Beset by jealousy over an admirer of his wife's, Lord Lodore has come with his daughter Ethel to the American wilderness; his wife Cornelia, meanwhile, has remained with her controlling mother in England. When he finally brings himself to attempt a return, Lodore is killed en route in a duel. Ethel does return to England, and the rest of the book tells the story of her marriage to the troubled and impoverished Villiers (whom she stands by through a variety of tribulations) and her long journey to a reconciliation with her mother. Lodore's scope of character and of idea is matched by its narrative range and variety of setting; the novel's highly dramatic story-line moves at different points to Italy, to Illinois, and to Niagara Falls. And in this edition, which includes a wealth of documents from the period, the reader is provided with a sense of the full context out of which Shelley's achievement emerged.
| ISBN: | 9781551110776 |
| Publication date: | 30th January 1997 |
| Author: | Mary Shelley |
| Publisher: | Broadview Press Ltd |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 555 pages |
| Series: | Broadview Editions |
| Genres: |
Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 Classics Modern and Contemporary Fiction |