Project Gogo Boy

Gogo is a young boy of English extraction growing up in Paris. He shares a friendly but often combative relationship with the neighbor girl, Mimsey. After his mother dies, Gogo is taken to England by his uncle who gives him an English name based on his mother's maiden name, transforming Gogo into Peter Ibbetson. "So ended the first chapter in the strange foreshadowed life of Peter Ibbetson." Now an adult Englishman, Ibbetson is an architect working in Yorkshire on a restoration job for the Duke of Towers, a peer of the realm. He falls in love with Mary, Duchess of Towers, and she with him, although she is already married. When the duke discovers this, he callously demands they explain themselves. Peter then realizes that Mary is his childhood sweetheart. All these years, Mary has kept, in the dresser beside her bed, the dress she wore at their last childhood meeting. The Duke becomes jealous and pulls a gun on Ibbetson. Ibbetson manages to kill the Duke in self-defense. "So Death ended the second chapter. And then, in a prison on the bleak English moors..." Ibbetson is unjustly convicted of murder, sentenced to life in prison, and despairs that he will never see Mary again. In a fight with his guards, he breaks his back and lies unconscious. Mary visits him in his dreams and convinces him that they can continue to live together in one another's dreams, which connect them spiritually. Peter can leave prison to join Mary in sunlit glades and meadows, but only in his slumbers. "...and so, many years went by." Though the years pass, Peter and Mary remain youthful in their dreams. Mary eventually dies of old age, but she goes to her usual dream rendezvous one last time and speaks to Peter from beyond. Peter, back on his bed in prison, promises to join her now, and dies.