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Sunday, February 16, 2014

THE MAKING OF A MARCHIONESS by FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT

The Making of a Marchioness

Somewhat like a Georgette Heyer The Making of a Marchioness is a rags to riches story. It is also a story of relationships and how feelings such as anger, hate, jealousy are prevalent in all sections of society. It has also been prevalent throughout the ages.

Emily is alone, genteel, impoverished but a happy soul. She is terrified over the future and what would happen when she cannot earn the pittance she does now. An invitation to a country house is seen as a god send - she is to assist a Lady at a house party with the myriad tasks which fall to the lot of a companion. This Emily is more than happy to do. And this is where she meets our Lord and the fairy tale begins.

I liked the Victorian style of writing. The descriptive nature of the book is also good but Emily seemed too good to be true and the slightly unrealistic tenor of the second part of the story disappointed. Secondary characters were all very well portrayed including the land lady and the land lady's daughter with aspirations to be a lady's maid. The second part of the story however dragged on too much though it did end happily.

1 comment:

  1. I think I read somewhere that the two parts were once separate and then got stuck together - you can really tell. I preferred the first half, definitely. I have just read _A Fair Barbarian_ (another free ebook) and it was good fun: very light and one knew everything would turn out well.

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