‘We live one in another’: The Gothic and uncanny representation of the female double in The Crime of Laura Sarelle by Joseph Shearing (pseudonym of Marjorie Bowen)

Allyson Kreuiter

doi:10.4102/lit.v40i1.1578

Abstract

Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long, nee Campbell, was born in 1885 and died in 1952; she wrote mostly under the name of Marjorie Bowen. She was a prolific writer and produced historical romances, supernatural horror stories, popular history, biographies and an autobiography. Writing under the pseudonym Joseph Shearing, Bowen produced what can be considered Gothic mystery novels such as The Crime of Laura Sarelle (1941). In this article, I will conduct a close reading of this novel and will argue that Bowen’s reimagining of the character Laura as simultaneously heroine and femme fatale, as well as eerily possessed by a ghostly past, makes an important contribution to the Gothic trope of the female double. Through a comparison of Bowen’s evocation of the double and that of Daphne du Maurier’s more famous evocation of the double in Rebecca (1938), I aim to demonstrate that Bowen’s use of the double is more Gothically compelling and powerful than that of du Maurier. Moreover, I will contend that Bowen’s unusual rendering of Gothic themes, along with her stylistic elegance, makes her work worthy of further scholarly study.

Highlights

On a 1965 Berkley Medallion cover for the novel The Crime of Laura Sarelle, written by Marjorie Bowen under the pseudonym Joseph Shearing, the following blurb appears: ‘A hypnotic story of terror surpassing Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca’
Writing under the pseudonym Joseph Shearing, Bowen produced what can be considered Gothic mystery novels, a number of them based on true crimes
It is with dismal shock that Lucius Delaunay has realised that the interpretation of this could mean that ‘one generation would live on in another’ and that the dead Laura Sarelle might be ‘haunting the living bearer of her name’ (Bowen 2017:loc 1853)

Summary

Introduction

On a 1965 Berkley Medallion cover for the novel The Crime of Laura Sarelle, written by Marjorie Bowen under the pseudonym Joseph Shearing, the following blurb appears: ‘A hypnotic story of terror surpassing Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca’. Laura’s embodiment as both heroine and femme fatale, I suggest, assumes a form of psychological Gothic doubling that becomes more discernible and uncannier in the pivotal scene of the plot This pivotal scene occurs when the novel’s hero figure, Lucius Delaunay, and Theodosius are in the midst of a quarrel in the study of Leppard Hall. It is with dismal shock that Lucius Delaunay has realised that the interpretation of this could mean that ‘one generation would live on in another’ and that the dead Laura Sarelle might be ‘haunting the living bearer of her name’ (Bowen 2017:loc 1853) He is subconsciously aware of this doubling when he exclaims at Laura’s appearance: ‘Why, Laura, dressed up like the portrait! Bowen’s story remains sinister, strange and malevolent as its play between the real and the dream that into madness and the destruction of the Sarelle lineage

Conclusion

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