his complete loss of self-control. He first began spying on his wife's every move and violating her privacy. He forced himself on her sexually and his last despicable act was using their own teenaged daughter in a plot which ultimately ended up ruining his life, his marriage and his family.
In 'All He Ever Wanted', Anita Shrive skillfully created the claustrophobic and oppressive atmosphere that characterized the life of women in Victorian society. It wasn't lost on me that in using Nicholas Van Tassel as narrator of this story, Etna's voice was completely suppressed. In the society in which she lived, she not only had no control over her independence and what her life would become but she even had no voice with which to tell her own story. The little we learned of Etna came through her husband's voice.. a voice that was self-satisfied and unreliable at best.
Having said all of this, I admit that Nicholas Van Tassel is one of those complex characters that I enjoy. Although he was pompous and arrogant and his behavior was abhorrent, I still felt sympathy for him at various points of the novel. Although a villain, Ms. Shreve did a terrific job of humanizing Nicholas Van Tassel. He married a woman he didn't really know and who clearly didn't love him... this made him sympathetic to me. After all, everyone wants to be loved. But in the end, although his actions were desperate, they were also despicable and he alone was responsible for the decisions he made and the damage that occurred.
This novel was a portrayal of the repressive nature of Victorian society and most interestingly, it was the story of an ill-conceived marriage that went terribly wrong. And perhaps the story was a kind of cautionary tale.. a warning of how misunderstandings, dishonesty and jealousy can fester and grow... leading to the ruination of a marriage and a family.
August 5, 2007
soooooooo boring. I dare you to finish it.
June 22, 2007
Yeah, I don't enjoy books about manipulative assholes.
November 3, 2008
Never judge a book by its...title
Never having the pleasure of reading any of Shreve’s works prior to delving into “All He Ever Wanted”, I admittedly formed an unfair and premature opinion of the novel based on its somewhat flimsy melodramatic title. However, I was soon to discover that it is definitely a fitting and descriptive cover for the thespian narrative that unravels within. I was also taken unaware that this was a period piece, set in New England in the early part of the 20th Century - a fact I was all too happy to uncover, as I am an aficionado of period works.
“All He Ever Wanted” is a heart-wrenching account of unrequited love, obsession, jealousy and betrayal; exploring the most intense (and at times, darkest) workings of the human heart. Dreary and rather depressing, this candid narrative painstakingly chronicles a marriage of convenience gone sadly awry. It is written in the voice of Nicholas van Tassel, an English literary professor at a small college in New England as he ponders upon the memories of his fateful past…
One harrowing evening after escaping a restaurant fire, van Tassel happens upon the striking Etna Bliss and is instantaneously enraptured. Here commences their somewhat stifled and confusing courtship. Ultimately, their marriage forces each character to make critical compromises that will change their lives forever: Man gives up romantic ideal of marriage (knowing full well his wife does not love him) if only to ‘possess’ her for himself; Woman relinquishes hope of marrying someone she loves and settles instead for a man who offers her freedom and a degree of independence (which is ultimately counterfeit).
Although the story is a little slow and one-dimensional at the outset, as the plot proceeds the reader will be taken in by the rich detail and character definition that quickly develops. The letters between certain characters were also a nice touch, allowing a glimpse into their personal thoughts - a unique perspective for the reader, digressing temporarily from the narrator’s recital.
All in all, I must say I was thoroughly impressed by Shreve’s shrewd portrayal of affections not reciprocated in “All He Ever Wanted”…it is a theme all too familiar in the human game of love.
- review for Time Warner books
Never having the pleasure of reading any of Shreve’s works prior to delving into “All He Ever Wanted”, I admittedly formed an unfair and premature opinion of the novel based on its somewhat flimsy melodramatic title. However, I was soon to discover that it is definitely a fitting and descriptive cover for the thespian narrative that unravels within. I was also taken unaware that this was a period piece, set in New England in the early part of the 20th Century - a fact I was all too happy to uncover, as I am an aficionado of period works.
“All He Ever Wanted” is a heart-wrenching account of unrequited love, obsession, jealousy and betrayal; exploring the most intense (and at times, darkest) workings of the human heart. Dreary and rather depressing, this candid narrative painstakingly chronicles a marriage of convenience gone sadly awry. It is written in the voice of Nicholas van Tassel, an English literary professor at a small college in New England as he ponders upon the memories of his fateful past…
One harrowing evening after escaping a restaurant fire, van Tassel happens upon the striking Etna Bliss and is instantaneously enraptured. Here commences their somewhat stifled and confusing courtship. Ultimately, their marriage forces each character to make critical compromises that will change their lives forever: Man gives up romantic ideal of marriage (knowing full well his wife does not love him) if only to ‘possess’ her for himself; Woman relinquishes hope of marrying someone she loves and settles instead for a man who offers her freedom and a degree of independence (which is ultimately counterfeit).
Although the story is a little slow and one-dimensional at the outset, as the plot proceeds the reader will be taken in by the rich detail and character definition that quickly develops. The letters between certain characters were also a nice touch, allowing a glimpse into their personal thoughts - a unique perspective for the reader, digressing temporarily from the narrator’s recital.
All in all, I must say I was thoroughly impressed by Shreve’s shrewd portrayal of affections not reciprocated in “All He Ever Wanted”…it is a theme all too familiar in the human game of love.
- review for Time Warner books
December 25, 2013
Even at The Christian Science Monitor, opening the book packages that pour in every day is a dirty business. I used to come home with my shirt smudged black till I found a solution. But now, no matter how many times I remind my colleagues that I'm wearing a "manly smock," they insist on calling it an "apron."
Enjoying a novel by Anita Shreve puts me in a similarly defensive mood. I realize this raises a couchful of insecurities that can't be resolved in a book review, but it goes to the heart of Shreve's popularity with some readers - and her rejection by others. During the past 14 years, she's created a fan base that sends each of her novels to the bestseller list, first in hardback, then in paperback. Oprah helped, of course, by selecting "The Pilot's Wife" in 1998 for her massive club, but that coveted seal also reinforced Shreve's reputation as a "women's novelist."
To the extent that that's a put-down, it's unfortunate because what's remarkable about her best work is the way she hovers so tantalizingly between serious history and syrupy romance - between the portrayal of making textiles in New Hampshire and heaving breasts in red satin. Both lines of inquiry are fascinating, of course, but no one manages to straddle them as successfully as Shreve. Admittedly, there are missteps now and then, but usually, as in her new novel, she gets it just right.
"All He Ever Wanted" begins with fire in ice - a cataclysm that consumes a hotel on a freezing winter night. This disaster is a perfect metaphor for the passion ignited that evening in the heart of Nicholas Van Tassel, a cold professor of rhetoric at an undistinguished New England college. Tassel begins his memoir here, the first time he saw Etna Bliss, staring at the flames they had both barely escaped. In a moment, he falls desperately in love, escorts her safely home, and dedicates his life to possessing her.
He's a creepy narrator, and the circumstances of this memoir - a confession to his son while traveling by train to his sister's funeral - only heighten the macabre atmosphere. He speaks in a stilted, formal manner, infected with the pretensions of academia, but he's visited by painful moments of self-consciousness that make him confess how pompous and ridiculous he is. The effect, so well engineered by Shreve, is strangely engaging, eliciting feelings of revulsion and sympathy as Nicholas describes a life consumed by jealousy.
His obsession with Miss Bliss - he can't help making puns on her name or apologizing for his sophomoric wordplay - inspires all the usual stratagems of romance: He calls on her, brings her lovely gifts, and asks her for walks.
