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    A Lady of Quality
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    A Lady of Quality
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    A Lady of Quality
    Ebook295 pages5 hours

    A Lady of Quality

    By Frances Hodgson Burnett

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    In this classic work of historical fiction, Frances Hodgson Burnett, most famous for writing The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, turns her hand to much darker themes than ever before. Set in late seventeenth-century England, amidst the ribbons and romance of courtship A Lady of Quality tackles violence and manipulation, blackmail and even murder. When Clorinda is born, the odds seem stacked against her. First and foremost, she is a girl like all her sisters before her and her father wants only a son. Furthermore, her mother dies in childbirth, and her father, considering all his daughters worthless, refuses contact. Despite this, Clorinda Wildairs manages not only to survive, but to grow up into a very remarkable and strong-willed child. Thus when father and daughter happen to meet for the first time, he is astonished and amused in equal measure to learn that this little six-year-old girl, who is lecturing and scolding him freely, is in fact his youngest child and so develops a close bond between them. The hot-headed young girl grows up to be a beautiful young woman with a sharp tongue and a will of iron. But being able to have anything you want can be dangerous, and surely Clorinda's good fortune cannot last forever. When the dark side of her personality causes her to lash out in anger and violence at someone she loves, she may be forced not only into a dramatic whirlwind of events, but also into reassessing what it means to be a Lady of Quality.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHesperus Press Ltd.
    Release dateJul 25, 2014
    ISBN9781780943657
    Author

    Frances Hodgson Burnett

    Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924), author of The Secret Garden, also in an Aladdin Classics edition, and Little Lord Fauntleroy, enjoyed wider popularity in her own time with both adult and child readers than many other writers.

    Read more from Frances Hodgson Burnett

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    Reviews for A Lady of Quality

    3/5

    23 ratings4 reviews

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    • 2/5
      There's a reason why some great writers produce books that are almost unknown. This one - a novel for adults - is a far remove from the author's delightful children's classics 'Secret Garden' or 'Little Lord Fauntleroy'. It features an eminently dislikeable heroine, Clorinda, whose mother died giving birth to her. Her father is appalling, her childhood a caricature of depravity, and her sudden about-turn into being a society lady very difficult to swallow.

      I don't mind a slight excess of emotion, description or moralising in books of this era, but this one went on for pages, sometimes, without adding to the plot at all. I kept reading because I was interested in Clorinda's sister Anne, and because some of the plot developments caught my interest - but towards the end I skimmed several pages in order to finish it more quickly.

      I don't think I'll be reading this again, and really wouldn't recommend it - but if you're now intrigued, make sure to get the free ebook edition.
    • 3/5
      A melodramatic, wholly unbelievable and highly unrealistic view of a willful, stubborn, and high spirited woman’s rise to power in early eighteenth century England. Raised by a drunken lout of a father, Clorinda rides wild horses and carouses to keep up with even the most degenerate of his fellows. When she comes of age, she decides to become a proper lady. I loved Clorinda, for who could not—I have never read another heroine of so wild of spirit yet such aself-controlled manner. I especially love that she’s far more likely to break into a violent fury than burst into tears.
    • 4/5
      Having loved "the Shuttle" so much last year, I was really looking forward to reading another of Burnett's adult novels. However this story of tomboy Clorinda and her saintly sister Anne was a bit of a disappointment. I felt the characters were poorly drawn, the plot tended towards the improbable and the moral ending jarred with me. Still a good read for fans of 19th century literature but definitely not one of the better ones.
    • 5/5
      A larger-than-life heroine, drama, romance, villainy, dark secrets -- if all you've read of Burnett is The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, this book will make your head spin. This is one of my favorites of her books; it's not the best constructed, and yes, it's over-the-top in places, but that's what makes it so much fun to read.