Marrying The Mistress
an irresistible and gripping romantic drama from one of Britain’s best loved authors, Joanna Trolloper
-
-
3.0 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
From the pen of multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope comes this wonderfully moving and thought - provoking novel, pitting matters of the heart and head against each other. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse.
'Particularly rich and satisfying' -- Mail on Sunday
'Clever, clever, clever... probes right to the heart of a typically modern dilemma' -- Daily Mail
'Brilliant' -- Spectator
'A...riveting read' -- The Times
'Absorbing. Loved it' -- ***** Reader review
'Such an enjoyable read. Another Trollope masterpiece' -- ***** Reader review
'I loved this book, it was difficult to put down' -- ***** Reader review
**************************************************************************************
Merrion Palmer has been Judge Guy Stockdale's mistress for the last seven years and his wife and two grown-up sons know absolutely nothing about her. Up until now, Guy and Merrion have enjoyed a blissfully, uncomplicated relationship in stolen moments in Merrion's flat, and to the rest of the world, Guy has played the part of model husband, father and grandfather.
But now the time has come for things to change. Guy has become conscious of wasted years and he wants to share his relationship with Merrion with the world.
He wants, dammit, to marry her. Yet he is quite unprepared for the storm that will follow ...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her latest tale, about a May-December romance and its effects on the individuals and families involved, Trollope again displays her extraordinary gift for representing the intricacies of familial relationships and the vicissitudes of domestic life. British Judge Guy Stockdale, of the Stanborough Crown Court, is just over 60, and feels it is time to tell his wife, Laura, that for the last seven years of their 40-year marriage he has been deeply in love and having an affair with much younger Merrion Palmer. Merrion, a barrister, is only 31Dyounger than Guy's two sons, Simon (a 38-year-old father of three adolescent children) and Alan (a 35-year-old homosexual), and she forthrightly admits that Guy may be her father figure. Laura does not take the news well, despite the unhappiness that pervades her marriage. She obstinately refuses to talk or negotiate with Guy; characteristically, she clings to her favorite son, Simon, who's a lawyer, and forces him to represent her against his father. Laura's manipulation of Simon puts a tremendous strain on his marriage; his wife, Carrie, already resents Laura as a "self-absorbed, self-pitying woman" who uses her son as "a bloody substitute husband." Meanwhile, Simon and his family and Alan get to know and like Guy's mistress, an acceptance that Merrion ultimately finds intimidating, since she fears her identity will be subsumed in Guy's family. And Guy, dreading "the inevitable infliction of pain," struggles with guilty deliberations on Merrion's future with an aging husband. None of the themes hereDbetrayal and anger, the lovers' age difference, the grasping mother, the daughter-in-law's resentmentDare terribly unusual, but Trollope's proven ability to present them intelligently, as moral and emotional tangles faced by thinking, interesting people, satisfyingly combines the universally recognizable and the intellectually engaging. This novel should easily vault onto the bestseller lists. 12-city author tour; Penguin audio.
