The Master

Henry wakes from troubled sleep an hour or so before dawn. He dreamed that he was walking through an unknown but obviously Italian city. As he moved through narrow streets, he’d become aware of two figures ahead of him. They turned around, revealing themselves to be his aunt and his mother. His mother looked stricken and had a haunted expression. In reality, both of these women are long dead, so the dream fills him with sadness and unease. 

Henry’s play, Guy Domville, is set to open on January 5, and he has been working hard to prepare for its first performance. Throughout this last stage of preparations, he has remained largely cloistered, but when he receives a letter from the wife of Prince Oblisky, a Russian, he feels compelled to allow her to visit. Her husband is a stern man who is preoccupied with the future of Russia, and rumors swirl about the couple. She confesses that her husband is forcing her to return to Russia. Henry wonders what sin she must have committed to be exiled from Paris in this way. Seeing her distress as she describes her preparations for leaving, Henry has an urge to capture the complexity of her emotional state and render her story with an eye for the smallest details.