The Manor House Governess
A Novel
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
With a genderfluid protagonist and 21st-century twist, this spirited debut pays homage to the British classics while joyfully centering an LGBTQ+ point of view, perfect for fans of Emily M. Danforth.
This charming, immersive read “reminds all queer people, now more than ever, we deserve to take up space and matter” (Kosoko Jackson).
Orphaned young and raised with chilly indifference at an all-boys boarding school, Brontë Ellis has grown up stifled by rigid rules and social “norms,” forbidden from expressing his gender identity. His beloved novels and period films lend an escape, until a position as a live-in tutor provides him with a chance to leave St. Mary’s behind.
Greenwood Manor is the kind of elegant country house Bron has only read about, and amid lavish parties and cricket matches, the Edwards family welcomes him into the household with true warmth. Mr. Edwards and the young Ada, Bron’s pupil, accept without question that Bron’s gender presentation is not traditionally masculine. Only Darcy, the eldest son, seems uncomfortable with Bron—the two of them couldn’t be more opposite.
When a tragic fire blazes through the estate’s idyllic peace, Bron begins to sense dark secrets smoldering beneath Greenwood Manor’s surface. Channeling the heroines of his cherished paperbacks, he begins to sift through the wreckage. Soon, he’s not sure what to believe, especially with his increasing attraction to Darcy clouding his vision.
Drawing energy and inspiration from Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, E.M. Forster, and more while bowing to popular fiction such as Plain Bad Heroines, The Manor House Governess is destined to become a modern classic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Castle's atmospheric if undercooked debut is a modern retelling of Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice with a sprinkle of Agatha Christie. Brontë "Bron" Ellis, 22, takes a governess job at Greenwood Manor in Cambridgeshire. An orphan, he was raised at an all-boys boarding school where his androgynous appearance made him a target for his peers' taunts ("it was his femininity they reviled—that is, when they weren't trying to court or coerce him into playing the girl's part in their nighttime rendezvous, because they always called him pretty in the dark"). The Edwards family welcomes him with warmth and gives him the home he'd always longed for. Bron comes to love his pupil, Ada, as a sister and is drawn to her 29-year-old brother, Darcy, whose aloof personality is similar to his literary namesake. A fire in the family's library, a mystery surrounding the identity of Ada's biological parents, and an intriguing backstory involving Darcy's romance with a university colleague make Bron feel like he's inhabiting one of the Victorian tales he loves. Though the romance feels rushed and the discussions about gender between the protagonist and Darcy lack nuance, the prose richly conveys Bron's obsession with the 19th century. This will appeal to dark academia fans.
