The Haunting Of Bly Manor: 9 Henry James Stories That Inspired The Series

The Romance of Certain Old Clothes features the Willoughby Family (called Wingrave in a revised version, though the surname also appears in another James short story titled Owen Wingrave). In the family are two daughters, Viola and Perdita, who are considered to be equally beautiful. They both fall in love with the same man, Arthur Lloyd, who feels he must choose between them. Though they vow not to be angry or envious, Viola can't help but feel jealous when he chooses Perdita.

Arthur and Perdita move away where she gives birth to a daughter, but she also falls ill. Knowing she will die soon, Perdita fears Viola will marry Arthur and appropriate her gorgeous gowns for herself, so she makes Arthur promise to preserve the gowns she has saved in a chest for their daughter. When Perdita dies, Viola helps take care of her niece and she and Arthur eventually marry.

After a series of misfortunes result in financial difficulty, Viola pressures Arthur to open the chest so they can sell the gowns, but he refuses because of his promise to Perdita. Eventually, he gives in to her constant nagging and lets her open it. When Viola fails to attend dinner, Arthur heads up to the attic to see Viola dead in front of the chest, with ten hideous wounds inflicted by ghostly hands.

The Romance of Certain Clothes was closely adapted in the eighth episode to serve as the backstory for Bly Manor's dark origins, though it was met with some minor changes and fleshed out more by Flanagan and his team. For example, it is Viola who marries Arthur and falls ill. After she refuses to die out of stubbornness, Perdita becomes fed up with tending to her and murders her.

When Arthur finds Perdita's body by the chest, he fears it to be cursed so he sinks it to the bottom of the lake before leaving with her daughter Isabel. Viola becomes the Lady of the Lake, emerging from water at night to search the manor for her daughter and killing everyone in her path, her memory fading altogether along with her face as the centuries pass. This last part is where the series builds upon the original story to make it even darker.