Story summary
Samenvatting van Liefde en Lucy
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
In the dark of Onslow Square, Lucy is kissed and believes her eyeglass-wearing husband has found his heart.
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Liefde en Lucy in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 4 h 10 min3 h 15 min fast, 4 h 55 min slow
- Lengte
- 59.000 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Makkelijk short sentences, plain words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1916by Maurice Hewlett
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Liefde en Lucy in short
Love and Lucy follows a prosperous London marriage that has gone quiet. James Macartney, a solicitor with an eyeglass and a cold manner, and his wife Lucy live as courteous neighbors. Into this tidy home walks Jimmy Urquhart, a rich and noisy adventurer, and a kiss in the dark sets Lucy wondering who her husband really is.
What Liefde en Lucy is about
What would you do if a kiss in a dark room changed the way you saw your husband? Lucy Macartney is thirty-one, married to a famous London solicitor, and sure that her marriage has settled into polite quiet. Then a pair of arms finds her in the dusk of her own drawing room, and she believes her cold, eyeglass-wearing husband James has remembered how to love.
Love and Lucy was written by Maurice Hewlett. It is set before the First World War, among judges, bishops and dinner parties. You get a funny, tender look at a marriage and at the second self inside each of us.
Voor wie is het?. You will love this book if you enjoy domestic comedy with a romantic heart, clever dinner talk, and the surprising things a husband and wife keep from each other.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A successful man behind an eyeglass
The novel opens in Onslow Square, London, where James Macartney has built a perfect life. He is forty-two, the best-dressed solicitor in town, and the lawyer of bishops and peers. He owes his success, he believes, to an eyeglass, a crooked smile and a cold manner that nothing disturbs.
Clients stare at the blank lens, grow nervous and tell him everything. At home it works just as well. Years before, James went without breakfast for three days rather than admit he wanted his egg poached, and his young wife was left sick with guilt.
Lucy was barely eighteen when he won her at a garden party. After twelve years the two are good neighbors rather than lovers. Lucy is pretty, sharp-witted and starved of attention, and her comfort is her son Lancelot.
The takeaway is that a proud, tidy manner can hold a heart that has simply never been asked to speak.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
A dinner party with a hidden purpose
On the twelfth of January the Macartneys give a dinner party, and James has a plan for it.
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A boy sets out to catch a pirate
Lancelot is twelve and a half, serious, funny and fully aware of his father's moods.
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The kiss in the dark
The day comes for Lancelot to go back to school.
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Motor rides and a tale-teller's philosophy
The next day Urquhart drives Lucy toward Essex in his huge new motor.
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A second visit from the invisible lover
In late February Lucy goes to the opera.
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Spring, flying and a long look in the mirror
March brings a rush to Westgate, where Urquhart drives Lucy to see Lancelot at his school.
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The question Lucy cannot stop asking
In May a bigger question grows in Lucy.
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Two people live inside every one of us
Hewlett warns you in the first chapter that there are at least two people in each of us.
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Jealousy, discipline and a comic narrator
The second theme is the cost of control.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Lucy Macartney A pretty, thoughtful wife of thirty-one who adores her son and longs for a sign that her husband truly loves her.
- James Adolphus Macartney A successful solicitor with an eyeglass and a cold manner, proud of seeming effortless and afraid of being shown up.
- Lancelot Their twelve-year-old son, funny, serious and observant, who worships a certain adventurer and keeps his mother's secrets.
- Jimmy Urquhart A rich, restless man who tells wild tales, loves risk and decides he wants Lucy.
- Francis Lingen A pale, elegant poet who needs money and an audience and is deeply in love with Lucy.
- Mabel Corbet Lucy's younger sister, a hunting wife with a ready jibe who sees more than she first admits.
- Vera Nugent Urquhart's lively sister, a talker who watches events and gives plain warnings.
- Miss Bacchus A sharp-tongued old friend of the family who has a joke for everyone and knows everybody's business.
How it ends (spoiler)
Lucy tells James everything, and he listens with more love than anger. In Norway, Urquhart and James go down the Folgefond snowfield, and Urquhart falls and breaks his back, cutting the rope to save James. James comes down after him and stays until help arrives. Urquhart asks for Lucy, learns that James already knew the truth, and admits James is the better man. He leaves for Greece to fly. The Macartneys, truly close at last, welcome a daughter in June.
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Vragen over Liefde en Lucy
What is Love and Lucy about?
It follows a London solicitor, James Macartney, and his wife Lucy, whose quiet marriage is shaken when she is kissed in the dark and believes her husband has found his heart. A rich adventurer, Jimmy Urquhart, has already entered their lives before the mysterious kiss.
Who is Jimmy Urquhart in Love and Lucy?
Urquhart is a wealthy, restless man who tells wild stories of pirates, smuggling and many wives. He wins over Lancelot and Lucy with his energy, and he becomes the force that pushes the Macartneys to see each other afresh.
Why does James Macartney wear an eyeglass?
The eyeglass is his weapon and shield. It makes clients nervous, hides his feelings and gives him an air of ease. Lucy comes to see it as the symbol of everything that stands between them.
Who wrote Love and Lucy and when?
Maurice Hewlett wrote it, setting it in his own age, in the years before the First World War. He died in 1923. The book combines comedy of manners with a serious look at marriage.
Is Love and Lucy easy to read?
Yes, it is lively and approachable. Short chapters, quick dialogue, a funny schoolboy and a chatty narrator carry you along, and the story moves from London drawing rooms to country gardens and the wild fjords of Norway.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Hewlett, Maurice. Love and Lucy. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-and-lucy.
Hewlett, M. (2026). Love and Lucy. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-and-lucy (Original work published 1916)
Hewlett, Maurice. Love and Lucy. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-and-lucy.
@book{hewlett2026love,
author = {Hewlett, Maurice},
title = {Love and Lucy},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-and-lucy},
note = {First published 1916}
}
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