Different from the other Woolrich stories I've read as this is set in 1880 and concerns Louis Durand, a lonely man in his thirties who is the wealthy co-owner of a coffee business in New Orleans. His fiancée died on the eve of their wedding years ago, and he has not found love again, but he is now awaiting the arrival of the woman he is going to marry, who he has never met but has corresponded with. But when the river steamer from St Louis arrives, she is not aboard - or is she? A stunningly beautiful blonde woman in her early twenties introduces herself as his bride to be, explaining the discrepancy with the photo she sent, of a dark haired mature woman, by saying that she sent a photo of her aunt, as she prefers older men and wanted to be judged on her character in her letters, not her appearance.

Durand can hardly believe his luck and falls head over heels, failing to pick up on the wrong notes that are obvious to the reader. Before long, betrayal ensues and he believes he now hates her, but his own romantic weakness will ultimately destroy him.

This is the story of a love that can see no reason, literally. Love is blind despite Durand's eventual realisation of his wife's faults and her complicity and perhaps worse in the murder of his prospective bride. The ending doesn't really convince, with the idea that someone who can be so horribly callous can have a sudden total change of heart, and Durand's wilful ignorance also is rather wearing.
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Delicious fun. Irish (aka Cornell Woolrich) tries his hand at a big melodrama set in the late nineteenth century American South, a change from his more usual seedy noir New York. A tale of obsessive, misguided passion, criminality, amorality, and violence in a long-distance epistolary romance gone terribly wrong. Probably over-long, padded with quite a few too many gas lamps and sweepingly opulent petticoats, but still wryly observant, with a fundamentally cynical view of women's deviousness and men's foolishness and lust, and with some very good crisp writing. The abruptly redemptive ending doesn't work very well, but it kept me up past my bedtime to see how it got there. Definitely the sort of thing you'll like, if you like this sort of thing.

See more reviews on my website - https://juliestielstra.com ( )

Having never met his fiancee, Louis Durant should have been a little more suspicious when a beautiful young blonde showed up instead of the elder brunette that he was expecting. Like many men, he couldn’t see beyond her looks until it was too late. Waltz Into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich is a story of greed, deception and loss of innocence and self-control.

Set in the 1880’s and published in 1947 this dark tale doesn’t feel dated and this plot-line would be relevant today. Woolrich is a master at dark suspense and the contrast between the susceptible Durant and the clever smoothness of Julia draws the reader into the story. When tragedy befalls, we are ready, but unfortunately Durant is not.

I am a huge Woolrich fan and this is a good one. I was a little disappointed in how the author softened the ending as I would rather have had Julia’s actions and motives remain ambiguous. Although this book is set in the 18th century it still had a very noir feeling as it deals with a man’s downward spiral at the hands of a femme fatale. I found Waltz Into Darkness a real page turner. ( )

— Adresse ta prière à Dieu, ma chérie... pas à moi, dit-il faiblement. Je te veux telle que tu es. Même au prix de ma vie, je ne te voudrais pas différente. Je ne veux pas d'une bonne, d'une digne épouse. Je ne veux que ma Bonny... ma Bonny égoïste et frivole... C'est toi que j'aime, j'aime en toi le meilleur et le pire, et non les vertus que devrait avoir une femme, à ce qu'on dit. Sois brave et vaillante dans l'épreuve, et ne va pas changer... jamais. Car je t'aime telle que je te connais, et si Dieu est capable d'amour, il doit pouvoir comprendre.

Loved it. Until the ending which is keeping with the genre but I wonder if it's the ending Woolrich would have chosen to publish. ( )