"I was in Barnes and Noble.....

.....just looking around....I am one of those who like to look at covers and spines and just let the title jump out and catch my attention. So, I was looking through fiction, not for anything in particular, when I come across a title printed in sprawling handwriting.  It grabs my attention, and I pick up the book, and recognize the title as being the same as a good old black and white 1930's movie I have seen many times, "All this and Heaven too", starring (my all time favorite) Bette Davis and Charles Boyer.  I had no idea that the film had been based on a book, and, when I turned it over to read the back, I discovered that this story had not only been a best selling novel of the 1930's but that it was based upon a true story. Apparently it is one of the most notorious murder crimes in French History.    The novel, written by an American woman, Rachel Field, encompasses the entire life of a woman named Henriette Deluzy-Desportes, later, Mrs. Henry M. Field.  At the beginning of the novel we meet her on her way back to Paris after having been a governess to a little girl in England for the past eight years. She is hired as governess in the household of the Duc and Duchesse de Praslin.  As the story progresses, we see that all is far from right in this home.  The children (such dear little things!) are somewhat frightened and intimidated by their mother, who is at once, cold and dismissive, and then violently affectionate.  It is in the person of the Duc that Henriette finds a true friend (of sorts) and although nothing inappropriate ever occurs between them, the people of Paris still talk, and the increasingly jealous Duchesse finds relief, only in terrible emotional outbursts that nearly end in tragedy.   After seven years, in which, as the Duc puts it, of having been a haven for the children, and for him, Henriette finds herself put out on the streets, staying with friends until she receives the promised letter from the Duchesse clearing her name of all scandal. Quite some time goes by, and she manages somehow to scrimp by, and not tell the Duc who sometimes comes to visit her with the children, but when he discovers that his wife has still to write the letter......well, Henriette is soon faced with a terrible difficulty.... she is taken from her bed and locked away in the Conciergerie (sp?) and is accused of being an accomplice, or at least, an accessory, when the Duchesse's body is discovered in her apartments.......murdered.  The "natural" conclusion is that it was the Duc, dispensing of his wife, to make room for his ex-governess.   Through all of the questioning and mounting hostility, Henriette manages to survive, for after all, she "had the truth to rely on". Around the time that the Duc (who by the way is a member of the house of Peers, and therefore can only be judged by them, and the king.....this does not sit well with the French people, who have already pulled one king from his throne) is taken away.....he manages to take a lethal dose of poison and dies.  This, which is beautifully romanticized in the film, ultimately is what saves Henriette, for now there is no confession from him, and no evidence to link her with this grisly deed.  That is only the first half of the book, and the entirety of the movie, but there is still another chapter in the life of this poor woman, she eventually  gets a job working at a girl's school in New York City and....slowly but surely (this is the best part, I think!) she falls in love with an American minister, and is able to find her heaven on earth.  It is a very good  story, and Henriette comes off the page with such intense humanity and one cannot help but feel for her.  There is a very interesting story told with the story, about a princess who is walking in the garden, when suddenly her fairy god-mother appears. She says that since the princess has been so kind and good, that she will be able to give her happiness, but, there is a catch, she has to choose to have the happiness when she is young, or when she is old. The princess ponders and then says that if she uses all of her happiness while she is young, then she will have nothing left to look forward too, so "Let me have happiness while I am young, and may Heaven send me patience." Now, one of the children's reaction to the story was "Couldn't she ask for a little when she was young, and little when she was old?" And Henriette's response is that "happiness is not a little cake, which we can cut up to feed our appetites." And later she says "One cannot hope to be singled out in all the world to get one's heart's desire".  But her triumph over all of the adversities that she faces is truly inspiring and uplifting!