Books like 'The Spectacular'
Readers who enjoyed The Spectacular by Fiona Davis also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery psychological historical-fiction literary-fiction
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Whispers by Rosie Goodwin
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSometimes the past really does come back to haunt you...The old manor house has stood empty for years, left to rot since the last master of the Fenton family died. Until Jess Beddows steps inside, and feels she has come home. Against her family's wishes, she buys the house, promising to bring it back to life. Upstairs, in an attic room left untouched for a century or more, she finds a journal... -
![It Happened in Silence by Karla M. Jay]()
It Happened in Silence by Karla M. Jay
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHonorable Mention in the 2022 Eric Hoffer Book Award Historical Fiction Category2021 Benjamin Franklin Silver Award 2021 Finalist Wishing Shelf Book AwardRiveting Southern Fiction by the award-winning author of When We Were Brave. ~Set in a world where women of the KKK betray their neighbors, horrors of unscrupulous foundling homes come to light, and buried mysteries are not all that hidden... -
![The Key by Kathryn Hughes]()
The Key by Kathryn Hughes
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the #1 bestselling author of The Letter Kathryn Hughes comes The Key, an unforgettable story of a heartbreaking secret that will stay with you for ever. 'Riveting' Lesley Pearse on The Letter. 'Gripping' Good Housekeeping on The Secret. 1956 It's Ellen Crosby's first day at work as a student nurse at Ambergate County Lunatic Asylum... -
![Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers]()
Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn all failed relationships there is a point that passes unnoticed at the time, which can later be identified as the beginning of the decline. For Helen it was the weekend that the Hidden Man came to Westbury Park.Croydon, 1964. Helen Hansford is in her thirties and an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital where she has been having a long love affair with a charismatic, married doctor...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction romance fiction historical audiobook mystery female-author -
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![The God of the Woods by Liz Moore]()
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Long Bright River, an immersive, propulsive novel about a missing child whose disappearance sends equal shockwaves through three very different worlds—an opulent Adirondack summer estate, the rustic teen summer camp that operates in its shadow, and the blue-collar community that serves them both...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction mystery fiction historical suspense thriller season-summer -
![The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsGet set for true terror in one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories.We enter the mind of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. The dank prison room is without light and he begins to feel his way around the walls...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction anthologies audiobook classics crime dark fiction -
![Venom by Colin Falconer]()
Venom by Colin Falconer
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom Saigon to Paris, from Bangkok to the Ganges, this thriller is the story of Michel Christian. Abandoned on the streets of Saigon when he is only a child, he grows up with a fatal attraction for women and an insatiable desire for revenge... -
![Honeysuckle Season by Mary Ellen Taylor]()
Honeysuckle Season by Mary Ellen Taylor
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom bestselling author Mary Ellen Taylor comes a story about profound loss, hard truths, and an overgrown greenhouse full of old secrets.Adrift in the wake of her father’s death, a failed marriage, and multiple miscarriages, Libby McKenzie feels truly alone. Though her new life as a wedding photographer provides a semblance of purpose, it’s also a distraction from her profound pain... -
![Past Caring by Robert Goddard, Paul Shelley]()
Past Caring by Robert Goddard, Paul Shelley
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAt a lush villa on the sun-soaked island of Madeira, Martin Radford is given a second chance. His life ruined by scandal, Martin holds in his hands the leather-bound journal of another ruined man, former British cabinet minister Edwin Strafford... -
![Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie]()
Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsReturning from a visit to her daughter in Iraq, Joan Scudamore finds herself unexpectedly alone and stranded in an isolated rest house by flooding of the railway tracks. This sudden solitude compels Joan to assess her life for the first time ever and face up to many of the truths about herself...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book classics crime -
![The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker]()
The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsSarai Walker has done it again. With The Cherry Robbers she upends the Gothic ghost story with a fiery feminist zeal. --Maria SempleThe highly anticipated second novel from Sarai Walker, following her "slyly subversive" (EW) cult-hit Dietland--a feminist gothic about the lone survivor of a cursed family of sisters, whose time may finally be up... -
![The Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer]()
The Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAgnes is on her way to Montpelier, when she sees a young man rescue a girl from a burning building. Agnes falls in love with this man, a local stonecutter, but the hero is also a betrayer, the apex of a triangle that eventually leads Agnes to commit murder... -
![A Season in Purgatory by Dominick Dunne]()
A Season in Purgatory by Dominick Dunne
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThey were the family with everything. Money. Influence. Glamour. Power. The power to halt a police investigation in its tracks. The power to spin a story, concoct a lie, and believe it was the truth. The power to murder without guilt, without shame, and without ever paying the price. America's royalty, they called the Bradleys. But an outsider refuses to play his part... -