"I wanted to lay down my new cloak so that her feet might not be sullied by the dirty snow, but of course I could not - not only for the seeming excess of the gesture, which might frighten away any sane women, but also for the sheer impracticality of doing so at continuous intervals." Talk about a wild and crazy guy!
Alarmed by his strange-fitting happiness, Nicholas nevertheless behaves in every way like the besotted gentleman he is: "I shed, in those few months, the dull persona of the professor in favor of the more impassioned demeanor of the suitor." Throughout their very formal courtship, Etna is always polite and eager to get away from her suffocating aunt and uncle, but at some level, Nicholas suspects that she does not love him. That suspicion grows stronger when Etna says, "I do not love you."
Nicholas is pained by her candor, but remains convinced that she will learn to love him. And in the meantime, he points out with cool calculation, he's offering the only probable escape from a life of spinsterhood and financial dependence on her relatives.
This could hardly have been an unusual bargain at the time, and Shreve explores the emotional costs on both sides with real sympathy and historical precision.
Nicholas is a pompous bore, to be sure, but he's also devoted to his new wife. He provides a lovely home, and he encourages her freedom to pursue various interests. For her part, Etna raises two happy children and supports her husband's professional ambitions, but her affection for him never deepens. She remains committed to maintaining a room of her own and a degree of emotional and physical distance that continues to scratch his heart.
Meanwhile, Nicholas finds his passions similarly thwarted at the college. Through her portrayal of this modest liberal arts school, Shreve includes a wonderful background plot about the transformation of American higher education: the jarring rise of athletics, the shift toward professional degrees, and the corrosive influence of wealthy patrons. It's just the sort of substantive historical context that always runs beneath Shreve's romantic thrills.
Driven by domestic and professional ambitions, Nicholas takes a series of small steps that eventually lead to some giant moral lapses, and finally a monstrous plot of deception to win back his wife and ascend to the dean's office. In the tradition of a classic fable, he gets all he ever wanted - and everything he deserves.
Shreve takes some real risks here, not only by focusing on the villain but by speaking through him, forcing a long-suffering woman, the center of several of her most successful novels, to remain obscured and distant. It's another indication of the breadth of her talent, and another reason to keep her from being trapped in the kitchen.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0417/p1...
Enjoying a novel by Anita Shreve puts me in a similarly defensive mood. I realize this raises a couchful of insecurities that can't be resolved in a book review, but it goes to the heart of Shreve's popularity with some readers - and her rejection by others. During the past 14 years, she's created a fan base that sends each of her novels to the bestseller list, first in hardback, then in paperback. Oprah helped, of course, by selecting "The Pilot's Wife" in 1998 for her massive club, but that coveted seal also reinforced Shreve's reputation as a "women's novelist."
To the extent that that's a put-down, it's unfortunate because what's remarkable about her best work is the way she hovers so tantalizingly between serious history and syrupy romance - between the portrayal of making textiles in New Hampshire and heaving breasts in red satin. Both lines of inquiry are fascinating, of course, but no one manages to straddle them as successfully as Shreve. Admittedly, there are missteps now and then, but usually, as in her new novel, she gets it just right.
"All He Ever Wanted" begins with fire in ice - a cataclysm that consumes a hotel on a freezing winter night. This disaster is a perfect metaphor for the passion ignited that evening in the heart of Nicholas Van Tassel, a cold professor of rhetoric at an undistinguished New England college. Tassel begins his memoir here, the first time he saw Etna Bliss, staring at the flames they had both barely escaped. In a moment, he falls desperately in love, escorts her safely home, and dedicates his life to possessing her.
He's a creepy narrator, and the circumstances of this memoir - a confession to his son while traveling by train to his sister's funeral - only heighten the macabre atmosphere. He speaks in a stilted, formal manner, infected with the pretensions of academia, but he's visited by painful moments of self-consciousness that make him confess how pompous and ridiculous he is. The effect, so well engineered by Shreve, is strangely engaging, eliciting feelings of revulsion and sympathy as Nicholas describes a life consumed by jealousy.
His obsession with Miss Bliss - he can't help making puns on her name or apologizing for his sophomoric wordplay - inspires all the usual stratagems of romance: He calls on her, brings her lovely gifts, and asks her for walks.
"I wanted to lay down my new cloak so that her feet might not be sullied by the dirty snow, but of course I could not - not only for the seeming excess of the gesture, which might frighten away any sane women, but also for the sheer impracticality of doing so at continuous intervals." Talk about a wild and crazy guy!
Alarmed by his strange-fitting happiness, Nicholas nevertheless behaves in every way like the besotted gentleman he is: "I shed, in those few months, the dull persona of the professor in favor of the more impassioned demeanor of the suitor." Throughout their very formal courtship, Etna is always polite and eager to get away from her suffocating aunt and uncle, but at some level, Nicholas suspects that she does not love him. That suspicion grows stronger when Etna says, "I do not love you."
Nicholas is pained by her candor, but remains convinced that she will learn to love him. And in the meantime, he points out with cool calculation, he's offering the only probable escape from a life of spinsterhood and financial dependence on her relatives.
This could hardly have been an unusual bargain at the time, and Shreve explores the emotional costs on both sides with real sympathy and historical precision.
Nicholas is a pompous bore, to be sure, but he's also devoted to his new wife. He provides a lovely home, and he encourages her freedom to pursue various interests. For her part, Etna raises two happy children and supports her husband's professional ambitions, but her affection for him never deepens. She remains committed to maintaining a room of her own and a degree of emotional and physical distance that continues to scratch his heart.
Meanwhile, Nicholas finds his passions similarly thwarted at the college. Through her portrayal of this modest liberal arts school, Shreve includes a wonderful background plot about the transformation of American higher education: the jarring rise of athletics, the shift toward professional degrees, and the corrosive influence of wealthy patrons. It's just the sort of substantive historical context that always runs beneath Shreve's romantic thrills.
Driven by domestic and professional ambitions, Nicholas takes a series of small steps that eventually lead to some giant moral lapses, and finally a monstrous plot of deception to win back his wife and ascend to the dean's office. In the tradition of a classic fable, he gets all he ever wanted - and everything he deserves.
Shreve takes some real risks here, not only by focusing on the villain but by speaking through him, forcing a long-suffering woman, the center of several of her most successful novels, to remain obscured and distant. It's another indication of the breadth of her talent, and another reason to keep her from being trapped in the kitchen.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0417/p1...
September 25, 2008
I listened to this book on tape, and have to say i wasn't into it at all during the first chapters. However, i stuck with it, and was so glad that i did.
This book is a fascinating examination of the general mores and attitudes of the late Victorian era - - - i say this because i feel that the leading character, Nicholas Van Tassel, is very much a product of that time rather than the era in which the narrative actually occurs. When one translates the Victorian Era to a stiff and stilted New England college town, disaster occurs.
Actually set from the late 1890's through the early 1930's, it is also a tale of how a man's obsession can lead him to unspeakable acts, both in his personal life and in his career. The genius of the author is that one can still feel such pity for such a flawed and, in Nicholas' own words (for he is our narrator) "foolish man".
One likewise feels pity for his wife, Etna, who is also a real, flesh and blood character - - -not some irreproachable heroine, but a human being with flaws of her own.
Many people on this board have complained of the writing - - since this is a narrative by Nicholas, i thought it to be brilliant. Every word he says only serves to reinforce who and what the man is, and how he reflects the overall thinking of his day.
