The Duke's Daughter (Angela Thirkell Barsetshire Series) [Paperback]

Angela Thirkell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Angela Thirkell Barsetshire Series | Publication Date: January 1, 1995

In THE DUKE'S DAUGHTER, ordinary country pleasures provide the happenstance for the hopes and hesitations of young love. Family names familiar from earlier installments of Barsetshire series- Marling and Adams, Winter and Waring, Belton and Dale- populate the pages of this engaging novel, as enamored men and women find their way into each other's hearts, culminating in one day in which three engagements are announced! To the traditional concerns of the gentry is added a fierce displeasure with intrusions of the post-war government (the office of "Red Tape and Sealing Wax"), yet this new-found preoccupation does nothing to deter the onset of a happy ending for all concerned.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following the events of Thirkell's County Chronicle, which saw the good folk of Barsetshire cheering the marriage of Lucy Marling and ironmaster Sam Adams, life proceeds apace in The Duke's Daughter. Lucy, deliriously happy at the birth of her "divine" Amabel Rose, remains troubled by one small blot on an otherwise clear horizon: her beloved brother Oliver has yet to find a bride. Then Lady Cora Palliser, the lovely daughter of the Duke of Omnium, arrives, enchanting virtually all of the local swains. Complications and a few misunderstandings ensue before a quartet of engagements is happily announced. Once again, Thirkell fills her pages with an assortment of parlormaids, butlers, crusty lords, formidable dowagers and all manner of local gentry. Fans will cheer this overdue republication of her charming addition to Anthony Trollope's Palliser series. (May) FYI: Moyer Bell is reprinting The Duke's Daughter simultaneously with County Chronicle.

Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Published in 1949, 1950, and 1951, respectively, these continue the author's ongoing chronicle of the fictional English county of Barsetshire. The three here follow the romance of Lucy Marling and Sam Adams as they court and eventually marry.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 357 pages
• Publisher: Moyer Bell and its subsidiaries (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559212144
• ISBN-13: 978-1559212144
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #575,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars English country life at the hands of a master, June 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Duke's Daughter (Angela Thirkell Barsetshire Series) (Paperback)

A tongue in cheek, close-up look at the manners and mores of country life in England in the '30s. A modern-day Jane Austin, nothing much happens in any of her books, other than a marriage or christening. Sly, humourous and wittily observed - a perfect intro to the world of Barsetshire.

3.0 out of 5 stars Not one of her best, April 14, 2010

By 

Cleopatrai - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Duke's daughter (Mass Market Paperback)

Angela Thirkell's later books are on the whole not tightly plotted or written, and much then depends on how attractive the main characters are. She tends to fall in love with certain characters and to take against others for no particular reason.
"The Duke's Daughter" is ostensibly about Lady Glencora Palliser (yes, for all Trollope fans, a descendent of Lady Glencora Palliser (nee McCluskey) another heroine who failed to enchant me, and her courtship by Sir Cecil Waring. It also includes the further adventures of Tom Grantly who has failed to adjust to post-war England, the taming of Clarissa Graham by Charles Belton, and finally, as a throw-in the abbreviated whirlwind romance of Oliver Marling and Lady Maria Lufton all accomplished in about two chapters from meeting to engagement!
These stories all actually could have been novels of their own - the themes are interesting. Lady Cora is herself hurt by World War II, she lost both her younger brother and someone she could have married, and at 30 plus has failed to find anyone else. Tom Grantly could have been a highly interesting study of the problems of readjustment for a young man after the war, but it is unfortunately taken up with Ms Thirkell's contempt for the new Britain and Grantly becomes a rather boring fence-sitter. Charles Belton was always truly annoying and Clarissa is a total Narcissist but somehow the author fails to see this and devotes far too much time to the unattractive couple. And how Clarissa ever got a scholarship to Girton College Cambridge is quite beyond me - after all standards were still high then!
The only amusing couple Oliver Marling and Lady Maria get short shrift. Lady Maria is the (English) cocker spaniel breeder, very competent, efficient and self-sufficient who meets the ever whiney Oliver who is still mourning his lost love, Jessica Dean (who would have been totally unsuitable as his wife!) There are comic elements and both of them have quirky characters. And I would have liked to have read much more about the dogs!