An Inconvenient Wife (2004) (edit title/settings)

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Lucy Carelton: Formerly Lucille Van Berckel, well-known in NYC's high society, the main character in this story. Wants to be a perfect wife but is finding that hard, having need for frequent doses of laudanum to maintain "normalcy".
• William Carelton: A broker at the Stock Exchange, works hard to keep things "as they should be", cares for his wife. They hope for children but that hasn't happened in their four years of marriage. He is 35, dark hair with small amounts of gray. Very concerned about Lucy's bouts of nerves.
• Millicent Wallace: Lucy's friend since childhood, she wants things to be perfect for Lucy but is worried. there are times she'll "cover" for her, but she didn't understand many of the things bothering Lucy.
• Delancey Van Berckel: Lucy's father, 73, who had ruled his own home with an iron hand. Widowed when Lucy was 10, he was happy with Lucy's choice of husband. He owned the house they lived in, staying at his club many nights.
• Dr. Victor Seth: A neurologist, Jewish, new to the city and practicing new techniques, including hypnotism.
• The Baldwins: James and Ella, friends of William's and Lucy's who lived on Madison Square Park; they invited the Carelton's to their party after the opera. They had aa 18-yr. old daughter, Antoinette. Their house was furnished in a way that satisfied James Baldwin's taste (he was a naturalist) but it felt oppressive to Lucy.
• Daisy Hadden: One of the people in the Carelton's set; she loved to flaunt her jewelry and often belittled Lucy. It was through Daisy that they first met Dr. Seth.
• Hiram Grace: A dull man with an overgrown graying mustache. He talked unceasingly about Western Union and the money he made there.
• Irene: Worked at Dr. Victor Seth's, admitted and assisted patients.
• Charles McKim: The archetect hired by William to design the house he wished to build near Fifth Avenue.
• Moira: The maid at the Carelton house; she was replaced when the move was made into the new house.
• Jean-Claude: One of the assistants at Goupil's, where Lucy was to find furnishings for her new home.
• The Fitzgeralds, Malva and Stewart: Hosts for a party (a masque) whose theme was Ancient Egypt. The disguises William and Lucy chose were of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra and Lucy took much of the elaborate decorations off the gold and white tissue gown before she attended, making it rather plain.
• William Howe: The lawyer Lucy asked for. He had a the reputation of being a showman.
• Mr. Blake: William Howe's assistant; a discreet, reedy-voiced man.
• Elizabeth Adler: A newspaperwoman who wrote articles for The World, a NY newspaper.
• Mr. Randolph Scott: District Attorney, he was tall and thin with dark blond hair with a deep , resonant voice. There was a bothersome rumor about him, but it was kept quiet.
• Alma Fister: A member of a "faster" crowd, who invited more notorious celebrities, wishing to scandalizeher guests.
• Judge Wilfred Hammond: A decent judge, one who'd make sure Mr. Scott wouldn't try any tricks - but he didn't trust women.
• Edward Boyd: A policeman, one of the men called to the Carelton's home. His testimony was quoted in The World.
• Julia Breckenwood: One of the Carelton's friends, married to Steven; knew Lucy for many years. She volunteered to be hypnotized, in fun, by Dr. Seth at a Newport gathering. She was also present at the ball at the Carelton's new house. Daisy had also been treated by Dr. Seth.
• Dr. Little: Superintendent of the private asylum, Beechwood Grove, consulted by William and Lucy; he gave them a diagnosis of uterine monomania and mentioned either treatment in an asylum or an operation to remove the uterus.
• Dr. Rush: Dr. Little's associate at Beechwood Grove.
• Mrs. Wilhelm Brock: A mystery woman who, it turned out, was very crucial to the plot of this story. She had never met Lucy.
• Charles McKim: The architect hired to design the Careltons' mansion on Fifth Avenue.

Quotes edit see section history

• “... It seems all William's dreams are coming true. We're to build on that plat on Fifth Avenue.”

  Lucy to Millicent, at the opera

• “A man should have his comforts, Lucy. An oasis of peace from the world. When your mother was alive, I had that.”

  Delancey Van Berckel to Lucy at breakfast

• “Mrs. Carelton, all I have done is to suggest to your unconscious mind that you will feel better. I've imposed no will upon you. I am not a magician, this is not an entertainment. If you cannot trust me, I fear there's no point in going further.”

  Dr. Victor Seth to Lucy at one of her initial visits

• “Sp in the end, you're just like William. You're just like my father.”

  Lucy to Dr. Seth at one of her visits

• “--- But we're not talking of just any mind, we're talking of a woman's. Lucy's. How complex can it be?”

  William to Dr. Seth at Newport

• “How was the continent, ma'am? I trust your journey was comfortable.”

  Harris, the Carelton's servant, to Lucy, when she returned home, but to the newly built house.

