| Author |
Major, Charles, 1856-1913 |
| Title |
The Touchstone of Fortune
Being the Memoir of Baron Clyde, Who Lived, Thrived, and Fell in the Doleful Reign of the So-called Merry Monarch, Charles II
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| Note |
Reading ease score: 77.5 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
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| Credits |
E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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| Summary |
"The Touchstone of Fortune" by Charles Major is a historical novel written during the early 20th century. The story is set against the backdrop of the Restoration period in England under King Charles II, focusing on the lives and loves of the socially prominent. The narrative centers around Baron Clyde and his cousin Frances Jennings, who faces the tumultuous social landscape of the court as she seeks a chance to elevate her family’s fortunes. At the start of the novel, we are introduced to the themes of luck, ambition, and moral complexity through the eyes of Baron Clyde, who reflects on the fortunes of his friend, George Hamilton, and the political machinations of the court. Clyde reveals his cousin Frances's beauty and potential and speaks of his plans to secure her a position as a maid of honor to the Duchess of York. The opening chapter establishes Frances’s precarious situation, growing tensions with her father’s fading fortunes, and her burgeoning, yet unsafe, attraction to George Hamilton, meant to illustrate the dangers that lurk within courtly life during a time of moral ambiguity and personal ambition. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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| Language |
English |
| LoC Class |
PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature
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| Subject |
Great Britain -- History -- Charles II, 1660-1685 -- Fiction
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| Category |
Text |
| EBook-No. |
14242 |
| Release Date |
Dec 3, 2004 |
| Most Recently Updated |
Dec 18, 2020 |
| Copyright Status |
Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads |
68 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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