It scarcely needs to be said that the woman who wrote these letters had no intention of having anybody other than the recipient read them. However, a request made under circumstances the author would have considered to be all-commanding urges that they be made public at this time. With due consideration for privacy claims, what is presented here in print represents the letters in their original entirety and order.
Book Excerpt
My very own, you are mine alone! Even while that is true, I am not truly yours even though it is true. I mean, it is less absolute; and it has to be that way because I can’t very well take possession of anything when I offer my heart and soul up for adoption; there isn’t enough individuality left in me since I am so completely yours! All of this is pointless to say, but if I have to start speaking, what else can I say?
If I were truly your “star and goddess,” as you refer to me, Beloved, I would at least perform for you what Thetis performed for a larger good.
“Bid Heaven and Earth combine their charms, And round you early, and round you late, Briareus fold his hundred arms To guard you from your single fate.”
I am, however, only a very helpless loving nonentity that merges most contentedly with you and asks to be hoisted to no pedestal at all, at all. I have no control over an eight-armed octopus.
If you truly love me, you will do whatever it takes to protect me.
An Englishwoman’s Love-Letters
By – Laurence Housman