The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith

A gondola draws up at the steps of a faded Venetian palazzo, and the servants hurry to light a fire in a room already flooded with sun. Then Agnes enters and asks the doctors, “What do you say about him?”

In 1895, Arthur Wing Pinero set this drama in Venice, where English visitors, family ties and old conventions gather around an unconventional household. Agnes Ebbsmith lives with Lucas, a politician who has left his former life behind for her; now illness, watchful relatives and the opinions of respectable guests threaten to test the principles they mean to champion together. Even a woman who seems placid can make a room uneasy—and the truth about this household is not what every visitor suspects. Can Agnes and Lucas hold fast when the world begins arranging their future for them?

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