This novel is trying to be an exploration of passion but comes off as bloodless and wooden. Fifteen-year-old fallen woman Olympia Biddeford, the main character, never comes to life, and the author's attempts to convince us her relationship with a man three times her age is a deep spiritual love is ludicrous. The book is by the numbers, and the attempt at 19th-century speak is irritating. Did not people ever use contractions in their speech back then? I cannot believe they did not, but I shall not argue with the author further.