Corelli, Marie - Wormwood
Gaston, young, successful, with an honorable future, is smitten with Pauline, still in her teens. She is perhaps too young, inexperienced in Life, games, mores, love. Nevertheless, she agrees to a betrothal because, well, because she does not know any better. Know that there is a difference between Mr. Right, and Mr. Right Now.
Until she comes across the real deal. Real love, the force that flutters the heart.
Gaston, reeling, quaffs absinthe, whereupon his fate and damnation are sealed.
A swooning novel of decay, dissolution, and the net of ruination cast wide, dragging others into despair.
Corelli’s tale is sordid, yet not cynical. Bordering on melodrama and preachiness throughout, without the unintentional camp of similar cautionary parables such as Reefer Madness.
If one were to draw parallels with modern decadence, modern addictions, those are evident.
Or one could speculate that species human has evolved less than an inch since our time in the trees, in the caves.