Paul Verdayne, wealthy English nobleman in his early twenties, is caught embracing the parson's daughter. His parents decide to send him away to France and then Switzerland. In Switzerland, he sees a woman referred to only as "the Lady". The Lady is older, in her thirties. After several days of exchanging lustful glances, they actually meet. She invites him to her apartment, where they share a sexual relationship for three weeks. Eventually, Paul learns the Lady is actually the queen of a Russian dependency and her husband, the king, is abusive towards her. She disappears after the titular three weeks; Paul is upset and returns to England. Paul later discovers that the Lady has given birth to their son. With his father's assistance, he finds out the Lady's identity; however, before they can meet again, she is murdered by her husband. Paul is upset and spends the next five years wandering around from country to country, until he decides to make preparations to meet his son.
Reception
Critical reception was negative in the United Kingdom and USA. The book was described as disjointed, "dull and stupid", "boring, vulgar and extremely silly". Critics also made personal attacks on Glyn, saying she was complacent, her writing immature, and she was "indifferent to her own reputation". When the novel was published in the USA by Duffield & Co., it was quite popular, selling 50,000 copies in the first three weeks. After that, it sold on average about 2,000 copies per day for the next three months. The book's subject matter made it a specific target of the Boston-based Watch and Ward Society's anti-vice campaigns.
A sexual scene in Three Weeks inspired the doggerel:
Among the funniest of S. J. Perelman's writings is his series of pieces Cloudland Revisited, in which, as a middle-aged man, he re-reads and describes the risqué novels that had thrilled him as a youth. Tuberoses and Tigers deals with Glyn's Three Weeks. Perelman described it as "servant-girl literature" and called Glyn's style "marshmallow". He also mentions the 1924 film version of the book in which he recalled Goldwyn's "seductive" image of Pringle "lolling on a tiger skin..."
In the 1924 silent movieThe Family Secret, the nurse maid for Baby Peggy's character reads the book to her as part of reading time, but Kerry sneaks away.
In Evelyn Waugh's 1952 novel Men at Arms, an Air Marshal recites the poem upon spotting a polar bear rug by the fire in a London club, of which he has just wangled membership. To this, another member responds: "Who the hell is Elinor Glyn?" The Air Marshal replies: "Oh, just a name, you know, put in to make it rhyme." This was both a snub to the Air Marshal and a literary snubbing of Glyn by Waugh.
In the 1973 filmBlood for Dracula directed by Paul Morrissey, the character Rubinia mentions that she is reading Three Weeks. This is used as a subtle comedic touch, as the Count is searching for a virginal victim.
In the musical "The Music Man", the librarian asks Mrs. Shin if she wouldn't want her daughter reading a classic rather than Elinor Glyn. Then Mrs. Shin replies that what Elinor Glyn reads is her mother's problem.
