'No-one probably, ever felt himself to be more alone in the world than our old friend, the Duke of Omnium, when the Duchess died.' Her death leaves to the Duke the care of his three wilful children and to the children the continuing social education of their father. The eldest, Lord Silverbridge, has been sent down from Oxford; Lord Gerald Palliser...more
Cecilia is an heiress, but she can only keep her fortune if her husband will consent to take her surname. Fanny Burney's unusual love story and deft social satire was much admired on its first publication in 1782 for its subtle interweaving of comedy, humanity and social analysis.
Can a morally scrupulous English gentleman make an effective Prime Minister? This is one of the enduringly fascinating problems posed in The Prime Minister (1876). And as Plantaganet Palliser, Duke of Omnium, overenthusiastically supported by Lady Glencora, presides over the Coalition government, Trollope reaches into the highest echelons of the En...more
The second in Trollope's Palliser series, this 1868 novel introduces Phineas Finn, the charming, handsome Irish Catholic politician, and chronicles his election to Parliament, his adventures in the London social world, his romances with three different women, and his abandonment of politics and return to Ireland. The novel also marks the first appe...more
A classic work left unfinished by Edith Wharton has been brought to a successful completion using Wharton's own synopsis, as it chronicles the fortunes of five rich New York girls who travel to England in search of titled husbands. Reprint. NYT.
Excellent Women is one of Barbara Pym’s richest and most amusing high comedies. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman’s daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those “excellent women,” the smart, supportive, repressed women who men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors—anthro...more
Fanny Burney's lighthearted first novel, completed after nine years of secret labor, was published anonymously in January 1778. Before the end of that year, it had gone through four editions--a huge popular success. In Burney's own words, it is the story, written in letters, of a young woman "of obscure birth, but conspicuous beauty," who "makes, a...more
Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, "Wives and Daughters" centres on the, story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new step-sister enters Molly's quiet life - loveable, but worldly and troubling, Cynthia. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within ...more
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