The New Countess
The New Countess

Author: Fay Weldon

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2013-12-17

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 1250028027

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"England, 1903. Lord Robert and Lady Isobel Dilberne and the entire grand estate, with its hundred rooms, are busy planning for a visit from Edward VII and Queen Alexandra just a few months a way. Preparations are elaborate and exhaustive: the menus and fashions must be just so, and so must James, the new heir and son of Arthur Dilberne and Chicago heiress, Minnie O'Brien. But there are problems. Little James is being reared to Lady Isobel's tastes, not Minnie's. And Mrs. O'Brien is visiting from America and causing trouble. Meanwhile, the Dilbernes' niece, Adela, is back and stirring up hysteria in the servants' hall by claiming the house is cursed. The royal visit is imperiled, but so are the Dilberne finances once more. His Lordship is under tremendous stress, and the pecking order will soon be upset as everything at Dilberne Court changes. The New Countess is the final novel in Fay Weldon's exciting trilogy that began with Habits of the House and Long Live the King. The bestselling novelist and award-winning writer of the pilot episode of the original Upstairs Downstairs lifts the curtain on British society, upstairs and downstairs, under one roof"--Provided by publisher.

The New Countess
The New Countess

Author: Fay Weldon

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2013-11-01

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 1781851662

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The year is 1905 and King Edward VII has invited himself and his mistress to a shooting weekend with the Dilbernes. Now Isobel, the Countess, must turn a run-down mansion into a palace fit for a king. Just as well the family fortunes have been restored, but money can't solve everything... not even a kidnapping. The servants refuse to condone the King's morals; Isobel's daughter, Lady Rosina – now widowed and wealthy – insists on publishing a scandalous book, and the mis-spent pasts of Viscount Arthur and his Irish-American wife Minnie rear up to blacken the family name. When fate deals a hand in the middle of the shooting party, Isobel must consider not only her leading position in Society, but her entire future. Fay Weldon brings an aristocratic Edwardian household to fabulous, vibrant life in this gorgeously witty tale of manners and morals, commoners and countesses, from one of Britain's best loved authors.

An Unlikely Countess
An Unlikely Countess

Author: Jo Beverley

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2011-03-01

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 1101477334

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After leaving the army and falling out with his family, the Honorable Catesby Burgoyne is drowning his sorrows when he comes across a woman being attacked by thugs. A fight is just what he needs, but little does he realize the lady he rescues will change his life. For Prudence Youlgrave is not just the victim of ruffians. Her life has been made a shambles by her selfish brother and brutish fiancé. But she has a bold and courageous spirit Catesby can’t resist, and before he knows it, he finds he has rescued her again by marrying her himself. A reckless adventurer may be forgiven for such an impulse. But when Catesby’s older brother suddenly dies, he finds himself Earl of Malzard, and Prudence is suddenly a most unlikely countess. Neither she nor Catesby are prepared to face the shock of his family. Still almost strangers, they have no one to turn to but each other, and it is in each other’s arms that they find a love neither ever expected. "Another jewel in Beverley’s heavily decorated crown."—The Romance Reader "A delightful blend of wit, intrigue, and emotional victories."—The State (Columbia, SC)

The Tattooed Countess
The Tattooed Countess

Author: Carl Van Vechten

Publisher:

Published: 2020-03-11

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13:

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Mr. Van Vechten has hitherto, often and with justice, been compared to Mr. Aldous Huxley, by reason of the insouciant flippancy of his fiction. But now he has gone beyond Huxley through the production of a story which, without ever losing wit, dexterity, an instinct for civilized charm, yet presents full-length and solidly the portraits not only of the gay countess but of the lugubrious persons whom she is fated to meet, to court, to hurt so pitifully, so inevitably. There are, one hears, accounts these days in the public prints of a banker named Dawes, of a biochemist named Brother Charlie or possibly Charley. But now the fifty or sixty thousand amiable citizens among our hundred and ten million Nordics who do not feel fulfilled in Brother Charlie or Charley, nor even in Brother Charlie's brother, may find civilized delight in a real book-"The Tattooed Countess."--The Saturday Review, Volume 1

A Scandalous Countess
A Scandalous Countess

Author: Jo Beverley

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2012-02-07

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1101574860

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Lady May is back. And so is the scandal that sent her tumbling from her position as the toast of London, when her husband, the Earl of Maybury, was killed in a duel. Even a year of mourning hasn't quieted the rumors of her infidelity. Georgia Maybury is determined to regain her position in the beau monde, but a scarred ex-naval officer threatens her plans...

