Lady Barbarity

Lady Barbarity is a dazzling comic romance of wit, vanity, and rebellion in mid-eighteenth-century society. Returning to her cold ancestral home at High Cleeby after tiring of London's empty pleasures, she introduces herself with shameless self-awareness, sharp humor, and a restless desire for the rare "Man" worthy of her notice. Her banter with her aging, irreverent father, the Earl, blends affection, mortality, and marriage politics as he turns pious and determined to secure her future, while Barbara insists on passion and intelligence over rank or convenience. When Captain Grantley arrives on official business, the flirtation turns political, then personal, as Barbara's teasing masks a growing attraction. A captured rebel soon disrupts the game, and Barbara's curiosity leads her to a nighttime encounter that transforms her from amused skeptic to ardent sympathizer. The prisoner, Anthony Dare, is no monster but a young, beautiful, brave man whose refusal to betray his comrades and whose humble birth only deepen her fascination. Around them, Prudence Canticle's scandalous gossip, elaborate dress, and theatrical courtship schemes sharpen the novel's satire of fashion, reputation, and feminine performance. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.