A Strange World

In the third volume of A Strange World, Mary Braddon deepens a tale of mystery, sorrow, and moral conflict, where hidden identities, inheritance, and love collide under the shadow of loss. Maurice Clissold and Matthew Elgood join forces to trace Justina's true parentage, linking her to the child born at Borcel End and to the testimony of Miss Barlow, while Maurice quietly grows certain that Justina already loves him. Elgood's own comic-tragic history unfolds as he recalls squandering Mrs. Trevanard's trust on a provincial theatre venture, only for hardship, death, and devotion to leave Justina at the center of his family's life. Meanwhile, Muriel's grave illness and incurable delusions cast a darker veil over the story, even as Justina nurses her mother, performs on stage, and wrestles with the Penwyn Manor dispute. Her conscience recoils from taking an estate that would ruin Churchill Penwyn, but Churchill's own despair leads him to surrender the property, bury his wife Madge with heartbreaking dignity, and ride toward the moor in a final, ruinous act of self-destruction. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.