This book is a fascinating examination of the general mores and attitudes of the late Victorian era - - - i say this because i feel that the leading character, Nicholas Van Tassel, is very much a product of that time rather than the era in which the narrative actually occurs. When one translates the Victorian Era to a stiff and stilted New England college town, disaster occurs.
Actually set from the late 1890's through the early 1930's, it is also a tale of how a man's obsession can lead him to unspeakable acts, both in his personal life and in his career. The genius of the author is that one can still feel such pity for such a flawed and, in Nicholas' own words (for he is our narrator) "foolish man".
One likewise feels pity for his wife, Etna, who is also a real, flesh and blood character - - -not some irreproachable heroine, but a human being with flaws of her own.
Many people on this board have complained of the writing - - since this is a narrative by Nicholas, i thought it to be brilliant. Every word he says only serves to reinforce who and what the man is, and how he reflects the overall thinking of his day.
June 23, 2020
As my reviews always include spoilers, I am warning the reader now.
This book was aptly titled. It quite literally is about the things that he wanted and what he did to get them. The book reads like a memoir as Van Tessal narrates to the reader his love affair with Etna Bliss. Interwoven with this story is his own admonitions, opinions, and current status on a train to Florida to attend his sister's funeral. It truly is a heartbreaking story, just tragic, and lonely. Questions abound but are, for the most part, answered by novel's end.
Van Tessal, professor at Thrupp college, assists a Mrs. Bliss and niece, Etna, after a fire ravages the Hotel restaurant they were just dining at. He falls immediately in love, literally consumed by his feelings for her, and pursues this lukewarm companion at all costs. Etna, admittedly cool, marries him but is honest with her husband. She does not love him and makes no promises to do so. She only promises to fulfill her duties as wife. They wed, create a family (a son an daughter), and live companionably. This is of course until a fateful series of events some fifteen years later. Van Tessal grows threatened in his career by an Asher, who will later also threaten his home. He learns that his wife has her own home away from home. She has procured a cottage. Throughout the novel, it is clear that all Etna hopes for in her life is freedom. This home offers her an innocent way to get this but Van Tessal cannot abide by this apparently unconventional and morally questionable act. He hastily asks for a divorce and Etna agrees. Though Van Tessal's obsession prompts him to beg for her return, she refuses and Van Tessal goes to such a length to procur exactly what he wants. Upset that Asher has his coveted job and that he may now be making advances to his separated wife, he sets his daughter to make accusations of molestation against this very innocent man. Van Tessal relays this all in the story, ashamed and guilty but at the same time with this hint of self righteousness, almost as if he excuses his behavior because of his "humanness." In any event, Etna is destroyed by this and returns home. Clara later reveals the truth, Etna is heartbroken (she learns that Philip is fighting overseas in WWI and never had his name cleared), Van Tessal rapes her, and she leaves never to return. Van Tessal laters learns of the growing intimate relationship between his wife and Phillip, learns of the backstory between Etna and Phillip's brother Samuel from years before though he fills in the blanks for the reader as we do not have Etna's voice to lend information, and he loses his daughter who believes he murdered their mother. At the time of writing, he was attending the funeral of the sister who had taken Clara under her wing and hoping to speak to a child that he hadn't spoken to in 18 years!
This is a lengthy synopsis but necessary in order to explain my opinion. Etna obviously made a mistake in marrying but she can hardly be blamed. She was honest from the beginning about her inability to love her husband. She was honest about her interest in education and in her own freedom. Given the time period, marriage was really the only option and, since she knew she could never really love another and could not be with this person, she did what she thought she could to make another happy, to marry that which loved her to an obsession. At the turn of the twentieth century, she could do little else. Her only other option was to be a governess to her neices/nephews. At the very least, she could be the mistress of her own home. Her secret home, though perhaps unconventional, was her only price for this mockery of a marriage. I don't blame her leaving either. She had been betrayed by her husband, her daughter, and unfortunately she would not have retained custody. To be free of her husband, she had to leave.
And, onto Van Tassel, he is a redeemable character through much of the novel. In fact, one feels for this man who is so desperately in love. His anti-semitism, apparently common, was not to be respected but he was a good husband an father. This was until he grew so desperate and malicious. From the day he proposed and wed Etna, his thoughts were only on himself. Love means wanting the other person happy. This was not love but an immature desire, a selfishness. Simply because this is natural does not excuse him whatsoever. It was his actions that have broken up his family and possibly destroyed the life of Phillip, forever tainted by said accusation and whose life we know not what happened. Again I repeat that he might be "forgiven" for those human weaknesses had he seemed more repetent. His guilt was certainly evident but I feel more like he was upset that he didn't succeed, that Etna did not stay, instead of upset wtih his actions. The sheer act of writing eludes to ownership of his activities but his words belie this notion.
Anyway, very bittersweet, heartbreaking, disturbing, and a lesson for many.
This book was aptly titled. It quite literally is about the things that he wanted and what he did to get them. The book reads like a memoir as Van Tessal narrates to the reader his love affair with Etna Bliss. Interwoven with this story is his own admonitions, opinions, and current status on a train to Florida to attend his sister's funeral. It truly is a heartbreaking story, just tragic, and lonely. Questions abound but are, for the most part, answered by novel's end.
Van Tessal, professor at Thrupp college, assists a Mrs. Bliss and niece, Etna, after a fire ravages the Hotel restaurant they were just dining at. He falls immediately in love, literally consumed by his feelings for her, and pursues this lukewarm companion at all costs. Etna, admittedly cool, marries him but is honest with her husband. She does not love him and makes no promises to do so. She only promises to fulfill her duties as wife. They wed, create a family (a son an daughter), and live companionably. This is of course until a fateful series of events some fifteen years later. Van Tessal grows threatened in his career by an Asher, who will later also threaten his home. He learns that his wife has her own home away from home. She has procured a cottage. Throughout the novel, it is clear that all Etna hopes for in her life is freedom. This home offers her an innocent way to get this but Van Tessal cannot abide by this apparently unconventional and morally questionable act. He hastily asks for a divorce and Etna agrees. Though Van Tessal's obsession prompts him to beg for her return, she refuses and Van Tessal goes to such a length to procur exactly what he wants. Upset that Asher has his coveted job and that he may now be making advances to his separated wife, he sets his daughter to make accusations of molestation against this very innocent man. Van Tessal relays this all in the story, ashamed and guilty but at the same time with this hint of self righteousness, almost as if he excuses his behavior because of his "humanness." In any event, Etna is destroyed by this and returns home. Clara later reveals the truth, Etna is heartbroken (she learns that Philip is fighting overseas in WWI and never had his name cleared), Van Tessal rapes her, and she leaves never to return. Van Tessal laters learns of the growing intimate relationship between his wife and Phillip, learns of the backstory between Etna and Phillip's brother Samuel from years before though he fills in the blanks for the reader as we do not have Etna's voice to lend information, and he loses his daughter who believes he murdered their mother. At the time of writing, he was attending the funeral of the sister who had taken Clara under her wing and hoping to speak to a child that he hadn't spoken to in 18 years!
This is a lengthy synopsis but necessary in order to explain my opinion. Etna obviously made a mistake in marrying but she can hardly be blamed. She was honest from the beginning about her inability to love her husband. She was honest about her interest in education and in her own freedom. Given the time period, marriage was really the only option and, since she knew she could never really love another and could not be with this person, she did what she thought she could to make another happy, to marry that which loved her to an obsession. At the turn of the twentieth century, she could do little else. Her only other option was to be a governess to her neices/nephews. At the very least, she could be the mistress of her own home. Her secret home, though perhaps unconventional, was her only price for this mockery of a marriage. I don't blame her leaving either. She had been betrayed by her husband, her daughter, and unfortunately she would not have retained custody. To be free of her husband, she had to leave.
