The Maltese Angel

Fülszöveg

Ward Gibson's heart and mind were in turmoil as he rode home from Newcastle, across the Tyne, to the prosperous Durham farm he had but lately inherited from his father. In terms of property he was already his own assured man, and still only in his twenties. But what about marriage? He knew what was expected of him by the village folk and especially by the Mason family, whose daughter Daisy he had known all his life. But now, in a single week, his world had been turned upside down by a dancer, an ethereal being in his eyes, who seemed to float across the stage of the Empire Music Hall, where she was appearing under the professional name of The Maltese Angel. Night after night he had been to see her, and each time only served to establish his conviction that this was no passing infatuation,. but the birth of a devotion that would endure as long as life itself.
Happily for Ward, luck and chance allowed him to meet Stephanie McQueen, as was her name, although from the start she asked... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Ward Gibson's heart and mind were in turmoil as he rode home from Newcastle, across the Tyne, to the prosperous Durham farm he had but lately inherited from his father. In terms of property he was already his own assured man, and still only in his twenties. But what about marriage? He knew what was expected of him by the village folk and especially by the Mason family, whose daughter Daisy he had known all his life. But now, in a single week, his world had been turned upside down by a dancer, an ethereal being in his eyes, who seemed to float across the stage of the Empire Music Hall, where she was appearing under the professional name of The Maltese Angel. Night after night he had been to see her, and each time only served to establish his conviction that this was no passing infatuation,. but the birth of a devotion that would endure as long as life itself.
Happily for Ward, luck and chance allowed him to meet Stephanie McQueen, as was her name, although from the start she asked him to call her Fanny. Even more wonderfully, the attraction was mutual, and a courtship of only a few weeks found them husband and wife. But already a scorpion had emerged from beneath the stone of the local community. To many there, Ward had betrayed their expectations, and had led on and now cruelly deserted Daisy. There followed a series of reprisals, one of them tragic enough for Ward to cause him to take a terrible revenge on the perpetrators. The legacy of these events
(Continued on back flap)
(Continued from front flap)
was to be a bitter one, at times erupting into terrifying violence, a legacy that would twist and turn the course of many lives through their own and succeeding generations.
Catherine Cookson is at her towering best in this immensely powerful and enthralling novel which spans more than three decades, from the 1880s through to the First World War and beyond, as it tells the story of Ward Gibson, of his family and of those whose destiny is influenced by his marriage to Stephanie McQueen. Rich in characterisation and reflecting the wider consequences of a turbulent historical era's effect on the aspirations, fears and follies of individuals, it reaffirms yet again the author's standing as the best-loved and most widely read of today's storytellers.
Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock and her birthplace provides the background she recreates so vividly in many of her novels. At the age of forty she began writing with great success about the lives of the working class in the North-East, including her intriguing autobiography, Our Kate. Her readership has now spread throughout the world, and her many bestselling novels have established her as one of the best-loved of contemporary novelists. Vissza