Love in Idleness

Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was an American author noted for his many novels, especially those set in Italy, and for his classic weird and fantastic stories. He was born in Tuscany, the only son of American sculptor Thomas Crawford. His sister was the writer Mary Crawford Fraser (aka Mrs Hugh Fraser), and he was the nephew of Julia Ward Howe, the poet. He was educated in the US, England and Europe, and in 1879 went to India where he studied Sanskrit and edited The Indian Herald in Allahabad. On his return to the US in 1881 he continued his Sanskrit studies at Harvard and contributed to various periodicals over the following few years while living in Boston with his aunt Julia and uncle, Sam Ward. When his hopes of a career as an operatic baritone were dashed, his uncle suggested he try writing about his time in India and helped him establish contacts with New York publishers. In December 1882 he produced his first novel, Mr Isaacs, a sketch of modern Anglo-Indian life mixed with a touch of Oriental mystery, which was an immediate success, followed quickly by Dr Claudius in 1883. That year he returned to Italy where he made his permanent home in Sant’Agnello in a house he renamed Villa Crawford. More than half his novels are set in Italy and he wrote three long historical studies of the country. Among his best known horror stories are The Upper Berth (1886), For the Blood is the Life (1905, a vampire tale), The Dead Smile (1899), and The Screaming Skull (1908). A posthumous collection of his weird stories was published in 1911 as Wandering Ghosts in the US and as Uncanny Tales in the UK. Love in Idleness, subtitled A Bar Harbour Tale, is a novella published in 1894. This light romance tells the story of impecunious artist Louis Lawrence’s pursuit of the much-admired Fanny Trehearne during a vacation at Bar Harbor. Lawrence has a rival for Miss Trehearne’s affections in the self-possessed Canadian, Mr Brinsley, a man possessing many of the attributes Lawrence himself is lacking, particularly in the way of sporting prowess, and to whom Lawrence has an instinctive aversion. 3