Mixed feelings about this book - the author seemed to want this book to be many things, but seemed to shy away from many of the different genres/topics. Implication of awakening sexuality within marriage, including the reference to lewd publications - check. No real exploration of physical love (apart from a moderately implied gay sex scene early on) - check. Attempt at Jane Austen level humour, including pompous clergymen fawning to the rich and famous - check.[return][return]This is not to say this is a *bad* book - at it's heart it did have some good points: The fact that everything at the time was male dominated and women and children were still classed as the property of men, and women had no rights over the "ownership" of their children - if they walked out on the marriage for any reason, the man would retain "ownership" of the children no matter what the circumstances; political marriages were still necessary to ensure that the line and/or money continued no matter what, and that women were essentially the pawns of men............

This ended better than I thought it would - I spent most of the book feeling slightly disappointed, but I did like the ending. Not quite so fairy tale as I was expecting. A keeper on my shelf anyhow. ( )