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| Plot Summary of Riven Rock |
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"This is the novelized story of Stanley McCormack, heir to the McCormack Reaper Co. fortune, and his high society wife Katherine. McCormack suffered from schizophrenia, a family disorder which sent his sister to Riven Rock, a private sanitarium the family built for her care when she became unmanageable. Stanley's own illness first appears when he is a very young man in Paris, doing the Grand Tour common in wealthy families. Although Stanley becomes the richest man in the U.S. when his father dies, there was no cure nor treatment for mental illnesses (c. 1900), and the best his mother can do is hire paid "companions" to stay with him at all times.
When Stanley is about 30, he meets Katherine, a wealthy and educated young woman from an Old Line family, quite high in society. Not understanding how serious his illness really is, she falls in love with the tall and handsome young man and marries him though his mother does everything possible to stop the marriage. On their wedding night, Katherine gets her first taste of the horrors to come when Stanley loses control and attacks her.
The book covers the entire period of their marriage, about four decades, during which they try one crackpot cure after another. There is also a subplot revolving around a young Irishman, and his own problems with prejudice. "
Laura Adamson, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Riven Rock |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of story
- 1900-1920's
Family, caring for ill
Yes
Who is sick?
- husband
because he/she is
- mentally ill
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- wealthy
Age:
- long lived adults
Eccentric/Mental
Yes
Eccentric:
- mentally ill
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- natural phenomena
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- throughout most of the book.
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 4 (a fair amount)
United States
Yes
Misc setting
- fancy mansion
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Click here for more information about this book
Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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