Book Review: The Infinite Woman

Book Review: The Infinite Woman

Author: Edison Marshall

Date: 1940

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Company

ISBN: none

Length: 374 pages

Quote: “A fine lady you’ll never be, but travel far and climb high ye surely will.”

Lucia Riley, or Lucy Riley Reeve, or Lola Montera, lives up to her father's prophecy in a way only a male writer’s fantasy of womanhood could do. Her exploits are based loosely on the nineteenth-century professional dancer called Lola Montez, but her story is really drawn from Jung, The Golden Bough, and the dreams and fears of young unmarried men...with a plot twist taken from a classic European ballad.

Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets. If Lola had borne any resemblance to any real girl living or dead, her story would be harder to summarize. Her father dies; she’s never close to her mother; her relatives don’t understand her; her first husband divorces her (for trampling on protocol), and her second (common-law) husband dies young. None of it matters to Lola, though. She likes having friends but doesn’t seem to want a family, as real women do. She can always get any man she wants, and is never really troubled by men she doesn’t want. Her life goal of being “created” a countess for the “merits” of her dancing (and relationship with a king) is merely a matter of time.

The folk tale or ballad pattern into which Lola drifts has been the subject of a full-length scholarly book comparing versions in all the Western European languages. In order to preserve suspense I’ll stop there.

Instead I’ll say this. I don’t like Lola much; most likely, you won’t either. I don’t find the story believable; most likely, you won’t either. I did, however, manage to “get into the book” enough to feel some suspense; quite likely, you will too. (But I think I enjoyed the scholarly book with all those different versions of the ballad more than I enjoyed this novel.)

If you want to fantasize about the exploits of an adventuress who never feels insecure, feels obligated, mourns even at a funeral, gets pregnant, wants to get pregnant, worries about getting pregnant, cares about children at all, cares much about any other woman, has any health problems or physical imperfections, or (in all probability) has any use for a bathroom, The Infinite Woman is for you.

To buy it here, send $5 per book, $5 per package, and $1 per online payment. Although Edison Marshall doesn't need a dollar, you can add another book of similar size, or two shorter ones, to the $5 package and contribute $1 toward encouraging an author (or authors) who are still alive. (When we sell older books by living authors, we send $1 to the authors or the charities of their choice.)