Emily Hudson
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
At the outbreak of the Civil War, nineteen-year-old Emily Hudson is dispatched into the care of her distant and cold uncle, to spend the summer at his beach house in Newport. She is an orphan, the sole member of her family not claimed by consumption. Her spirit and vibrancy are at odds with this wealthy yet forbidding family, and also with the stilted climate of American society. It is Emily’s cousin William, himself an outsider, who is her saviour. His friendship offers her the chance to escape to London to pursue her artistic dreams. But his patronage soon turns darker and more controlling, just as Emily begins to notice her own health faltering.
Vivid, poignant and dramatically told in beautiful, tender prose, Emily Hudson is a brilliantly readable novel that will appeal to anybody who has ever sought to be true to themselves—but also to find love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sinister events conspire to defeat spirited 19-year-old Emily Hudson in Jones's (Cold in Earth) successful historical. Orphaned and kicked out of boarding school in Rochester, N.Y., for dubious behavior, Emily is sent to her joyless uncle and his equally somber family; only the solicitous attentions of her cousin William, an aspiring novelist, salvage her spirit. While the Civil War rages, Emily hopes for a marriage to wealthy Capt. James Lindsay, but must settle for William's offer to take her to London, where he plans to become a man of letters. The intricacies of navigating English social mores leave the carefree Emily at a loss. Her American ways attract the attention of the charismatic but married Lord Firle, whose reputation is likely to ruin Emily's and William's standing in society. Forbidden to see Lord Firle, Emily withers under William's increasing disapproval and soon becomes seriously ill with consumption. Emily's interactions with William are creepy fun as they toe the line between familial and incestuous affection. Jones skillfully moves her heroine from freewheeling and childlike to cautious and deceptive and back again, and when the happy ending comes, it feels organic and hard-won.
