Purchased with much hoopla for a record sum, this is a savory, intricately wrought tale of a tangled romantic triangle in repressed Victorian England. Louisa and Edward Elliot are cousins bound by the shame of having been born out of wedlock. As governess to the spoiled daughters of an obnoxious tradesman with aspirations beyond his station, Louisa is able to ignore whispers about her scandalous birth. But her narrow life is transformed by Robert Duncannon, a dashing, selfish officer of the Royal Dragoons whose wife is conveniently mad. When they become lovers, lively, rebellious Louisa is crushed by the social double standard, while Robert becomes even more impatient with her "middle-class prudery" and jealous of Edward's pained but abiding love.
