In my quest for rare books, I came across this wonderful website called Bookfinder.com. It doesn't sell books, but it is rather a search engine where one can type in information about a book, and a list of various booksellers all over the world that have the particular book will come up with the price plus shipping next to it. I found it to be an excellent resource! It was very handy for me because I was able to determine whether or not certain rare books were even available online at all without having to painstakingly check several different sites, many of which I of course wasn't even aware existed.
Curiousity led me to type R.A. Dick into Bookfinder.com. Much to my surprise and joy, I found that three of her books were available from different booksellers and at reasonable prices! Although, they were out of print, and the number of copies were very limited (only one or two). Furthermore, these particular books are quite rare and can apparently only be found in a few libraries throughout the world. I was even unable to find a synopsis for all but one of the three books online, so except for that one, I had no idea what the books were about when I purchased them.
The first book I read is called Duet For Two Hands. The copy I have is a first edition, copyrighted in 1960, and it came without the dust cover. I'm not entirely sure, but there might not have been any other editions published. The book did contain about three typos that I can remember. It tells the story of Cynthia Halliday, a former pianist whose career was ruined by a failed debut performance due to complications with what I assumed to be a multiple personality. The author never calls it that specifically (the synopsis inside the book calls it an "alter ego," but I don't believe that term was actually used in the text of the book), but Cynthia has a twin named Constancia with whom she shares a body. The two are complete opposites in character, and sometimes Constancia almost acts as Cynthia's conscience. The people in Cynthia's life know nothing of Constancia, but they talk to each other in their minds, and at any given time, one can go into a "trance" while the other takes over the body.
Because Cynthia and Constancia are opposites in personality, they are both needed to make an exceptional pianist. Cynthia provided the heart and soul of the performance while Constancia memorized the music, provided control, and kept wrong notes and mistakes out of Cynthia's sometimes overly passionate playing. Without Cynthia, Constancia gave rather perfect but musically dull performances. At the time of the failed performance that rendered Cynthia disgraced within the musical world, Constancia and Cynthia's piano teacher felt that she wasn't yet ready to give the performance and that she needed another year of study. The performance failed because Constancia, in protest of the too early performance, went into a trance, leaving Cynthia unable to remember the correct notes.
This disastrous piano performance was eleven years prior to where the story is at the beginning of the book. In that time Cynthia married, had a son, divorced, and completely gave up all thoughts of music and the piano. Constancia remained in a trance for the eleven years, but at the beginning of the book, she has just returned because she thinks that Cynthia has become selfish and has made a mess of her life. Constancia proceeds to intervene in all areas of Cynthia's life, and their vastly different personalities and habits cause them to eventually make a schedule that allows them to share their body equally.
Without revealing the particular details of the book, ultimately Constancia's presence serves to reveal to Cynthia where she has gone wrong in her life since her embarrassing piano performance and sets her on the right track again.
I found this book to be very engaging and enjoyable to read. Many of the awkard scenarios, where Constancia and Cynthia were both awake and happened to come into contact with some of Cynthia's friends, were quite comical, and there is something of a love story involved as Constancia tries to get Cynthia to reunite with her ex-husband and their son.
After having read The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which is a paranormal romance, the somewhat supernatural nature of this book did not surprise me. While I am sure that multiple personality disorder is quite legitimate, this book at one point indicated that our main character might actually have two separate brains. A woman haunted by something is certainly a theme in the books of R.A. Dick, whether it be Mrs. Muir's ghost, Cynthia's inward twin, or a woman named Danielle haunted by Satan in The Devil and Mrs. Devine, the next book by R.A. Dick I plan to read! More on that later!
Duet For Two Hands also brought to mind the movies that I have seen in the past with similar themes of multiple personality disorder, twins at odds, or various other mental illnesses. I have read that due to the work of Sigmund Freud, stories about mental illness became popular in the first half of the 20th century. Here are some examples:
The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
Psycho (1960, the same year as Duet For Two Hands)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931, 1941)
The Snake Pit (1948)
Spellbound (1945)
The Dark Mirror (1946)
A Stolen Life (1946)
Dead Ringer (1964)
Mirage (1965)
Marnie (1964)
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
This is obviously a very short list, and some are about amnesia or twin rivalry instead of multiple personality disorder, but all are great movies and worth seeing!
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