And, onto Van Tassel, he is a redeemable character through much of the novel. In fact, one feels for this man who is so desperately in love. His anti-semitism, apparently common, was not to be respected but he was a good husband an father. This was until he grew so desperate and malicious. From the day he proposed and wed Etna, his thoughts were only on himself. Love means wanting the other person happy. This was not love but an immature desire, a selfishness. Simply because this is natural does not excuse him whatsoever. It was his actions that have broken up his family and possibly destroyed the life of Phillip, forever tainted by said accusation and whose life we know not what happened. Again I repeat that he might be "forgiven" for those human weaknesses had he seemed more repetent. His guilt was certainly evident but I feel more like he was upset that he didn't succeed, that Etna did not stay, instead of upset wtih his actions. The sheer act of writing eludes to ownership of his activities but his words belie this notion.
Anyway, very bittersweet, heartbreaking, disturbing, and a lesson for many.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 22, 2009
All He Ever Wanted begins with a hotel fire in the early 1900’s. The narrator of the story is recounting his past while en route to his sister’s funeral. Bachelor Nicholas Van Tassel is a stuffy professor at a snotty boys' school who is inside the hotel when the blaze begins but leaves unscathed. During this tragedy where twenty people perish in a fiery death he meets the woman of his dreams Etna Bliss.
Etna’s “handsome” face, her lovely waist and her other womanly attributes haunt his every thought. Even her name, Bliss, brings lusty thoughts to his mind and starts my skin to crawling. His infatuation is all consuming and before long he pursues her with all of the gusto of a starving dog drooling over a choice bit of meat. She eventually agrees to a date where he learns, a bit to his dismay, that she has a brain as well as fine breasts and is surprisingly literate. They read stories together and seem to get along well enough but when he makes a move or turns the conversation towards the personal she immediately gives him the cold shoulder. I should add that Nicholas is described as the most un-athletic man on earth with a slight paunch and a balding pate. The sexual attraction seems entirely one-sided and a bit creepy. At this point I would’ve put the book aside unfinished as I found Nicholas Van Tassel boring beyond belief and far too pompous for his own good. However, since I was listening to this in its unabridged format and I was stuck in traffic I continued to torture myself with Nicholas Van Tassel’s words (expertly read by a narrator who reads in a purposely haughty way).
Despite the fact that Etna does not return his feelings of undying love he insists that they marry and, oddly enough, she agrees. Thus begins their awkward life together. During their years of marriage they parent two children which, thankfully, we are spared the oogey details of their sterile love making. Thank you Mr. Van Tassel for speedily skipping by those bits and saving me a few shudders! They seem to get along decently enough as they plod along through their days. Nicholas gives Etna a nice life and the freedom to do whatever she wishes but sadly the love Nicholas aches for is never returned by Etna. Nicholas, the poor love starved sap, is grateful just to have her as his wife and doesn’t complain about her complete lack of affection towards him. But things begin to change when he discovers that Etna has been hiding things from him. This is where the book finally picked up and actually engaged my full attention.
At this point Nicholas almost becomes a sympathetic character though he is still remains a thoroughly unpleasant fellow. He is riddled with insecurities and although he has been married to a woman he cherished for years he will never be a happy or successful man. His world begins to spiral out of control as he simultaneously discovers Etna’s been keeping secrets and learns the position he’s been longing to have at the University may be forever out of his reach.
Nicholas’s festering jealously and over-reaction to Etna’s secret -- which was odd but not nearly as devastatingly earth-shattering as I’d anticipated -- ruins any smidgen of pity I may have felt for him just a few chapters earlier. Author Shreve successfully paints an unpleasant picture of a thoroughly unpleasant man caught up in a situation of his own making. Reading Nicolas Van Tassel’s vitriolic comments and actions for pages on end was a depressing experience that I won’t be repeating any time soon.
Etna’s “handsome” face, her lovely waist and her other womanly attributes haunt his every thought. Even her name, Bliss, brings lusty thoughts to his mind and starts my skin to crawling. His infatuation is all consuming and before long he pursues her with all of the gusto of a starving dog drooling over a choice bit of meat. She eventually agrees to a date where he learns, a bit to his dismay, that she has a brain as well as fine breasts and is surprisingly literate. They read stories together and seem to get along well enough but when he makes a move or turns the conversation towards the personal she immediately gives him the cold shoulder. I should add that Nicholas is described as the most un-athletic man on earth with a slight paunch and a balding pate. The sexual attraction seems entirely one-sided and a bit creepy. At this point I would’ve put the book aside unfinished as I found Nicholas Van Tassel boring beyond belief and far too pompous for his own good. However, since I was listening to this in its unabridged format and I was stuck in traffic I continued to torture myself with Nicholas Van Tassel’s words (expertly read by a narrator who reads in a purposely haughty way).
Despite the fact that Etna does not return his feelings of undying love he insists that they marry and, oddly enough, she agrees. Thus begins their awkward life together. During their years of marriage they parent two children which, thankfully, we are spared the oogey details of their sterile love making. Thank you Mr. Van Tassel for speedily skipping by those bits and saving me a few shudders! They seem to get along decently enough as they plod along through their days. Nicholas gives Etna a nice life and the freedom to do whatever she wishes but sadly the love Nicholas aches for is never returned by Etna. Nicholas, the poor love starved sap, is grateful just to have her as his wife and doesn’t complain about her complete lack of affection towards him. But things begin to change when he discovers that Etna has been hiding things from him. This is where the book finally picked up and actually engaged my full attention.
At this point Nicholas almost becomes a sympathetic character though he is still remains a thoroughly unpleasant fellow. He is riddled with insecurities and although he has been married to a woman he cherished for years he will never be a happy or successful man. His world begins to spiral out of control as he simultaneously discovers Etna’s been keeping secrets and learns the position he’s been longing to have at the University may be forever out of his reach.
Nicholas’s festering jealously and over-reaction to Etna’s secret -- which was odd but not nearly as devastatingly earth-shattering as I’d anticipated -- ruins any smidgen of pity I may have felt for him just a few chapters earlier. Author Shreve successfully paints an unpleasant picture of a thoroughly unpleasant man caught up in a situation of his own making. Reading Nicolas Van Tassel’s vitriolic comments and actions for pages on end was a depressing experience that I won’t be repeating any time soon.
January 12, 2009
After I read the first chapter of this book, I almost decided not to keep going. The language just really got on my nerves. Also annoying: at LEAST once per page there is a section in parentheses. For some reason this really got under my skin. Needless to say, I decided to give it a better chance & I got used to both of these things and was able to finish it.
I think that the thing that I didn't like about this story is that the main character is so unlikable that it makes it hard to read. I felt anger towards him and just sorry for him the whole time. How obsessed and manipulative he was with his co-workers and his family was unsettling to me and I could tell that since this was is memoir, from his point of view, that we weren't getting a very fair view of what really happened. It's funny though because he's an english teacher and in the book he has a conversation about unreliable narrators. I thought that was pretty clever on the author's part.
I wasn't impressed with the story, the writing, the characters, anything. It was readable and that was about it. This is the third or fourth Anita Shreve book I've read and I think she's kind of hit-and-miss. This one, for me anyway, was a miss.
