This is an excerpt from the fourth chapter of Shady Cosgrove's The Varens Obsession. Set in the 1830s, the novel responds to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre in a Rhysian tradition by exploring the life of Edward Rochester's mistress, Celine Varens. Celine was an opera dancer/courtesan and mother to Adele Varens (the child who inspired Jane's arrival at Thornfield)...
History
Citation
Cosgrove, S. "From the Varens Obsession." Southerly: a review of Australian literature 64 .3 (2004): 10-14.