A Yellow Aster, Volume 2 (of 3)

In Short

This novel explores the complex psychological union between Humphrey Strange and his enigmatic wife, Gwen, whose emotional development remains profoundly elemental and detached. Set against Victorian social expectations, the narrative follows Gwen’s reluctant confrontation with love, duty, and her own emotional dormancy after a startling engagement and quiet wedding. The book has endured through its unflinching psychological realism, its sharp subversion of conventional romance tropes, and its daring portrayal of a heroine who refuses to fake passion where none exists.

The Story

The volume opens as Humphrey Strange visits Lady Mary and hears of his widespread social success, only to discover upon leaving that he loves Gwen irretrievably. Overwhelmed by the realization that he loves a woman who cannot comprehend passion, Humphrey resolves to offer his devotion regardless. He visits Gwen to lay bare the shadier, unvarnished side of his life with absolute honesty, refusing to hide behind conventional deceptions. Struck by his candor, Gwen agrees to marry him at the end of July, though she privately berates herself for misleading him while merely tired and wanting tea.

Domestic arrangements provoke friction, particularly from Dacre, a cocksure young warrior relative who desires a grand wedding. Gwen, however, insists on quiet simplicity with the support of Mr. and Mrs. Fellowes. Concurrently, Humphrey aids a struggling, sickly young artist named Brydon, funding his career under strict, unsentimental trade-like conditions to ensure the youth learns proper discipline.

As marriage settles in, Gwen wrestles heavily with the abstract duty of loving her husband. She confesses her emotional blankness to Mrs. Fellowes, who recognizes that Gwen's womanhood is still incomplete and warns her that true feeling will eventually steal upon her. Meanwhile, Gwen's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Waring, experience a profound domestic disruption as their previously absolute, isolated oneness begins to fracture under late-awakening emotions and quiet jealousy.

Gwen and Humphrey interact with Brydon, who works on a portrait titled The Incognita modeled after an idealization of Gwen. Gwen mocks the necessity of artistic idealization and expresses cold fascination with the impulses behind murder, insisting she is a finished, complete entity rather than a vessel for new sensations. Yet, as winter storms beat against the countryside, she wanders alone, desperately wishing for an earthquake or catastrophe that might shatter her emotional numbness and force her to feel.

Returning indoors, Gwen finds release through music, playing and singing with a deep, harsh, unrested tumult that draws Humphrey into a harmonious vocal blend. As the volume closes, the ripples of Gwen's cold awakening spread outward: her mother experiences unfamiliar pangs of jealousy regarding a gift Gwen sent to the rector's household, while Mr. and Mrs. Waring struggle awkwardly through unaccustomed social engagements and new emotional currents.

How It Unfolds

A sudden realization Humphrey discovers he is irretrievably in love with Gwen, recognizing the painful irony of offering his passion to a woman who cannot understand it.

The unvarnished truth Disdaining conventional deceit, Humphrey lays bare the shady side of his past to Gwen, earning her quiet, reluctant respect.

A quiet alliance Gwen agrees to a subdued wedding, brushing aside Dacre’s loud demands for a public spectacle while quietly accepting her role in the marriage.

The patron's contract Humphrey extends financial salvation to the struggling artist Brydon under rigid, unromantic conditions, demanding full repayment of his investment.

The burden of duty Gwen confesses her emotional incapacity to Mrs. Fellowes and desperately paces the winter landscape, searching for a catastrophe that might shock her into feeling.

Harmonious unrest Sitting at the piano, Gwen pours her restless, unmapped tumult into her contralto singing, unexpectedly blending her voice with Humphrey's in a profound duet.

The People

Gwen Waring is a proud, striking woman whose emotional faculties remain elemental and undeveloped. She wants intellectual honesty and intellectual autonomy, but stands opposed by her own profound incapacity for love or passion. She ends up bound to a husband she respects yet cannot initially warm toward, caught in a relentless internal war to fulfill a duty she finds alien.

Humphrey Strange is a strong, sensitive man who values radical truth over social pleasantries. He wants to win Gwen's heart despite knowing her emotional limitations, letting nothing stand in the way of his devotion. He ends up acting as a patient, clear-eyed anchor, weathering her intellectual resistance and seeking to awaken her through steady endurance.

Mrs. Fellowes is a perceptive and warm confidante who understands Gwen better than anyone else. She wants to guide Gwen through her emotional latency without crushing her, though she fears the brutal impact of Gwen's direct methods. She ends up acting as a stabilizing advisor to both the Waring and Strange households as old domestic models dissolve.

Brydon is a sickly, nervous, and talented young artist. He wants professional success and a true artistic training, but is blocked by his own bad habits and poor health. He ends up accepting Humphrey's harsh patronage, eventually producing brilliant work while remaining a nervous observer of other people's dramas.

Mr. and Mrs. Waring are Gwen’s uniquely isolated, detached parents. They want to preserve their quiet, self-contained universe, but are disrupted by late-blooming human emotions and quiet pangs of jealousy. They end up shaken from their pristine transparency into a painful, bewildered awareness of the wider world.

In Its Own Voice

“It is about the most killing blow that could have fallen on a man.”

Humphrey reflects on the bitter irony of falling deeply in love with a woman incapable of returning passion.

“This is very sad, it is so sad, dear, that one can hardly speak of it.”

Mrs. Fellowes laments to Gwen about the perils of playing pranks with human hearts and souls.

“My lovers? They weren’t lovers at all, they were explorers, experimental philosophers.”

Gwen sharply analyzes the true nature of the men who once sought her out, comparing them to botanists hunting rare specimens.

What It's Really About

The novel investigates the tyranny of emotional expectation versus innate psychological incapacity. It interrogates whether human nature can be artificially reshaped or forced into standard molds of love and domesticity, using the metaphor of the blue chrysanthemum or yellow aster to question if forced perfections destroy natural beauty. Beneath the plot lies a sustained argument against social hypocrisy, favoring brutal, unvarnished truth over polite falsehoods. It examines how awakening emotional awareness can disrupt long-settled, isolated lives, turning comfortable insularity into a site of sharp psychological pain.

Why Read It Today

Readers who love psychologically sharp, unsentimental Victorian fiction that rejects tidy moralizing will find a rare treasure here. Reading it feels like stepping into a cool, bracing room where characters dissect their own motivations with startling crispness and zero self-pity. What stays with you is the haunting figure of Gwen—proud, unyielding, and desperately lonely in her own skin. Modern readers should be prepared for late-19th-century pacing, sprawling dialogue, and the occasionally archaic diction of its era, but these very elements ground the work in a distinct historical texture that rewards patient, thoughtful attention.