The Lady of the Forest

A Story for Girls

by L. T. Meade

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Pages: 156

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About this book

Rachel's tales of a mysterious lady among the trees fill her younger sister Kitty's imagination at Avonsyde, the Lovel family's old country home. Their aunt Griselda interrupts one story with the news that their cousin Philip will soon arrive. L. T. Meade sets this novel for girls among forest paths, flower gardens and an ancient house whose long family history is troubled by lost wealth and questions of inheritance.

The family tensions have a cost for the children. In the middle excerpt, their mother recalls supporting her daughters through work as a milliner, then facing illness and poverty. Her agreement with the ladies of Avonsyde brings the girls care and education under painful conditions. Fairy storytelling and the demands of family duty sit close together here, giving readers a children's story in which affection, pride and money shape the choices adults make.

Childrens Classics

About the author

L. T. Meade

L. T. Meade was the pen name of Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith (died 1914), a prolific Anglo-Irish author of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Best known in her own day for girls' school stories, she was also a pioneer of popular mystery and detective fiction, devising early female sleuths and criminal masterminds such as Madame Sara.