The Heiress by Molly Greeley
Fiction
What it's about: If you’ve ever wished to spend more time in the Pride and Prejudice universe, Molly Greeley gives a good tour. She makes a lush and evocative novel around the elusive character Anne de Bourgh, Darcy’s cousin the family expects him to marry. When Anne was a fussy baby, she was prescribed laudanum, and now as a young woman, she is addicted to it. Her controlling mother, Lady Catherine, insists she is too delicate to do without it, and Anne spends her days drifting through a haze. But finally, when her mother is away, Anne takes advantage of her absence to escape to a cousin’s home in London and quit laudanum. Once off laudanum she starts to get the experiences other young women have as a matter of course: going to dances, reading novels, and shopping. Anne forms a romantic attachment to another young lady, Eliza Amhurst, and must learn to hide her discovered queer sexuality. Greeley finds a way to be true to the period while making a way for Anne to find happiness.
Reviewers say: “Greeley is faithful to the original story, while creating an imaginative and vivid inner life for the beleaguered Anne” (Booklist); “Greeley ’s expert imaginings of the life of Anne de Bourgh reveal the hidden depths of her character and highlight the societal restrictions of 19th-century women as Anne seeks to overcome her mother’s domineering persona and find happiness” (Kirkus Reviews).
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