Out of the Omnibus: The Corsican Sisters

During the Age of Empire, a particular sub-genre of thriller/horror stories emerged in English letters. It involved English travellers finding out that the natives of whatever country they were tramping through might not actually like them.

This sub-genre includes “The Corsican Sisters,” by Violet Hunt.

The sisters in question are two beautiful peasant girls whisked away from their humble existence by an English family determined to give the girls a glorious season in London. They are then returned to Corsica and the family moves on. The sisters, however, do not, or rather, they cannot.

The story is told from the point of view of Lelis, who is the daughter of the family and a child when the sisters are brought to stay. In the story, she has just gotten married to a childhood sweetheart (and cousin), and has decided that as part of her honeymoon trip she wants to go to Corsica and see the one sister who still survives, and meet the family who have…a rather different view of what happened when the English travellers took their daughters, and then discarded them.

SPOILER ALERT: It does not go well.

This is a very strange, very rambling story It’s much more a nineteenth century story than a twentieth century one. If Dickens drives you to distraction, don’t read this. But, if you’ve got the patience for a long, winding ramble of a story, you will be rewarded. This story has some of the most amazing atmospheric writing and slow, steady mounting creepiness I’ve ever read. Hunt takes the idea of setting as character and dives into it headfirst. The relationship between the narrator and her husband is deeply flawed, but spectacularly drawn with both wife and husband being shown as full, complex and truly believable people.

I need to read more Violet Hunt. And so do you.