We agree that everything of that sort is over between us. I must realize that you will never want me. Then you tell me how my parts-it is not my fault-disgust you. She forces him to consider how he used her body and her position as a married woman in society to act as a shield and a desperate grasp at self-control. As John takes more and more risks to live out his desires, Catherine confronts him in one of the most emotionally incisive scenes in the book. Catherine and John have been married for two decades at this point and while "it was on doctor's orders that he had married her," Catherine expected a true marriage when she accepted his proposal.
When one of the young men, Frank, approaches him, John is all too eager to cheat on his wife, soon entering a relationship with Frank and even bringing him into the family home as his "personal secretary."Ĭrewe's nuanced characterization is most evident within the two men's marriages. In one of his first scenes, John ogles from a distance a group of men at their morning bathing spot at the river. They begin corresponding when John reads a piece Henry wrote about the "Greek feeling" and soon begin to collaborate on a book about "inversion"-sexual activity and inclination outside what is considered "normal." Homosexuality in late 1890s England is illegal, and they run a great risk if they seek to publish the book, a conflict Crewe skillfully builds parallel to the sense of freedom the work gives both men.Īfter decades of toxic repression, middle-aged John needs to escape his closeted life for his physical and mental well-being. The story follows two men (inspired by actual historical figures), Henry Ellis and John Addington, both intellectuals and writers with an interest in human sexuality. The Society of the New Life is named for a philosophical circle and for the protagonists' desire to step into a better tomorrow. Intense and character-driven, Tom Crewe's debut historical novel, The New Life, takes on issues of sexuality, freedom and the universal longing for human connection, framed through the lens of late 19th-century sex scholarship and domestic life.
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