![Destroyed & Restored: The Baron's Courageous Wife by Bree Wolf]()
Destroyed & Restored: The Baron's Courageous Wife by Bree Wolf
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA fearful lady. A shamed lord. And a hand at cards that will change both their lives. Terrified of her father’s temper, LADY ADELAIDE has lived a life of complete obedience. However, now, when her father threatens to gamble away her hand in marriage in the next card game, she turns to a trusted friend for help... -
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![The Mansion by William Faulkner]()
The Mansion by William Faulkner
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Mansion completes Faulkner’s great trilogy of the Snopes family in the mythical county of Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi, which also includes The Hamlet and The Town. Beginning with the murder of Jack Houston, and ending with the murder of Flem Snopes, it traces the downfall of this indomitable post-bellum family, who managed to seize control of the town of Jefferson within a generation... -
![The Wedding Tree by Robin Wells]()
The Wedding Tree by Robin Wells
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNational bestselling author Robin Wells weaves a moving epic that stretches from modern-day Louisiana to World War II-era New Orleans and back again in this multigenerational tale of love, loss and redemption. Hope Stevens thinks Wedding Tree, Louisiana, will be the perfect place to sort out her life and all the mistakes she’s made...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book breakup cheating -
![The Hound of the Baskervilles, with "the Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle]()
The Hound of the Baskervilles, with "the Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Hound of the Baskervilles (1901–02) is Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Sherlock Holmes adventure. At the end of the yew tree path of his ancestral home, Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead. Close by are the footprints of a gigantic hound. Called to investigate, Holmes seems to face a supernatural foe...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction classics mystery fiction crime industrial-era victorian -
![The Glass Château by Stephen P. Kiernan]()
The Glass Château by Stephen P. Kiernan
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the critically acclaimed author of Universe of Two and The Baker’s Secret, a novel of hope, healing, and the redemptive power of art, set against the turmoil of post-World War II France and inspired by the life of Marc Chagall.One month after the end of World War II, amid the jubilation in the streets of France, there are throngs of people stunned by the recovery work ahead... -
![The Missing Daughter by Emily Gunnis]()
The Missing Daughter by Emily Gunnis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the author of the runaway bestseller The Girl in the Letter comes a heartwrenching, twisting novel of betrayal, tragedy and a shocking family secret buried for decades.1960. Thirteen-year-old Rebecca lives in fear of her father’s temper. As a storm batters Seaview Cottage one night, she hears a visitor at the door and a violent argument ensues...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book coming-of-age crime drama -
![Mysteries by Knut Hamsun]()
Mysteries by Knut Hamsun
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMysteries (1892) is the story of Johan Nilsen Nagel, a mysterious stranger who suddenly turns up in a small Norwegian town one summer-and just as suddenly disappears. Nagel is a complete outsider, a sort of modern Christ treated in a spirit of near parody...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies classics europe existentialism fiction -
![Lies She Never Told Me by John Ellsworth]()
Lies She Never Told Me by John Ellsworth
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMichael Gresham is the lawyer you’d want to call if you were accused of a crime. Especially if you were guilty... Michael is a successful trial lawyer who’s been placed on medical leave. But he sorely misses the courtroom battles, where he excels. When Michael receives a call from the local jail he comes to life and knows he cannot resist getting involved. For it’s a case of Murder One...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book conspiracies crime fiction -
![The Beast Within by Émile Zola]()
The Beast Within by Émile Zola
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsHis haunting, impressionistic study of a man's slow corruption by jealousy, Emile Zola's The Beast Within (La Bete Humaine) is translated from the French with an introduction and notes by Roger Whitehouse in Penguin Classics.Roubaud is consumed by a jealous rage when he discovers a sordid secret about his young wife's past... -
![The Lobotomist's Wife by Samantha Greene Woodruff]()
The Lobotomist's Wife by Samantha Greene Woodruff
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn enthralling historical novel of a compassionate and relentless woman, a cutting-edge breakthrough in psychiatry, and a nightmare in the making.Since her brother took his life after WWI, Ruth Emeraldine has had one goal: to help those suffering from mental illness. Then she falls in love with charismatic Robert Apter—a brilliant doctor championing a radical new treatment, the lobotomy...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book disability drama -
![The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris]()
The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsNEW YORK TIMES & USA TODAY BESTSELLEROn a cold night in October 1937, searchlights cut through the darkness around Alcatraz. A prison guard’s only daughter—one of the youngest civilians who lives on the island—has gone missing. Tending the warden’s greenhouse, convicted bank robber Tommy Capello waits anxiously...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book coming-of-age crime -
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![The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin]()
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn these four stories, Kate Chopin subtly captures the intricate interior lives of a generation of women. From the famous proto-feminist tale "The Story of an Hour" to the subtly sexy "A Respectable Woman," Chopin sheds light on the frustrations, desires, and dreams of her own era and their reverberations today...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction anthologies audiobook classics death drama family -
