The Caxtons

This sweeping tale begins in the Australian frontier, where hard-won prosperity, bush freedom, and colonial hardship are weighed against one another with unsentimental wisdom. The narrator's farewell to the colonies becomes both a personal reckoning and a practical warning: success there can be real, but it depends as much on temperament, adaptability, luck, and sound judgment as on money, while land policy and labor conditions shape every settler's fate. From that rough world, he returns to London feeling like a giant among its fragile, polished inhabitants, only to discover that society's glitter has little power over him. Instead, the story turns toward memory and homecoming: a secret return to an old estate at sunset, a trembling first glimpse of Blanche in the twilight, and then the overwhelming joy of reunion with parents, Roland, and the family he feared time had changed beyond recognition. In the quiet days that follow, domestic affection, renewal, and inheritance take center stage, even as the narrator's reading, health, and future plans settle into calmer rhythms. Yet the past is not finished with him. The arrival of Lord Ulverstone, formerly Trevanion, and the renewed presence of Lady Castleton draw him back into social life, where old love is tested against mature understanding. What emerges is a story of exile and return, colonial ambition and domestic peace, lost romance and hard-earned reconciliation. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.