'Marianne' came to in the traveling coach with a headache, a little toddler at her side and no memory of how she got there. One of the ladies inside pointed to her brooch with 'Marianne' on it, so she assumed it was her name.Before the night is over, she is dropped off at an irregular stop (her request before amnesia befalls her), Pennington Cross, she hides from a lone rider and finds herself on the steps of a vicar whom won't help her. As luck would have it an elderly lady hears her dilemma and takes her back to Maulever Hall. It turns out that this woman is the mother of the gentleman whom owns the estate.For quite awhile she continues to have memory issues and at the same time becomes Mrs. Mauleverer's unofficial companion. And no, it is not a spelling mistake...Mauleverer vs. Maulever, though I don't remember reading an explanation at any time. Marianne has some 'uppity' moments and the little boy is pushed to the background of this historical romance. More than once I wondered why he was even introduced but there is a reason. The story actually barrels along at a pretty fast clip until about 2/3's of the way in. (view spoiler)[Then, as another reviewer said, Marianne had some TSTL moments which brings on the dreaded, dum-da-dum-dum Big Misunderstanding. Why, oh, why do writers do this? Grrrrrrrr. (hide spoiler)]
The 1963 Pyramid paperback of Jane Aiken Hodge’s “chilling Gothic” Maulever Hall was only 254 pages and should have taken me no time to finish. Cut to me two months later wondering if this was some magical book that added a page for every page I read. It never seemed to end! But when it finally did, and revealed a twist I never saw coming I had to concede and say “well played Miss Aiken Hodge. Well played indeed.”The heroine here, Marianne, has lost her memory and arrives at a dark and foreboding house with a kid in tow. She is instantly befriended by the mistress of the house, Mrs Maulever but her son Mark is less enthused about the arrangement. Just as Marianne becomes almost completely entrenched in the Maulever family her secret threatens to destroy everything. Marianne is a frustrating character but it is hard not to root for her. And the men in this book seem to propose to women at the drop of a hat. Marianne is proposed to three times before this tale winds down, twice before she ever finds out her true identity. But as Gothics go there were plenty of rainswept moors, stormy nights, hysterical outbursts and mysterious men on horseback to satisfy any fan.
