# X: Animal Magnetism explained — The Trail of the Serpent

> Chapter companion for The Trail of the Serpent by M. E. Braddon.

## What happens

Nearly a month after Valerie's marriage, she visits Monsieur Blurosset late at night, seeking a poison for herself. Blurosset refuses, citing his scientific principles. Valerie, agitated and haunted by the past, feels an inexplicable presence of a dead person nearby. After a tense conversation about animal magnetism and the soul, she leaves, returning to her unhappy life with Raymond Marolles.

## Themes in this chapter

### Madness and Mental Health

Valerie's agitation, her feeling of a dead person's presence, and her self-described madness highlight her psychological turmoil.

### Duality and Deception

Blurosset's secret patient in the bedchamber and Valerie's hidden identity as a married woman seeking poison underscore the theme of hidden truths.

### Fate and Determinism

Blurosset's card reading and algebraic calculations suggest a deterministic view of life, while Valerie feels trapped by her past and fate.

## Character check-ins

### Laurent Blurosset

Seated at his green table, studying cards and algebra; listens to the breathing of a man in his bedchamber; refuses Valerie's request for poison; discusses animal magnetism.

### Valerie de Cevennes

Visits Blurosset veiled and plainly dressed; asks for a means of certain death; feels the presence of a dead person; leaves, haunted by the past.

### Raymond Marolles

Valerie's husband; mentioned as engaged at a dinner given by a distinguished member of the chamber of peers.

## Key lines

> I am very unhappy—I have been so for some months past; and I shall be so until my dying day.

Valerie confesses her deep and lasting unhappiness to Blurosset.

_Reveals Valerie's despair and her desire for death as an escape._

> Do you believe it possible for one soul to be gifted with a mysterious prescience of the emotions of another soul?

Valerie asks Blurosset if one soul can sense another's feelings without any known cause.

_Explores the theme of animal magnetism and the connection between souls._

> I feel as if that person were near me tonight.

Valerie senses the presence of a dead person in the room.

_Highlights her psychological state and the supernatural undertones of the chapter._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/chapters/x-animal-magnetism
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/chapters