• “Well, I must admit this is unusual for me. Most of my clients aren't so high-toned.”

  William Howe to Lucy in her father's parlor

• “Yes. Even that. I can make Lucy do anything.”

  Victor Seth to Attorney Howe

• “I am a highly qualified physician, Mr. Scott, and she is only a woman.”

  Dr. Little

• “"He was so confident. He still thought he could control me, and I wanted him enough to let him believe it. For now. Yes, we would be together for now. Until the day I cut the thread that bound us."”

  Lucy's final quote at end of book

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• sehnsucht, as the Germans call it. The longing for something that can’t be named.

  Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers

• Your goal, my friend, should have been to teach her to find happiness in her role, to teach her to be happy within her femininity, and not to urge her to seek pleasure and fulfillment in a world she is not allowed access to. She is not, after all, a man.”

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• I didn’t tell them what I knew: that it was easy to be like me. All it took was a slip, a step from the path we’d all been trained to tread. We were none of us different from the others; that was the lesson I had learned. We were all capable of anything.

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• “In the end it all comes down to accepting that you’re a wife. Only then will you be truly satisfied. Find your duty. Happiness will follow.”

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• I would be less a scientist—truly worthy of the contempt of my colleagues—if I conceded to her wishes. She is only a woman.

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• She is a strong and vibrant woman, one I have fashioned from whole cloth; one I have improved from a submissive, tentative, neurasthenic woman groping for some way to drug herself into passivity. I continue to be amazed at my success and preoccupied with her every nuance. She belongs to me in a way that no human being has ever belonged to another.

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• Dr. Little reddened. “I am a highly qualified physician, Mr. Scott, and she is only a woman.”

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• Yet what else is God but a manifestation of our will? What is a soul but the melding of our conscious and unconscious minds? I intend to prove that our will can be molded, that a “soul” can be created. I am creating a new woman—and succeeding beyond my greatest expectations.

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• faradization may ease these symptoms, bring her to my office in a more anticipatory state, and perhaps allow me to utilize her satisfied passions to regain her trust. If there is no trust, there can be no crédivité. And without that, I cannot be effective.

  Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers

• Faradization has brought her to climax quickly, and she achieved a trance through touch-induced stimulus—which leads me to believe that Mrs. C. has normal female passions that have been severely discouraged, perhaps by her husband, perhaps by others in her life. Because she confessed that she married her husband for love—as much as that can be so—I suspect her nervousness and irritability may stem from interrupted coitus, an epidemic in the upper classes.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

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• Old Row House: Washington Square, New York City. It is owned by Lucy's father, Delancey Van Berckel. Lucy and William have lived there since their marriage; Delancey stays often now at his club.
• Dr. Victor Seth's office: On Broadway, not in a fashionable end of town; Dr. Seth says that is because he had to take whatever office space he could find. There was electricity, though, when many places didn't yet have it. A brick wall showed through one widow, with a painted advertisement on it. Although William was in another room, the examination area was behind a Japanese screen, hardly private, and the doctor waited in the same room.
• The new house in the Fifth Avenue area: On East 63rd, planned by William with Charles McKim (architect). William wanted Lucy to buy the furnishings from Goupil's, where "everyone" bought their home deco. He was very excited about all of it, and wanted it to be grander than some others. In the original plans, there weren't enough windows to make Lucy happy and she tried to tell William. The end result was that Lucy's room had enlarged windows but all the rest in the house stayed the same.
• Lucy's room at Beechwood Grove: Beechwood Grove had possibly been a great estate once. It had a large foyer with a marble floor, a large wooden stairway with carved polished banisters and staine-glass windows. there were paintings on the walls.A bed with heavy wooden posts, with iron bands fastened by screws and the whole thing bolted to the floor, as were the bureau and chair in the corner. There was a common dining room that had once been elegant, with a gasolier overhead and deep brown drapes on the windows. Two long tables, set with bowls and spoons, nearly filled the room. Dr. Little was the head doctor; Dr. Rush, his associate, gave Lucy her examination.
• Newport Beach, Rhode Island: Lucy's father cottage named Seaward at which the Careltons spend the summer. It is a wooden house with mansard roofs over the dormers and striped awnings covering a wraparound porch. Frequently, the Careltons will invite friends to their cottage for extended stays.
• Beechwood Grove: A private asylum for the mentally insane.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• laudanum: Opium drug in alcohol solution frequently the drug choice among the Victorians.
• phrenology: A pseudoscience that studied the shape of the skull in an effort to deduce an individual's intelligence and personality.
• uterine monomania: A 19th century believe that a woman's uterus can cause a reflex action in the nervous system producing symptoms of extreme mood changes ranging from mild depression to intense hysteria.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Megan Chance (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States
• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Thrillers › Psychological & Suspense
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Short Stories › United States
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history