The Other Countess
The Other Countess

Author: Eve Edwards

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780385740906

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In the court of Queen Elizabeth I in 1582, Eleanor Hutton, an alchemist's daughter, and William Lacy, the financially ruined Earl of Dorset, fall in love just as Will is supposed to be courting a rich and socially acceptable heiress.

The Countess and the King
The Countess and the King

Author: Susan Holloway Scott

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2010-09-07

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1101443162

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Katherine Sedley lived by her own rules and loved who she pleased- until she became the infamous mistress of King James II... London, 1675: Born to wealth and privilege, Katherine is introduced to the decadent court of King Charles II, and quickly becomes a favorite from the palace to the bawdy playhouses. She gleefully snubs respectable marriage to become the Duke of York's mistress. But Katherine's life of carefree pleasure ends when Charles II dies, and her lover becomes King James II. Suddenly she is cast into a tangle of political intrigue, religious dissent, and ever-shifting alliances, where a wrong step can mean treason, exile, or death at the executioner's block. As the risks rise, Katherine is forced to make the most perilous of choices: to remain loyal to the king, or to England.

Courting the Countess
Courting the Countess

Author: Donna Hatch

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press Inc

Published: 2016-10-05

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1509209492

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When charming rake Tristan Barrett sweeps Lady Elizabeth off her feet, stealing both her heart and a kiss in a secluded garden, her brother challenges Tristan to a duel. The only way to save her brother and Tristan from harm—not to mention preserve her reputation—is to get married. But her father, the Duke of Pemberton, refuses to allow his daughter to marry anyone but a titled lord. The duke demands that Elizabeth marry Tristan’s older brother, Richard, the Earl of Averston. Now Elizabeth must give up Tristan to marry a man who despises her, a man who loves another, a man she’ll never love. Richard fears Elizabeth is as untrustworthy as his mother, who ran off with another man. However, to protect his brother from a duel and their family name from further scandal, he agrees to the wedding, certain his new bride will betray him. Yet when Elizabeth turns his house upside down and worms her way into his reluctant heart, Richard suspects he can’t live without his new countess. Will she stay with him or is it too little, too late?

The Duchess Countess
The Duchess Countess

Author: Catherine Ostler

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-04-15

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 1471172570

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'A scintillating story superbly told... [Ostler] packs every paragraph with eye-opening detail' The Times 'A rollicking read... [Ostler] tells Elizabeth's story with admirable style and gusto' Sunday Times 'Terrifically entertaining: if you liked Bridgerton, you’ll love this...and her research is impeccable' Evening Standard 'Fascinating. Magnificent.​ Sensitively told' Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five 'Catherine Ostler’s superb, gripping, decadent biography brings an extraordinary woman and a whole world blazingly to life' Simon Sebag Montefiore When the glamorous Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, Countess of Bristol, went on trial at Westminster Hall for bigamy in April 1776, the story drew more attention in society than the American War of Independence. A clandestine, candlelit wedding to the young heir to an earldom, a second marriage to a Duke, a lust for diamonds and an electrifying appearance at a masquerade ball in a diaphanous dress: no wonder the trial was a sensation. However, Elizabeth refused to submit to public humiliation and retire quietly. Rather than backing gracefully out of the limelight, she embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe, being welcomed by the Pope and Catherine the Great among others. As maid of honour to Augusta, Princess of Wales, Elizabeth led her life in the inner circle of the Hanoverian court and her exploits delighted and scandalised the press and the people. She made headlines, and was a constant feature in penny prints and gossip columns. Writers were intrigued by her. Thackeray drew on Elizabeth as inspiration for his calculating, alluring Becky Sharp. But her behaviour, often depicted as attention-seeking and manipulative, hid a more complex tale – that of Elizabeth’s fight to overcome personal tragedy and loss. Now, in this brilliantly told and evocative biography, Catherine Ostler takes a fresh look at Elizabeth’s story and seeks to understand and reappraise a woman who refused to be defined by society’s expectations of her. A woman who was by turns, brave, loving and generous but also reckless, greedy and insecure; a woman totally unwilling to accept the female status of underdog or to hand over all the power, the glory and the adventures of life to men.

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey

Author: The Countess of Carnarvon

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2011-12-27

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0770435637

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The real-life inspiration and setting for the Emmy Award-winning Downton Abbey, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war. Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart, Lady Cora Crawley, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon's ancestral home. Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman. This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.