The Abbess: A Romance (Classic Reprint) [Paperback]

Frances Milton Trollope (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2010

THE ABBESS. CHAPTER XIX. Quand nous avons le cceur sain, nous tirons parti de tout, et tout se tourne en plaisirs. J. J. Rousseau. The Abbess and her train had scarcely left the convent of St. Andrea, when Isidore shut himself into his study, and wrote the following-letter. " From Isidore Bartone to Dominic di Pino. " Within an hour after your departure she arrived. You profess to feel yourself under obligations to me, di Pino, and have ever shown a strong desire to acquit yourself of them.-Be satisfied-you have over-paid them a thousand times.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org

Product Details

• Paperback: 338 pages
• Publisher: Forgotten Books (March 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440053731
• ISBN-13: 978-1440053733
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,791,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Volume 2 of a gothic thriller, December 27, 2009

By 

Patto (Vermont) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Abbess: A Romance (Classic Reprint) (Paperback)

Fanny Trollope was one of the most popular writers of the nineteenth century. She wrote travel books, murder mysteries, romances, satires and novels that attacked social injustices - and was a literary celebrity in her time.

The Abbess, an early work, is a novel in three volumes, and you can get all three on Amazon, published by Forgotten Books, at a reasonable price for historic reprints. Note that this is Volume 2.

In The Abbess, Fanny Trollope tried her hand at the Gothic romance. The setting is sixteenth-century Italy. Catholics and Protestants were bitter enemies, and their mutual hatred is central to the plot of The Abbess.

The troubles of the noble d'Albano family begin when the sixth Count d'Albano marries a Protestant Englishwoman. He atones for marrying a "heretic" by making his beautiful daughter Geraldine a nun. She eventually becomes Abbess of a rich nunnery, and an advisor herself to cardinals.

The seventh Count d'Albano also decides to make a nun of his daughter, in this case to save money. But sixteen-year-old Juliet loathes the idea of a convent. Her saintly aunt, the Abbess, is invited to the castle to put pressure on Juliet, and this is the beginning of a charming friendship between the two. Amazingly, the Abbess is secretly quite a maverick and takes Juliet's side.

Most Gothic heroines faint a lot. But Juliet d'Albano is as feisty, resourceful and courageous as a heroine in a twenty-first-century action movie.

She pledges her love to a handsome young man without knowing his name. She saves lives, stands up to the Inquisition, survives a shipwreck - and the reader accepts, and delights in, these adventures because Fanny Trollope has peopled her gothic novel with totally engaging characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Abbess, but also recommend novels that are more typical of her work, like The Widow Barnaby, The Three Cousins, Hargrave, The Vicar of Wrexhill and Jessie Phillips.