Where the River Bends

"Where the River Bends" has a universality that would suit any place and any time, but the particular setting for this tale is the English midlands between the years 1814 and 1835--from the end of the Napoleonic era to just before the Victorian. It is the story of a marriage and paints an intimate picture of family life and relationships. The protagonist Emily Burton is twenty years old when she marries James Henry, a prominent landowner, and goes with him to his estate in Hempsteadshire. She goes as a bright but naive country girl who in womanhood shows a capacity for compassion and tolerance that is the truest measure of love.