Cold-hearted Rake
England, 1875, and Devon Ravenel has inherited an earldom. Strangely, he is not happy about it. But why should a selfish and indolent aristocrat welcome responsibility for not only a financially indebted estate, but his deceased (and unloved) cousin’s three sisters and widow? He callously determines to sell up and leave the young women to make their own way in the world, but when he meets them he finds himself enmeshed. He feels concern for the fate of servants and families on the estate, he is charmed by his lively cousins, and he falls passionately in love with Kathleen, the beautiful and spirited young widow with a conscience.
There is much of interest here: economic forces that place financial pressure on great estates; constraints upon gently born women; consequences of parental neglect and class barriers; even the discomfort of impractical clothing. All are handled with skill and subtle humor: the suffocating layers of petticoats and whalebone corsets, through which the lovers must fight to come together, are as inhibiting and frustrating as the impractical social conventions of the day, such as those governing mourning. Definitely recommended.