I think that the thing that I didn't like about this story is that the main character is so unlikable that it makes it hard to read. I felt anger towards him and just sorry for him the whole time. How obsessed and manipulative he was with his co-workers and his family was unsettling to me and I could tell that since this was is memoir, from his point of view, that we weren't getting a very fair view of what really happened. It's funny though because he's an english teacher and in the book he has a conversation about unreliable narrators. I thought that was pretty clever on the author's part.
I wasn't impressed with the story, the writing, the characters, anything. It was readable and that was about it. This is the third or fourth Anita Shreve book I've read and I think she's kind of hit-and-miss. This one, for me anyway, was a miss.
May 14, 2018
I have mixed feelings about this. It's well written and there was something about it that let me read it to the end without too much trouble, but I can't say I liked the book. I connected with nothing in it, character or plot. It was readable though, even when I didn't care about what I was reading.
June 25, 2008
Wow. she did a great job making the protagonist a real person, someone whose obsessive desire to own HIS wife gave me claustrophobia just to read it.
Also a nice satire on academia, mixed in. I found parts of it so sad...and totally agree with the person who said this book was like watching a caged bird from the perspective of the hungry cat.
the style captured the time period (a century or more ago) and really seemed to have been written by the pompous prig that was the protagonist...let's be alliterative here: pompous, protagonist, prick. But I digress.
This would be a good book club selection, sure to evoke lots of talk about whether it is possible to have freedom and still be married, that sort of thing.
Still thinking about the issues of anti-Semitism and plagiarism...I think I sort of dismissed it at first when I had finished it, but I keep thinking about the characters and the story, so clearly it was damn good. I just added a 4th star...
Also a nice satire on academia, mixed in. I found parts of it so sad...and totally agree with the person who said this book was like watching a caged bird from the perspective of the hungry cat.
the style captured the time period (a century or more ago) and really seemed to have been written by the pompous prig that was the protagonist...let's be alliterative here: pompous, protagonist, prick. But I digress.
This would be a good book club selection, sure to evoke lots of talk about whether it is possible to have freedom and still be married, that sort of thing.
Still thinking about the issues of anti-Semitism and plagiarism...I think I sort of dismissed it at first when I had finished it, but I keep thinking about the characters and the story, so clearly it was damn good. I just added a 4th star...
July 25, 2017
ALL HE EVER WANTED is a story of obsession. It is fiction written in the form of a memoir by a man who had been obsessed with his wife.
I felt sorry for this man, Nicholas, for about the first two thirds of the book. I forgave him his faults when (as I see from previous reviews I’ve read) others did not because it was apparent to me that this memoir is Nicholas’s confession. He now sees his errors and is sorry. Later, though, I wondered: is Nicholas sorry because of what he had done or does he just feel sorry for himself.
Throughout ALL HE EVER WANTED, Nicholas gives hints of the outcome. Even so, this “memoir” is unpredictable. I didn’t know, while I read the last third of the book, why he was writing this. Was it meant to be a memoir, a confession, or a justification for bad acts?
I’m afraid that some other reviewers gave this book a low rating because they found the narrator/main character to be despicable. As I see it, Anita Shreve’s INTENTION was to, first, show what a sap Nicholas was and, later, horrify the reader with Nicholas’s actions. I don’t rate a book on the likability of its characters.
I felt sorry for this man, Nicholas, for about the first two thirds of the book. I forgave him his faults when (as I see from previous reviews I’ve read) others did not because it was apparent to me that this memoir is Nicholas’s confession. He now sees his errors and is sorry. Later, though, I wondered: is Nicholas sorry because of what he had done or does he just feel sorry for himself.
Throughout ALL HE EVER WANTED, Nicholas gives hints of the outcome. Even so, this “memoir” is unpredictable. I didn’t know, while I read the last third of the book, why he was writing this. Was it meant to be a memoir, a confession, or a justification for bad acts?
I’m afraid that some other reviewers gave this book a low rating because they found the narrator/main character to be despicable. As I see it, Anita Shreve’s INTENTION was to, first, show what a sap Nicholas was and, later, horrify the reader with Nicholas’s actions. I don’t rate a book on the likability of its characters.
July 17, 2008
At times pansy-assed, this is a story of refined obsession. As more of Van Tassel's character is revealed, I found myself feeling more and more sorry for him. I boo'ed at Etna's agreement to marry him, but cheered when her secret cottage was revealed (though, to be clear, that whole storyline could have used about 50 more pages of development).
The book is written almost as one of the early 1900s and successfully comes off as a tribute to that time--the language, the affectations, the ideas. There are some inconsistencies, but they aren't glaringly obvious.
Since the story is written as Van Tassel's memoir (composed en route to a funeral in Florida), the timeline shifts inconsistently and it often becomes unclear just what is happening when. Van Tassel speculates much too much on his wife's activities and those passages read more like pseudo-Victorian porn than anything else.
Overall, a decent read, especially if you've got nothing else to do. I biked home with this book in my pack a couple of nights and read it before drifting off to la-la land.
The book is written almost as one of the early 1900s and successfully comes off as a tribute to that time--the language, the affectations, the ideas. There are some inconsistencies, but they aren't glaringly obvious.
Since the story is written as Van Tassel's memoir (composed en route to a funeral in Florida), the timeline shifts inconsistently and it often becomes unclear just what is happening when. Van Tassel speculates much too much on his wife's activities and those passages read more like pseudo-Victorian porn than anything else.
Overall, a decent read, especially if you've got nothing else to do. I biked home with this book in my pack a couple of nights and read it before drifting off to la-la land.
April 16, 2008
When I started reading this book I thought, “OK, I’m not getting through this one. Obvious chick book”. But I kept on and got hooked and finished in a couple of days. It’s the seemingly simple story of a professor at a small college who falls madly in love with a woman who he courts and marries. All desperately slowly as it is around 1899. She, though, has a somewhat dark and secret past and tells him up front that although she agrees to marry him she does not love him. He is determined that she will as time goes by as he is completely head over heels over her. As the story unravels we see various sides of the prof and most of them are not good. An interesting piece of writing from a woman getting into the head of a Victorian man.
December 31, 2021
Oh dear, incredibly boring! 😂
July 14, 2024
The ratings for this book are very low. I think that is because fans of Shreve’s The Pilots Wife are hoping for something similar and finding themselves deeply disappointed.
This is a completely different book and more in the vain of literary fiction than Nicholas Sparks.
Set in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s this is the story told from the viewpoint of a pompous, egotistical, challenging narrator. He is dislikable, almost like a serous David Brent (The Office) but that is the beauty of this book. Even though it’s told from his point of view we can see how people see him.
He marries a woman who is desperate for freedom in an era where that was impossible and we watch their marriage implode as he journeys towards his sister’s funeral. The train journey coupled with the retelling of his own journey was a very clever story telling device.
I loved it! Might be the best book of the year so far.
This is a completely different book and more in the vain of literary fiction than Nicholas Sparks.
Set in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s this is the story told from the viewpoint of a pompous, egotistical, challenging narrator. He is dislikable, almost like a serous David Brent (The Office) but that is the beauty of this book. Even though it’s told from his point of view we can see how people see him.
He marries a woman who is desperate for freedom in an era where that was impossible and we watch their marriage implode as he journeys towards his sister’s funeral. The train journey coupled with the retelling of his own journey was a very clever story telling device.
I loved it! Might be the best book of the year so far.
