The Sleeping Beauty

Elizabeth Taylor’s sixth novel, published in 1953, in contrast to A Game of Hide and Seek (and much of her previous work), tells the story of a love that one might fairly describe as fulfilled, though not, of course, straightforward. The sleeping beauty of the title is Emily, who has withdrawn from life after an accident which changed her appearance and led to her fiancé leaving her. She now spends her time caring for her sister, Rose’s, disabled daughter Philly. Rose, who is widowed, runs a guesthouse in an unnamed seaside town, and it there that the novel’s protagonist, Vinny, meets Emily and falls in love.

Vinny is there in the first place to console his friend, Isabella, following the death of her husband. Vinny, we are told, is a romantic:

“Nearing fifty, Vinny felt more than ever the sweet disappointments only a romantic knows, whose very desires invite frustration; who loves twilight rather than midday, the echo more than the voice, the moon more than the sun, and women better than men…”

Indeed, on his first glimpse of Emily (with Philly), from a distance, he reflects, “They made a most beautiful picture… mysterious, romantic.” He learns from Isabella that:

“Her face was ruined, you see. I mean the face she had. She came from hospital looking quite different – very beautiful in a way, but not in the way she had been beautiful before.”

And so it proves when Vinny first meets her in the guesthouse: “Her beauty had not gone: it was, in fact, the staggering perfection he had first thought it.” Vinny’s love for Emily, though idealistic, is presented as sincere. However, at the same time that Vinny sets his eye on Emily, Isabella wonders whether he intends to propose to her (as does her son, Laurence, who is home from the army) – enhancing the shock of the throwaway sentence in the second chapter which tells us that Vinny is writing postcards “to his mother, and to his wife.” No one, it seems, is aware of Vinny’s marriage, including his domineering mother, who will be brought to the seaside guesthouse for a holiday, and to provide an excuse for Vinny to spend time with Emily.

Emily is at the psychological heart of the novel, her mind affected as much as her body by the accident and the broken engagement. She has not only shut herself away physically, but also emotionally:

“She felt locked away in herself but ignorant of her identity, and often she woke suddenly in the night without any idea of who she was…”

Rose, too, has her reasons for keeping Emily by her side as her husband, an alcoholic, was responsible for the accident that injured her, losing his life at the same time. By ‘looking after’ Emily (as, for example, Isabella sees it) she is free of the guilt she might otherwise feel. She also carries a childish resentment of Emily as “the gay, the party-going one” and is quick to put her done when she offers to help with the guesthouse while at the same time complaining she has too much work. Throughout the novel, superficially kind acts are often seen to hide a secret malice.

This is the case when Isabella discovers Vinny’s wife, following him when he leaves her at an auction of furniture from the house she is selling in London, as she decides she cannot bear to watch it sold. She spots him with a woman she at first thinks must be a prostitute, only later discovering that they are married. The situation is complicated by the fact that, by this time, Vinny has asked Emily to marry him (after an excruciating scene where he is seeking to tell Isabella this and she thinks he is going to propose). She tells her friend, Evalie, swearing that she will keep the secret (having just shared it).

Vinny’s confession to Isabella that he has asked Emily to marry him is not the only excruciating scene in the novel, something Taylor excels at. Later, Isabella will invite the couple, along with her son Laurence and his girlfriend, Betty, for dinner, using the occasion to put Laurence down:

“ ‘Five pounds a week is the summit of Laurence’s ambition’… her glance took in everyone but Betty, at whim the words were aimed.”

Despite this, The Sleeping Beauty remains one of Tayor’s most hopeful novels, in keeping with its theme of rebirth. While its characters may not always be kind, they are rarely intentionally cruel. Love, it seems, may be possible after all.

Tags: Elizabeth Taylor, then sleeping beauty