What Dreams May Come: A Romance

Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

Jan 1888 · IndyPublish.com

Ratings and reviews

This book is very strange and confusing, but interesting. The book is set in two different time periods, but the author does not make much effort to let the reader know in which era the story is taking place at any given time. There are alot of supernatural elements like telepathy and reincarnation, but they don't really fit very well with the rest of the story. At first the book gives you the impression that it is about the enduring and transcending power of love. But then in the fashion of a Victorian novel the theme abruptly changes to the transcending punishment for sin. Not Ms. Atherton's best. It is eloquently written, though very inconsistent plot.

Frank Lin (Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton) - What Dreams May Come: A Romance (1888)

There's also a movie with Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr! One of my all time, utmost favorite films!

About the author

Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton was born in San Francisco, California, on October 30, 1857. After the divorce of her parents, Horn went to live on the San Jose ranch of her maternal grandfather, where she was introduced to literature. Atherton attended St. Mary's Hall school, and spent a year at the Sayre Institute in Lexington, Kentucky. In February of 1876 she eloped with George H.B. Atherton. Her life at the Atherton estate was an unhappy one. She managed to write a novel, The Randolphs of Redwoods, based on a local society scandal, which was published serially in the San Francisco Argonaut in 1882, and which outraged the family. In 1887, her husband died and Atherton was free to travel to New York City and then to England and continental Europe in 1895. She quickly produced books set in Europe or old California. Her work drew mixed reviews, with the exception of The Conqueror, published in 1902, an account of the life of Alexander Hamilton, which won her critical acclaim and became a best-seller. Her controversial novel Black Oxen, published in 1923, was based on Atherton's own experiences with hormone therapy, and was her biggest popular success. Atherton wrote more than 40 novels in her career, as well as many nonfiction works. Most of her novels feature strong-willed, independent heroines. Adventures of a Novelist, published in 1932 was an autobiography. Gertrude Atherton died in San Francisco on June 14, 1948.