![What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown]()
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA teenage girl breaks free from her father's world of isolation in this exhilarating novel of family, identity, and the power we have to shape our own destinies—from the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and Watch Me DisappearThe first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction north-america usa california montana fiction mystery -
![Forest of the Hanged by Liviu Rebreanu]()
Forest of the Hanged by Liviu Rebreanu
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsDuring the First World War, just behind the eastern front, there was a forest, where Austrians and Hungarians used to hang deserters. To this place came Apostol Bologa, a young Romanian officer eager to serve his country. Born in a Romanian region of Transylvania which was then under Hungarian rule, he had naturally enough joined the Austro-Hungarian army...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book classics death -
![Folly by Laurie R. King]()
Folly by Laurie R. King
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn acclaimed master of suspense creates a heroine you will never forget in this superbly chilling novel of a woman who begins a desperate undertaking that may transform her life--or end it.WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR WORST FEARS AREN’T ALL IN YOUR MIND?Rae Newborn is a woman on the edge: on the edge of sanity, on the edge of tragedy, and now on the edge of the world...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult audiobook book crime dark -
![Glittering Images by Susan Howatch]()
Glittering Images by Susan Howatch
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBeneath the smooth surface of an Episcopal palace lurks the salacious breath of scandal...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book christian family female-author -
![The Summer of Katya by Trevanian]()
The Summer of Katya by Trevanian
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn the golden summer of 1914, Jean-Marc Montjean, recently graduated from medical school, comes to the small French village of Salies to assist the village physician. His first assignment is to treat the brother of a beautiful woman named Katya Treville. As he and her family become friendly, he realizes they are haunted by an old, dark secret . . -
![Winter Journey by Diane Armstrong]()
Winter Journey by Diane Armstrong
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHalina Shore is a Polish-born forensic dentist who lives in Australia. When she travels to Poland to take part in the investigation of a war crime, she finds herself at the centre of a bitter struggle in a community that has been divided by a grim legacy... -
![Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver]()
Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis novel is a meticulously detailed account of a celebrated murder trial. It concentrates on defense attorney Paul Biegler from the moment he accepts the case until the verdict is brought in. Biegler's client is accused of murdering a man who his wife claims assaulted her... -
![A Million Drops by Víctor del Árbol]()
A Million Drops by Víctor del Árbol
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn intense literary thriller that tears through the interlocked histories of fascism and communism in Europe without pausing for breath. Gonzalo Gil is a disaffected lawyer stuck in a failed career and a strained marriage, dodging the never-ending manipulation of his powerful father-in-law... -
![Famous Last Words by Timothy Findley]()
Famous Last Words by Timothy Findley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn the final days of the Second World War, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley scrawls his desperate account on the walls and ceilings of his ice-cold prison high in the Austrian Alps. Officers of the liberating army discover his frozen, disfigured corpse and his astonishing testament - the sordid truth that he alone possessed...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult alternate-history book classics fiction -
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![The Pearl Locket by Kathleen McGurl]()
The Pearl Locket by Kathleen McGurl
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWe’ll Meet Again… When Ali inherits her great-aunt’s house she immediately moves her whole family in, despite the warnings that there is something strange about the place. Unfazed Ali begins redecorating, going through the rooms, making each one her own with the help of her daughter, Kelly... -
![Despised & Desired: The Marquess' Passionate Wife by Bree Wolf]()
Despised & Desired: The Marquess' Passionate Wife by Bree Wolf
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLong ago, he kept her secret. Now, she will save his soul. Elsbeth Munford is set to marry the man she loves until an accident destroys her life. Her beauty tainted by ugly scars, Ellie resigns herself to a life of spinsterhood. Frederick Lancaster, brother to the Marquess of Elmridge, returns home from war. A hero in the eyes of others, he is haunted by nightmares...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult angst arranged-marriage audiobook book disability -
![The Wonder Worker by Susan Howatch]()
The Wonder Worker by Susan Howatch
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe inhabitants of a small community are interlinked by the healer at its heart, Nick Darrow. There is Alice, the romantic but also an outcast; Lewis the priest, an irascible traditionalist; Francie, who has a desire to be loved; and Stacy, a young trainee looking for faith and direction... -
![The Forgotten Gift by Kathleen McGurl]()
The Forgotten Gift by Kathleen McGurl
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhat would you do to protect the ones you love?1861. George’s life changes forever the day he meets Lucy. She’s beautiful and charming, and he sees a future with her that his position as the second son in a wealthy family has never offered him. But when Lucy dies in a suspected poisoning days after rejecting George, he finds himself swept up into a murder investigation...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult audiobook book cozy crime -
