Lady Rose’s Daughter

Mrs. Humphry Ward loosely modeled this 1903 novel on the life of the eighteenth-century salon hostess Julie de Lespinasse, transplanting the story into Edwardian London society. Julie Le Breton, brilliant and quietly ambitious, serves as companion to the elderly Lady Henry, whose famous drawing room really runs on Julie’s charm and wit. As guests begin to prefer the companion to her mistress, jealousy hardens into open conflict, and Julie’s uncertain birth and hidden feelings pull her toward a hard choice between security and love. Ward writes with a sharp eye for the cruelties of rank and reputation. One of the best-selling books in America the year it appeared, it remains a shrewd study of a clever woman boxed in by her circumstances. Free to download in PDF and EPUB.