FYI, the synopsis provided above is not an actual synopsis, it's just the first paragraph of the novel. The novel is actually about an aristocratic English family divided by politics and their fiery tempers, and the star-crossed romances they enter into. The mother, Lady Coryston, is a bossy domineering Conservative woman who (gasp!) has inherited her husband's estate and (gasp!) intends to interfere with English custom by not leaving it to her oldest son, two things that were outrageously crazy at the time. The oldest son, Lord Coryston aka Cory, is a radical Socialist who wants to inherit the estate so he can split it up into model farms, and he does everything he can to be a thorn in his mother's side. The daughter, can't remember her name, is interested in the Suffrage movement but what she really wants is a strong man to love her and show her what's right and wrong--could her fanatically religious neighbor be the one for her or would she be better off with the poor librarian? The other son, Arthur, a member of the House of Commons, lets his mother write his speeches and tell him what to do, but now he's fallen in love with the daughter of the Liberal opposition and if his mother finds out, she'll cream him. Then there's another son, James, who literally does nothing throughout the entire novel and I'm not sure why he is there. Then there's a couple who may be evicted from their farm because although they are legally married, one of them was previously (gasp!) divorced, meaning that they are living in S-I-N in a major way. When I turned the last page, I felt a little spasm of thankfulness that I am alive today and not 100 years ago. If you like Victorian/Edwardian novels, you will enjoy this one. Downton Abbey is hella boring and weird compared to this.

My brother said that when he was in graduate school studying English, Mrs. Humphry Ward was dismissed as a nobody; they didn’t read any of her books; and she wasn’t sufficiently rehabilitated to be given a first name. (Turns out she was Mary Augusta Ward.) But I liked this book and I’m looking forward to her 1914 offering. My brother was also told she was a Victorian so he could not believe she had a book in 1913. However, all English writers did not conveniently die at the same moment as Queen Victoria, so there was some overlap, and in fact two thirds of Mrs. Humphry Ward’s books were written in the Edwardian period. She did seem to have a kind of Victorian viewpoint, though. There was a strange timeless quality to this novel, and it’s hard to know when it was set. The House of Commons was debating a Land Bill and the aristocrats were very concerned about their “rights” and estates being taken from them, making it feel like 1830. But the main character was a Suffragist, which was accepted as a common viewpoint (although derided as wrong), making it seem more contemporary to 1913. The characters drove about in strange conveyances but I think I remember some cars. I guess it was probably set in 1913 but the ways of the English aristocracy are so peculiar and unchanging that everything was the same as in Victorian times.

The characters had political opinions ranging from Conservative to radical Socialist. I couldn’t figure out which platform the author agreed with, except that she seemed to think women should not vote but instead use their exquisite goodness to make the world a better place without meddling in politics. ( )

FYI, the synopsis provided above is not an actual synopsis, it's just the first paragraph of the novel. The novel is actually about an aristocratic English family divided by politics and their fiery tempers, and the star-crossed romances they enter into. The mother, Lady Coryston, is a bossy domineering Conservative woman who (gasp!) has inherited her husband's estate and (gasp!) intends to interfere with English custom by not leaving it to her oldest son, two things that were outrageously crazy at the time. The oldest son, Lord Coryston aka Cory, is a radical Socialist who wants to inherit the estate so he can split it up into model farms, and he does everything he can to be a thorn in his mother's side. The daughter, can't remember her name, is interested in the Suffrage movement but what she really wants is a strong man to love her and show her what's right and wrong--could her fanatically religious neighbor be the one for her or would she be better off with the poor librarian? The other son, Arthur, a member of the House of Commons, lets his mother write his speeches and tell him what to do, but now he's fallen in love with the daughter of the Liberal opposition and if his mother finds out, she'll cream him. Then there's another son, James, who literally does nothing throughout the entire novel and I'm not sure why he is there. Then there's a couple who may be evicted from their farm because although they are legally married, one of them was previously (gasp!) divorced, meaning that they are living in S-I-N in a major way. When I turned the last page, I felt a little spasm of thankfulness that I am alive today and not 100 years ago. If you like Victorian/Edwardian novels, you will enjoy this one. Downton Abbey is hella boring and weird compared to this. ( )