The Glass Virgin: A Novel [Hardcover]

Catherine Cookson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2004

Annabella Lagrange was the only child of a wealthy family, owners of a glass-works in the North-East of England.  When Annabella was seven, she thought the world a delightful place to live in, and only occasionally wondered why her parents never took her beyond the gates of their magnificent country estate.  When she was ten she decided that the seclusion didn't really matter because when she grew up she would marry her handsome cousin Stephen and never be lonely again.

But when she was eighteen, Annabella learned the circumstances of her birth--and her entire world crashed around her...

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What differentiates a true lady from a common woman? Is it blood, environment, education or simply hauteur? The late, prolific Cookson deftly explores these questions in this dizzying upstairs-downstairs "romance of adversity" set in rural Edwardian England. Annabella Lagrange is a lovely 17-year-old lady-to-be... or not to be, whose aristocratic childhood comes to a crashing halt when her womanizing papa, who has just bankrupted his wife Rosina's glass factory, reveals that Annabella is actually the daughter of a local whorehouse madam. Manuel Mendoza, a predictably dark and handsome self-made workman, helps Annabella begin a new, humble life as a farmhouse maid with an invented past. Cookson liberally heaps mental anguish and cruel twists of fate upon her heroine as Annabella tentatively navigates "life as lived by the majority of people." Over the course of a trying year, Annabella keeps her ladylike dignity—and virginity—as she entangles herself in the bonds of love. Is it truly possible for "the upper class to come down and the working class to come up and meet in the middle" in the realms of love and business? Despite some heavy-handed foreshadowing and spell-breaking asides about the social limitations of the Edwardian era, Cookson proves herself a seasoned storyteller, whose plentiful list of titles keeps historical women's fiction fans in the hardcover aisle years after the author's death.
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From Booklist

Sheltered beyond the normal dictates of the gentry, Annabella Lagrange does not find it unusual that her mother and father live at opposite ends of the estate, but when she turns 17, she learns they aren't her biological parents. Annabella is the daughter of a harlot. Having no claim to the upper class for which she has been raised, and unable to deal with the truth, she runs away. When the groom who taught a nervous Annabella to ride and who has been a confidant throughout her childhood, Manuel Mendoza, finds her, Annabella begs him to take her with him. So begins her journey in the real world, where people go hungry and work backbreaking hours. She unlearns everything she has been taught about the lower classes. She and Manuel get married, but once again fate intervenes. Readers will enjoy Cookson's lavish period detail and rich characterization, and how each twist in the plot becomes another step in the growth of a young girl into a woman. Maria Hatton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743261267
• ISBN-13: 978-0743261265
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,068,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, the illegitimate daughter of a poverty-stricken woman, Kate, whom she believed to be her older sister. She began work in service but eventually moved south to Hastings, where she met and married Tom Cookson, a local grammar-school master.

Although she was originally acclaimed as a regional writer - her novel The Round Tower won the Winifred Holtby Award for the best regional novel of 1968 - her readership quickly spread throughout the world, and her many best-selling novels established her as one of the most popular of contemporary women novelists.

After receiving an OBE in 1985, Catherine Cookson was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1993. She was appointed an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, in 1997.

For many years she lived near Newcastle upon Tyne. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday, in June 1998.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars vintage Catherine Cookson Edwardian tale, November 13, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Glass Virgin: A Novel (Hardcover)

Annabella Lagrange has grown up as an overly protected aristocrat. She was never allowed to go outside the gates of her home Redford Hall though once she saw rioting children assault the grounds. She learned when she was younger that her parents were estranged as her father was a womanizer who lived in a different house. Her mother was a pious individual who showered religion on Annabella as if she must save her daughter's soul from the devil or her philandering husband, but never displayed one iota of affection or love towards her child.

Now seventeen, Annabella's gilded cage collapses when her father finally bankrupts her mother's Rosina's glass factory. Her personal life implodes too as Annabella finds out that Rosina is not her mother; that her biological mom is a local madam that her father impregnated. Annabella begins her new life far from wealth as a farmhouse maid with only handsome Manuel Mendoza willing to help her adjust.

This Edwardian tale is vintage Catherine Cookson at her best as the deceased author places her heroine in an extreme makeover in which the probability is that she will not survive. The bottom seems endless as one nasty revelation after another sends a formerly pampered Annabella into the working world. As she slowly adapts she falls in love, but her social upbringing remains part of her personal frame of reference so can she truly find happiness with a working class stiff? Though some readers will detest the myriad of sidebars that describe social conditions in Edwardian England, Ms. Cookson continues to be the best chef for cross-class historical tales of that era even several years after her death.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finished Right Away, January 8, 2011

By 

alsgal2926 "alsgal2926" (Pennsylvania USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Glass Virgin (Kindle Edition)

I finished it within about 3 days, and i was so not disappointed. More complex than some of her other stories I read you again find a strong woman who matures as she learns to love those worth loving and to cast of those who hinder her development, and the story had many unexpected twists that just made it all the more exciting.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, September 1, 2010

By 

Joanne Sellner (Savage, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Glass Virgin: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is the 31st book I have read by Catherine Cookson. I really loved this book as I did almost 95% of her other books. I had no idea how the story would end and was a little fearful because of the word "virgin" in the title. I won't say how it ended because that would be a spoiler. I liked the book all the way through and am always amazed at what an excellent story teller this author was.