A Love Story

About the book

Sir Henry Delmé has devoted his youth to restoring the estate and reputation inherited from his generous but indebted father. His success supports his younger brother George, an officer stationed at Malta, and their sister Emily, whose engagement appears to promise an equally harmonious future. Yet the discipline that saved the family has hardened into a determination to enlarge its standing. Personal attachment threatens to complicate that carefully ordered ambition. Published under the name A Bushman, the story combines a sentimental family narrative with the perspective of a writer reflecting on distance from home. Its opening patiently establishes the virtues of loyalty and stewardship before asking what happens when those virtues become a rule that other people's hearts are expected to obey.

• Family pride
• Duty and affection
• Distance and belonging

Why read it

Sir Henry's ambition begins in admirable self-sacrifice, making its potential cost more interesting than simple aristocratic vanity.

English text bearing the pseudonym A Bushman and the date 1841