Prisoners of Hope

Prisoners of Hope is the 1898 first novel by Mary Johnston (1870-1936), the Virginia writer who became one of the most popular American historical novelists of her generation. Set in colonial Virginia in the 1660s, the novel centres on Godfrey Landless, a transported Cromwellian rebel serving in bondage on a tidewater plantation, his forbidden love for his master’s daughter Patricia, and a slave and servant conspiracy that breaks into violence, carrying the lovers into the wilderness. Johnston established in this first book the colonial Virginia canvas, the class-crossed romance, and the adventure plotting that To Have and To Hold would carry to record-breaking success two years later. The novel launched a career that made Johnston a household name. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.