OUIDA [Marie Louise de la Ramée]
Chandos
"Few in town that night looked up at the shooting star as it flashed its fiery passage above the dull, leaden, noxious, gas-lit streets."
Originally published in 3 volumes in 1866.
According to Sutherland, “written with verve”. “One of Ouida’s hyper-romantic melodramas. Ernest Chandos is a young, gilded aristocrat devoted entirely to hedonistic pleasure, but withal the soul of honour and chivalry. Although he does not know it, his trusted agent, John Trevenna, is a [illegitimate] half-brother who has dedicated his life to bringing the envied Chandos down. On the eve of the hero’s wedding to ‘The Queen of Lilies’ (a lady who promptly deserts him), Trevenna achieves the hero’s total ruin. Chandos throws himself into dissipation on the Continent and is saved from death by a musician whom he earlier patronised, Guido Lulli. His estate, Clarencieux, has meanwhile been bought at auction by a noble friend, the Duc d’Orvale. When the Duke is assassinated in Venice, Chandos reinherits. The moneylender whom Trevenna used to ruin Chandos confesses on his deathbed. The half-brothers confront each other in the House of Commons (where Trevenna is now a rising politician) and Chandos finally crushes his foe by forgiving him.” (Sutherland, p.113)
Covers rather scuffed and slightly darkened, internally in very good order.