January 24, 2023
This story is set in the early 1900s in the fictional town of Thrupp, New England. It is narrated by Nicholas Van Tassel, a single, pompous, thirty year old professor of English rhetoric several years after the events have taken place. He is traveling by train to Florida to attend the funeral of his sister when he begins to reminisce about his past, trying to understand what has happened in the later years of his life when his obsession with a woman led him to do things no decent man would ever consider.
It all began after a fire at a hotel where he was dining. After the fire was put out, he sees Etna Bliss outside under a streetlamp and immediately falls in love with her. Etna suddenly becomes the woman he has always wanted and he becomes obsessed with her. He courts her and asks her to marry him and even though she tells him she does not love him, he persuades her to marry him. Etna agrees to the union, eager to escape her current role of maiden aunt and unpaid governess in her sister’s home filled with children. Van Tassel convinces himself that Etna will come to love him once she has experienced his sexual powers, unaware she has had a passionate, more skillful lover in her past. As the years go by the couple bring up two children and Etna gradually demands more privacy and intellectual freedom from the restrictive bounds of her marriage.
Van Tassel is an ambitious man and is campaigning for the role of Dean at the college. He desperately wants the position but Phillip Asher his academic rival, is also in the running. Van Tassel will do anything to bring his rival down. Asher also just happens to be the brother of Samuel, Etna’s former lover. When Van Tassel discovers that Etna has been keeping secrets from him and has used an inheritance to buy a small cottage she uses as a personal getaway, he threatens her with divorce and is surprised when she agrees. Her easy acquiescence fuels his rage and his desire to punish her and he combines this with a strategy that will also bring down his rival Asher. His desperation is so strong it leads him to despicable behavior and he stoops to involving their children in a monstrous scheme to get what he wants.
This is the story of a man who married a woman to fulfil his own obsessive desire, not understanding she had her own wishes and wanted another life. In the beginning Shreve’s skillful narrative draws the reader to have some sympathy for Van Tassel but gradually as the narrative continues, readers become more and more removed from any kind feelings for him until the end of the novel, when they loathe him for what he has done.
The story explores how the vicious need for a position or a person can lead someone to commit very dark deeds even though those committing them remain oblivious to their hurtful actions.
Although this may be considered an historical novel there are few historical connections or period details in the narrative, only the age appropriate roles the characters assume in a restrictive Victorian society and the references to small town college life.
This story reminds us that everyone has a need for love and connection but not all of us may find it. As Van Tassel tells his story, he insists that all he ever wanted was Etna’s love, but all he ever got was tepid affection. Years later as he travels to Florida, he is still trying to understand how his life fell apart. However his story does not gather the sympathetic audience he craves. Instead readers see him as the pompous, obsessive man he was and always will be.
It all began after a fire at a hotel where he was dining. After the fire was put out, he sees Etna Bliss outside under a streetlamp and immediately falls in love with her. Etna suddenly becomes the woman he has always wanted and he becomes obsessed with her. He courts her and asks her to marry him and even though she tells him she does not love him, he persuades her to marry him. Etna agrees to the union, eager to escape her current role of maiden aunt and unpaid governess in her sister’s home filled with children. Van Tassel convinces himself that Etna will come to love him once she has experienced his sexual powers, unaware she has had a passionate, more skillful lover in her past. As the years go by the couple bring up two children and Etna gradually demands more privacy and intellectual freedom from the restrictive bounds of her marriage.
Van Tassel is an ambitious man and is campaigning for the role of Dean at the college. He desperately wants the position but Phillip Asher his academic rival, is also in the running. Van Tassel will do anything to bring his rival down. Asher also just happens to be the brother of Samuel, Etna’s former lover. When Van Tassel discovers that Etna has been keeping secrets from him and has used an inheritance to buy a small cottage she uses as a personal getaway, he threatens her with divorce and is surprised when she agrees. Her easy acquiescence fuels his rage and his desire to punish her and he combines this with a strategy that will also bring down his rival Asher. His desperation is so strong it leads him to despicable behavior and he stoops to involving their children in a monstrous scheme to get what he wants.
This is the story of a man who married a woman to fulfil his own obsessive desire, not understanding she had her own wishes and wanted another life. In the beginning Shreve’s skillful narrative draws the reader to have some sympathy for Van Tassel but gradually as the narrative continues, readers become more and more removed from any kind feelings for him until the end of the novel, when they loathe him for what he has done.
The story explores how the vicious need for a position or a person can lead someone to commit very dark deeds even though those committing them remain oblivious to their hurtful actions.
Although this may be considered an historical novel there are few historical connections or period details in the narrative, only the age appropriate roles the characters assume in a restrictive Victorian society and the references to small town college life.
This story reminds us that everyone has a need for love and connection but not all of us may find it. As Van Tassel tells his story, he insists that all he ever wanted was Etna’s love, but all he ever got was tepid affection. Years later as he travels to Florida, he is still trying to understand how his life fell apart. However his story does not gather the sympathetic audience he craves. Instead readers see him as the pompous, obsessive man he was and always will be.
December 4, 2008
Great book! Though the reviews of it nearly scared me away, I dove into this one and was determined to give it a shot. I'm guessing it got bad reviews because people aren't used to the protagonist being annoying and sometimes completely unlikeable.
If you're a woman, you may have been pursued by a guy like this before. Women might relate with the guy so head-over-heels in love with them that they are almost disgusted with him. The narrator admits that he isn't handsome and his overeager pursuit of his love interest is cringe-worthy. But what happens when he GETS the girl? It's uncomfortable to witness, even through reading.
Not only is the protagonist disagreeable, but his love interest comes across as vapid and shallow a female character as you might ever have witnessed, at first, and I actually think Shreve could have fleshed out their relationship a little more. Maybe she could have made the female character almost sympathetic by fleshing out their marriage a little more and showing how the woman felt suffocated by her too-attentive husband. While the wife's character grated on my nerves, I can also relate with wanting a retreat of your own...and it did make me think about how marriage can make independent people feel horribly trapped and stifled sometimes.
The book is tough to begin, but after you get into it, you won't be able to put it down. The ending especially starts to get really interesting. I've read four Anita Shreve books down and this is DEFINTELY the best of the lot. I read it first because it was one of the lowest rated...and I really can't understand that. I thought it was the only one of any literary merit that I've read so far.
If you're a woman, you may have been pursued by a guy like this before. Women might relate with the guy so head-over-heels in love with them that they are almost disgusted with him. The narrator admits that he isn't handsome and his overeager pursuit of his love interest is cringe-worthy. But what happens when he GETS the girl? It's uncomfortable to witness, even through reading.
Not only is the protagonist disagreeable, but his love interest comes across as vapid and shallow a female character as you might ever have witnessed, at first, and I actually think Shreve could have fleshed out their relationship a little more. Maybe she could have made the female character almost sympathetic by fleshing out their marriage a little more and showing how the woman felt suffocated by her too-attentive husband. While the wife's character grated on my nerves, I can also relate with wanting a retreat of your own...and it did make me think about how marriage can make independent people feel horribly trapped and stifled sometimes.
The book is tough to begin, but after you get into it, you won't be able to put it down. The ending especially starts to get really interesting. I've read four Anita Shreve books down and this is DEFINTELY the best of the lot. I read it first because it was one of the lowest rated...and I really can't understand that. I thought it was the only one of any literary merit that I've read so far.
