The Heiress
Book Feature - The Heiress by Molly Greeley
HBL Note: The Heiress by Molly Greeley is being touted as one of 2021’s most anticipated historical novels…and it came out in the very first week of the year. 2021 is already off to a promising start. Molly Greeley’s debut novel, The Clergyman’s Wife, was one of the best things to come out of 2020. The Heiress is based on Pride and Prejudice and reimagines the life of Anne de Bourgh. Scroll down to read more.
Book Feature - The Heiress by Molly Greeley
Book Feature - The Heiress by Molly Greeley
From the publisher:
As a fussy baby, Anne de Bourgh’s doctor prescribed laudanum to quiet her, and now the young woman must take the opium-heavy tincture every day. Growing up sheltered and confined, removed from sunshine and fresh air, the pale and overly slender Anne grew up with few companions except her cousins, including Fitzwilliam Darcy. Throughout their childhoods, it was understood that Darcy and Anne would marry and combine their vast estates of Pemberley and Rosings. But Darcy does not love Anne or want her.
After her father dies unexpectedly, leaving her his vast fortune, Anne has a moment of clarity: what if her life of fragility and illness isn’t truly real? What if she could free herself from the medicine that clouds her sharp mind and leaves her body weak and lethargic? Might there be a better life without the medicine she has been told she cannot live without?
In a frenzy of desperation, Anne discards her laudanum and flees to the London home of her cousin, Colonel John Fitzwilliam, who helps her through her painful recovery. Yet once she returns to health, new challenges await. Shy and utterly inexperienced, the wealthy heiress must forge a new identity for herself, learning to navigate a “season” in society and the complexities of love and passion. The once wan, passive Anne gives way to a braver woman with a keen edge—leading to a powerful reckoning with the domineering mother determined to control Anne’s fortune . . . and her life.
An extraordinary tale of one woman’s liberation, The Heiress reveals both the darkness and light in Austen’s world, with wit, sensuality, and a deeply compassionate understanding of the human heart.
Book Feature - The Heiress by Molly Greeley
