“The Reason Why” by Elinor Glyn is a compelling romantic drama set in the early 20th century, exploring the intricate relationships and social dynamics of the time. The novel revolves around the marriage of convenience between the wealthy but emotionally distant Countess Zara de Echeveria and the aristocratic Lord Tancred. This union is arranged not out of love, but due to social expectations and the pressures of wealth and status. As the story unfolds, the characters are drawn into a web of secrets and mysteries, with hidden motives driving the tension between them. The marriage, initially cold and transactional, becomes a battleground of emotional conflict as Zara and Tancred grapple with their own feelings and the external pressures of their social world. Themes of betrayal and trust are woven throughout the story, as the characters learn to navigate the complexities of loyalty and love. Glyn's vivid portrayal of the early 1900s society, combined with the intense emotional struggles of her characters, makes “The Reason Why” a gripping exploration of the power of love and the impact of societal expectations on personal relationships.
Elinor Glyn was a British novelist and scriptwriter who specialized in love fiction, which was deemed scandalous at the time, yet her works are very moderate by contemporary standards. She popularized the concept of the it-girl and had a huge impact on early 20th-century popular culture, maybe even on the careers of prominent Hollywood stars like Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, and, most notably, Clara Bow. Elinor Sutherland was born on October 17, 1864, in St Helier, Jersey, in the Channel Islands. She was the younger daughter of Douglas Sutherland (1838-1865), a civil engineer of Scottish heritage, and his wife Elinor Saunders (1841-1937), from an Anglo-French family who had established in Canada. Her father was claimed to be linked to the Lords of Duffus. Her father died, when, she was two months old, and her mother went to the parental home in Guelph, Upper Canada, British North America (now Ontario), with her two daughters. Elinor was taught here by her grandmother, Lucy Anne Saunders, the daughter of Sir Richard Willcocks, an early Irish police magistrate, who assisted in the suppression of the “Emmet Rising” in 1803.