![Cursed & Cherished: The Duke's Wilful Wife by Bree Wolf]()
Cursed & Cherished: The Duke's Wilful Wife by Bree Wolf
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOne night, she stole his kiss. Now, he is determined to steal it back. Edmond Dunsworth, Duke of Cromwell, is bankrupt. The solution to his problem: a wife with a sizable dowry. Not worried in the least, Edmond takes his pick...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult arranged-marriage audiobook book cozy female-mc -
![Abandoned & Protected: The Marquis' Tenacious Wife by Bree Wolf]()
Abandoned & Protected: The Marquis' Tenacious Wife by Bree Wolf
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHe forced her hand. Now, she will deny him her heart. After what her father did to her mother, Henrietta’s worst fears are to be realised when her uncle decides to marry her off to a Scot. Gentleman or not, Henrietta knows that at his core he is still a barbarian...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult arranged-marriage audiobook book cozy female-mc -
![Dark Voyage by Helen Susan Swift]()
Dark Voyage by Helen Susan Swift
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn alternate cover edition can be found here.It’s 1914, and fear and paranoia rule the high seas.Iain Cosgrove is newly married to Jennifer Manson, daughter of a wealthy Scottish merchant. But Iain must soon leave for a research trip aboard the Lady Balgay, last of Dundee’s once-grand sealing fleet...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book female-author fiction ghosts -
![Leave Her to Heaven by Ben Ames Williams]()
Leave Her to Heaven by Ben Ames Williams
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis classic bestselling novel about a man who encounters a woman whose power to destroy is as strong as her power to love evokes Hemingway in its naturalistic portrayal of elemental forces in both nature and humanity. Ellen’s beauty was radiant, and Harland had been so struck with her personality and the strength of her character that he knew he could never leave her... -
![Deadly Communion by Frank Tallis]()
Deadly Communion by Frank Tallis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDetective Inspector Oskar Reinhardt finds that young women are being slain in an unnerving—and ingenious—manner, with a small, almost undetectable, hat pin. For Dr. Max Liebermann, the killer is unique in the annals of psychopathology, one who murders in the midst of consensual love...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction europe western-central-europe austria urban mystery fiction -
![The Nanny at Number 43 by Nicola Cassidy]()
The Nanny at Number 43 by Nicola Cassidy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBe Careful Who You Let Into Your Home Wanted, a respectable woman to care for a motherless child. When William D. Thomas’s wife dies in childbirth, he places an advertisement in his local newspaper seeking a nanny for his newborn child. He is thankful when an experienced nanny arrives at 43 Laurence Street and takes over from his frazzled housekeeper Mrs McHugh...Categorized as:
historical-fiction fiction mystery psychological crime historical thriller female-author -
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![Orpheus Builds a Girl by Heather Parry]()
Orpheus Builds a Girl by Heather Parry
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBased on a true story, Orpheus Builds a Girl is a novel of sisterly love, sinister obsession, and the battle for control of the story. A dark, chilling debut novel from award-winning writer Heather Parry.German doctor Wilhelm Von Tore shares with the reader the story of his one true ove; a love written in the stars, decades in the making, a love so strong it transcended death itself...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction horror fiction gothic retellings historical dark -
![The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell]()
The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood.Lexie Sinclair is plotting an extraordinary life for herself. Hedged in by her parents' genteel country life, she plans her escape to London...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century adult audiobook book drama -
![The Manticore by Robertson Davies]()
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsAround a mysterious death is woven a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived trilogy of novels. Luring the reader down labyrinthine tunnels of myth, history and magic, The Deptford Trilogy provides an exhilarating antidote to a world from where 'the fear and dread and splendour of wonder have been banished'...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book classics coming-of-age -
![The Mad Wife: A Novel by Meagan Church]()
The Mad Wife: A Novel by Meagan Church
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWith odes of The Bell Jar comes a searing historical suspense following a 1950s housewife who, when a mysterious new wife moves across the way, begins to unearth dark secrets about her neighborhood and her own mind. In the 1950s, nothing is valued more than conformity, and Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the ideal housewife...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction horror mystery historical feminism thriller -
![Watchers of Time by Charles Todd]()
Watchers of Time by Charles Todd
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe year is 1919, and Ian Rutledge is a fragile yet courageous former soldier searching for his place in a postwar world. Now a Scotland Yard investigator, Rutledge is called upon to probe a small-town murder — and discovers that it may be connected to one of the greatest disasters of all time....In Osterley, a marshy Norfolk backwater, a man lies dying on a rainy autumn night... -
![The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope]()
The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLizzie Greystock, a fortune-hunter who ensnares the sickly, dissipated Sir Florian Eustace and is soon left a very wealthy widow and mother. While clever and beautiful, Lizzie has several character flaws; the greatest of these is an almost pathological delight in lying, even when it cannot benefit her...
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