Doctor Cupid: A Novel

About the book

Peggy and Prue Lambton begin by making a comic account of what the neighboring Big House gives them and what it expects in return. Invitations bring excitement, but also unpaid social labor, envy, and dependence on people accustomed to having their wishes accommodated. Peggy watches Prue's delight in Freddy Ducane with an uneasiness the younger sister does not share. Her own encounters with John Talbot begin under the influence of a strong unfavorable opinion, which conversation gradually makes more difficult to preserve unchanged. Broughton lets dinners, small favors, and barbed exchanges expose the asymmetry beneath country-house sociability. The romantic entanglements grow from these ordinary interactions, asking how reliably people can judge another person's conduct while protecting those they love and defending their own pride.

• Social dependence
• Sisterly protection
• Prejudice and attraction

Why read it

The sisters' opening ledger of favors gives a witty, precise introduction to the unequal relationship between the two houses.

English text of the 1891 Richard Bentley and Son new edition