MRS. S

Dark academia meets forbidden love as an English boarding school matron falls in love with the headmaster’s wife, Mrs. S.

Unfolding through interior monologue, the novel follows the matron as she navigates her growing attraction to Mrs. S amid the politics of school administration and the complicated adolescent power dynamics of “The Girls,” as she calls the students. The protagonist, identified only as “Miss,” is drawn to Mrs. S from their first encounter, commenting, “I am discovered, I burn. Like her I stand my ground. Dare her to wave, to give that hand to me.” Given the circumstances, however, their erotic relationship evolves slowly and behind closed doors—via glances held just a moment too long or a finger grazing a back. As desire trumps vigilance, they increasingly risk exposure by colleagues, Mr. S, and even The Girls. “Loving her will be impossible,” the narrator confesses. “There is nothing I can do to stop it.” Patrick’s deft manipulation of narrative time and use of interior monologue to describe the tensions among thought, intention, and action recall the work of Virginia Woolf. The novel is also strikingly cinematic in its rendering of intimate moments: the setting sun filling the space between bodies moving closer toward each other in a kitchen, Mrs. S’ hand sliding slowly across the spines of the narrator’s books during a secret rendezvous. The drama of the forbidden affair keeps the reader voraciously turning the pages, but on a deeper level, the novel also offers an incisive and nuanced reflection on self-evolution as the narrator navigates the complexities of gender identity, social power, and the dynamic tension between private and public selves.

An erotic yet high-minded literary achievement.