A recluse philosopher lives alone in a small cabin among the mountains of Southern California, absorbed in books and scientific pursuits, his isolation as complete as any monk's. Then Manella arrives, a strong-willed woman who brings him food from a nearby hotel and will not accept his defenses. Their conversations become a battle of worldviews: he insists true love does not exist, that affection is mere illusion and attraction just chemistry. She yearns for genuine connection, for someone to see her fully. What begins as playful banter deepens into something more charged, more dangerous. He is all intellect, she is all feeling, and yet neither can look away from the other. Marie Corelli, the era's most wildly popular novelist, here examines the eternal war between the heart and the head, and asks whether either can truly win.