June 13, 2008
The book has stayed with me. for 2 wks now. but my reaction is what a waste of a life, not one but four. Reminds me how dishonesty and creep into succeeding generations. Writing style is a little stuffy Victorian, but appropriate for the setting. loves and marries a women who tells him she does not love him. I am struck of a how difficult it would be to live in a loveless marriage. How sad it would be not to be able to take one into your confidence. I guess it has struck me how one single bad choice, one bad obsessive choice, can change a whole life.
December 17, 2008
This novel was disturbing at times, but enlightening, and it truly captures the depths of obsession.
My favorite quote:
"The sight of your face on that morning so many years ago has remained for me a standard by which I judge my own affection for any woman with whom I am close, and the affection of any woman for me. I count you among the most fortunate of persons to have felt so strongly for another human being, however unhappy the outcome. Is this not the point of our existence?"
p. 229
My favorite quote:
"The sight of your face on that morning so many years ago has remained for me a standard by which I judge my own affection for any woman with whom I am close, and the affection of any woman for me. I count you among the most fortunate of persons to have felt so strongly for another human being, however unhappy the outcome. Is this not the point of our existence?"
p. 229
June 30, 2009
The main character says something at one point about this being the tale of a faintly ridiculous man, of not much interest to anybody...and I have to say that I agree. The writing was really good in parts, and I enjoyed the voice of the guy who read it on the CD (my inner monologue sounded like him for about a week), but the story could have been short story, and felt too stretched into a novel.
December 12, 2023
I have made the momentous decision (for me) NOT to read an Anita Shreve. I have read nearly all of hers now but I won't be reading this one for two reasons. 1: the main character Nicholas Van Tassel is pompous and boring and 2: unfortunately most of the book appears to be from his point of view.
Another reader might feel differently.
Another reader might feel differently.
November 30, 2024
It is the story of a man (Nicholas) in his 60's who becomes obsessed with a young woman (20's), Etna, after helping her escape from a fire in a restaurant. He is madly in love with her (he thinks he is, I tend to think obsessed is the better word) and she does not love him, but they agree to marry. I think she is escaping the restrictive living situation with her sister and brother-in-law. We later find out also that she had a love affair (with a Jew, horrors!) that ended badly, possibly why she is stuck at her sister's house. The story is told from the Nicholas's point of view, so we really don't get to know Etna very well. Nicholas is a professor at the local college. I found him to grow more despicable over time as more of his inner thoughts are revealed. The story moves pretty slowly in the first half of the book. The stage is being set, and we're getting to know the few characters, and also Nicholas is just not that interesting of a man. The second half moves more quickly, thankfully. I have great confidence in Anita Shreve, so I plowed through. I can't say it was an entirely satisfying tale, but I thought about it long after finishing it, so that's something. Maybe part of the story could have been told from Etna's viewpoint. Sometimes period pieces can leave me disgruntled just from having to live inside the story at a time of women having so few rights.
September 2, 2016
È stranissimo che io, che in genere annoto in modo maniacale come sono venuta a conoscenza di ciascun libro inserito in wishlist, stavolta non sappia chi ringraziare per avermi fatto scoprire questo.
Dicembre del 1899. In un ristorante di una cittadina del New England, sede di un piccolo e tranquillo college universitario, scoppia un terribile incendio. Nella confusione e nel panico che seguono, Nicholas Van Tassel, giovane prof. di letteratura inglese, vede una giovane donna, anche lei tra i superstiti: per Van Tassel è amore a prima vista, l'inizio di una passione assoluta, ossessiva, di un desiderio quasi doloroso per quanto intenso. Inizia così un corteggiamento serrato, ma difficile, frustrante, per l'atteggiamento diffidente e talvolta per lui indecifrabile della ragazza, il cui nome è Etna Bliss. È solo facendo leva sulla possibilità per Etna di ottenere l'indipendenza dalla sua famiglia, nonché sulla pietà suscitata in lei dalla sua reazione disperata a un primo rifiuto motivato dal fatto che lei non lo ama, che Van Tassel riesce a indurla ad accettare la sua proposta di matrimonio. Matrimonio nato quindi sotto auspici non proprio buoni, continuamente percorso, nonostante l'apparenza idilliaca (una bella casa, presto due bei bambini), da tensioni sotterranee, silenzi, dubbi che non si riesce mai a chiarire e ad affrontare, un'intesa sessuale mai trovata.
Tutto è narrato dallo stesso Van Tassel, che, a distanza di anni (nel 1933), scrive un lungo manoscritto (il libro che leggiamo) con la storia del suo matrimonio, di cui oscuramente intuiamo una fine tragica.
Ho iniziato questo libro con zero aspettative, nel senso che, oltre a essermi totalmente sconosciuta l'autrice, avevo anche solo una vaga idea della trama: è diventato ben presto impossibile da mettere via, ed è difficile capire perché mi abbia stregato così, non è che succeda molto o vi siano grossi colpi di scena, ma l'atmosfera è talmente carica di tensione e opprimente che non si può non andare avanti per capire cosa è successo, cosa l'abbia resa tale.
Direi che è il fascino dei libri con "narratori inaffidabili", in cui il lettore avverte che qualcosa gli viene tenuto nascosto o gli viene rivelato in modo molto distorto, però non riesce a capire cosa, e prova una certa inquietudine finché non gli si rivela il quadro completo. È un accorgimento narrativo che mi ha sempre intrigato, e anche uno che richiede una grande abilità nello scrittore.
Qui abbiamo un narratore (il marito) che racconta le cose dal suo esclusivo punto di vista (e che fra l'altro a un certo punto si mette a raccontare, immaginandoli, eventi accaduti nel passato e cui non poteva essere presente, per cui il terreno su cui si muove il lettore è doppiamente scivoloso), e un narratore inoltre per cui l'autore non rende facile l'immedesimazione del lettore, perché è un uomo, un maschio, del 1900, con tutte le sue idee, pregiudizi, gusti, persino uno stile di scrittura abbastanza pedante (con tantissime parentesi, incisi, riflessioni messe in mezzo alla narrazione che all'inizio risultano fastidiose e poi, poco a poco, ho capito che erano importanti per dare l'idea di quest'uomo che rimugina e si tormenta su dettagli), tanto che, sebbene il libro sia narrato in prima persona e vediamo tutto dal punto di vista dalla voce narrante, per cui l'immedesimazione scatta "automatica" (nell'universo del libro noi "siamo" il protagonista, per così dire), la cosa ci lascia anche un po' a disagio.
L'ultima parte forse aggiunge un tocco di melodramma di troppo. Ormai avevo l'e-reader incollato alle mani, e quindi me la sono bevuta comunque con voluttà e trepidazione, ma in retrospettiva, paradossalmente, posso persino dire che non c'era neanche bisogno dei drammi e degli inganni e dei colpi di scena finali (sto parlando soprattutto ), rischiavano di essere sin troppo eccessivi... quando il vero dramma del libro forse era vedere come l'equilibrio assai precario vada in frantumi per ).
Ho scritto una recensione entusiasta e magari qualcuno sarà invogliato a cercare il libro. Non so se piacerebbe a tutti, non è un libro "bello" (in effetti la media voto qui è scarsina e i giudizi sono assai discordanti, varie stroncature), e meno che mai un libro che ti lascia "soddisfatto", ma io ne sono stata veramente catturata e assorbita in un modo che di recente ho sperimentato con pochi libri.
P.S. Se aprite la scheda del libro su Goodreads, vedrete che fra i generi assegnati vi sono Romance e Chick Lit. Mi viene da ridere: non potrebbe essere più lontano dal vero.
Dicembre del 1899. In un ristorante di una cittadina del New England, sede di un piccolo e tranquillo college universitario, scoppia un terribile incendio. Nella confusione e nel panico che seguono, Nicholas Van Tassel, giovane prof. di letteratura inglese, vede una giovane donna, anche lei tra i superstiti: per Van Tassel è amore a prima vista, l'inizio di una passione assoluta, ossessiva, di un desiderio quasi doloroso per quanto intenso. Inizia così un corteggiamento serrato, ma difficile, frustrante, per l'atteggiamento diffidente e talvolta per lui indecifrabile della ragazza, il cui nome è Etna Bliss. È solo facendo leva sulla possibilità per Etna di ottenere l'indipendenza dalla sua famiglia, nonché sulla pietà suscitata in lei dalla sua reazione disperata a un primo rifiuto motivato dal fatto che lei non lo ama, che Van Tassel riesce a indurla ad accettare la sua proposta di matrimonio. Matrimonio nato quindi sotto auspici non proprio buoni, continuamente percorso, nonostante l'apparenza idilliaca (una bella casa, presto due bei bambini), da tensioni sotterranee, silenzi, dubbi che non si riesce mai a chiarire e ad affrontare, un'intesa sessuale mai trovata.
Tutto è narrato dallo stesso Van Tassel, che, a distanza di anni (nel 1933), scrive un lungo manoscritto (il libro che leggiamo) con la storia del suo matrimonio, di cui oscuramente intuiamo una fine tragica.
Ho iniziato questo libro con zero aspettative, nel senso che, oltre a essermi totalmente sconosciuta l'autrice, avevo anche solo una vaga idea della trama: è diventato ben presto impossibile da mettere via, ed è difficile capire perché mi abbia stregato così, non è che succeda molto o vi siano grossi colpi di scena, ma l'atmosfera è talmente carica di tensione e opprimente che non si può non andare avanti per capire cosa è successo, cosa l'abbia resa tale.
Direi che è il fascino dei libri con "narratori inaffidabili", in cui il lettore avverte che qualcosa gli viene tenuto nascosto o gli viene rivelato in modo molto distorto, però non riesce a capire cosa, e prova una certa inquietudine finché non gli si rivela il quadro completo. È un accorgimento narrativo che mi ha sempre intrigato, e anche uno che richiede una grande abilità nello scrittore.
Qui abbiamo un narratore (il marito) che racconta le cose dal suo esclusivo punto di vista (e che fra l'altro a un certo punto si mette a raccontare, immaginandoli, eventi accaduti nel passato e cui non poteva essere presente, per cui il terreno su cui si muove il lettore è doppiamente scivoloso), e un narratore inoltre per cui l'autore non rende facile l'immedesimazione del lettore, perché è un uomo, un maschio, del 1900, con tutte le sue idee, pregiudizi, gusti, persino uno stile di scrittura abbastanza pedante (con tantissime parentesi, incisi, riflessioni messe in mezzo alla narrazione che all'inizio risultano fastidiose e poi, poco a poco, ho capito che erano importanti per dare l'idea di quest'uomo che rimugina e si tormenta su dettagli), tanto che, sebbene il libro sia narrato in prima persona e vediamo tutto dal punto di vista dalla voce narrante, per cui l'immedesimazione scatta "automatica" (nell'universo del libro noi "siamo" il protagonista, per così dire), la cosa ci lascia anche un po' a disagio.
L'ultima parte forse aggiunge un tocco di melodramma di troppo. Ormai avevo l'e-reader incollato alle mani, e quindi me la sono bevuta comunque con voluttà e trepidazione, ma in retrospettiva, paradossalmente, posso persino dire che non c'era neanche bisogno dei drammi e degli inganni e dei colpi di scena finali (sto parlando soprattutto ), rischiavano di essere sin troppo eccessivi... quando il vero dramma del libro forse era vedere come l'equilibrio assai precario vada in frantumi per ).
Ho scritto una recensione entusiasta e magari qualcuno sarà invogliato a cercare il libro. Non so se piacerebbe a tutti, non è un libro "bello" (in effetti la media voto qui è scarsina e i giudizi sono assai discordanti, varie stroncature), e meno che mai un libro che ti lascia "soddisfatto", ma io ne sono stata veramente catturata e assorbita in un modo che di recente ho sperimentato con pochi libri.
P.S. Se aprite la scheda del libro su Goodreads, vedrete che fra i generi assegnati vi sono Romance e Chick Lit. Mi viene da ridere: non potrebbe essere più lontano dal vero.
October 19, 2022
This is the story of Nicholas Van Tassel, a college professor in New England during the early 1900’s. Nicholas is the person narrating the story as he writes it on a train ride to attend a funeral in Florida. Nick recounts how he met his wife all those years ago. It was love at first site when Nicholas sees Etna Bliss at a raging fire in town. He helps Etna and her aunt to safety and from there becomes totally obsessed with Etna.
Nicholas falls hard for Etna and asks her to marry him. Unfortunately, Etna does not feel any love toward Nicolas and she tells him so. Nicholas eventually coaxes Etna to marry him even though he knows she doesn’t love him.
The book follows their marriage through the years and their loveless union, which had produced two children, Nicholas and Clara. It is sad to read how Nicholas and Etna can never find happiness together. The way this story is written allows you to feel the pain of the characters and makes you wonder who is the selfish one at the end of the book.
Nicholas falls hard for Etna and asks her to marry him. Unfortunately, Etna does not feel any love toward Nicolas and she tells him so. Nicholas eventually coaxes Etna to marry him even though he knows she doesn’t love him.
The book follows their marriage through the years and their loveless union, which had produced two children, Nicholas and Clara. It is sad to read how Nicholas and Etna can never find happiness together. The way this story is written allows you to feel the pain of the characters and makes you wonder who is the selfish one at the end of the book.
February 8, 2009
I loved it. I found myself savoring the vocabulary, the descriptions, the history, and the characters. I was always slowing down my reading just to contemplate and enjoy.
All he ever wanted was the woman he saw and wanted to marry. She did not love him, and she made that clear to him. She accepted his proposal as long he would accept that she would not love him. Can a marriage work that is not based on love? The characters and their motivations were beautifully described, and I enjoyed contemplating their lives and decisions.
My husband's grandmother would have been a contemporary of the main character, and so I enjoyed thinking of his life compared to the life I imagined that she lived.
All he ever wanted was the woman he saw and wanted to marry. She did not love him, and she made that clear to him. She accepted his proposal as long he would accept that she would not love him. Can a marriage work that is not based on love? The characters and their motivations were beautifully described, and I enjoyed contemplating their lives and decisions.
My husband's grandmother would have been a contemporary of the main character, and so I enjoyed thinking of his life compared to the life I imagined that she lived.
January 14, 2017
I have to admit, I didn't expect to like this book. I don't know why-- maybe I thought Anita Shreve was too commercial or something? But, as it turns out it was an excellent read. I was impressed by her dark, obsessive, and flawed main character, Nicholas Van Tassel. Watching his un-admirable qualities pile up all around him until they eventually poisoned his entire life and the lives of others was compelling, disturbing, and also at times highly entertaining. A great read.
April 4, 2018
It started off with, in my opinion, a lot of unnecessary details. I slogged through waiting for the story to pick up only to find that while many years later he’s showing some remorse, the main character never really redeems himself or becomes someone worth rooting for. I was disappointed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 7, 2019
The book has surprised me with a good and gripping storytelling, however a few weak links in the narrative are there. The layered personality of the female protagonist and the events related are the highlight of the book.. a nice read.
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