Frances Vernon: 8 books

A Desirable Husband, first published in 1987, was the third novel by the prodigiously gifted Frances Vernon (1963-91). Finola Molloy - first introduced to readers as the daughter of the bohemian Alice in Vernon's acclaimed debutPrivileged Children (1982) - has grown up and married Gerard Parnell,...

Gentleman and Players (1984) was the second novel by the prodigiously gifted Frances Vernon (1963-1991), and served confirmation of what the TLS called her 'highly original talent.' Three sisters make their purposeful ways through Victorian society. Sarah, the eldest, makes an ostensibly good marriage,...

The Bohemian Girl (1988), Frances Vernon's fourth novel, transports us to 1890s London to meet the young Diana Blentham, whom Vernon first introduced to readers - as a celebrated grande horizontale - in the opening pages of her 1982 debut Privileged Children. Diana fears that the lot of an...

Privileged Children, first published in 1982, was the brilliant debut fiction by the prodigiously gifted Frances Vernon (1963-1991), which earned her the Author's Club Award for Best First Novel. When Diana Molloy dies in 1912 she leaves a curious inheritance to her 14-year-old daughter Alice - her...

The Fall of Doctor Onslow (1994) was the sixth and final novel by Frances Vernon (1963-91). Published posthumously, it is perhaps her finest work. Set in 1858, it is the story of Dr George Onslow, reformist headmaster of a leading public school, who harbours private passions that are fated to be the...

The Marquis of Westmarch (1989) was Frances Vernon's fifth novel, and perhaps her most original and richly imagined work, fit to stand comparison with Théophile Gautier's famous gender-bending historical romance Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835). Its protagonist is Meriel Longmaster, a handsome...

This holiday, we are offering to you our own Christmas box - filled up to the top with the best Christmas novels, classics to read during holidays, magical Christmas tales, legends, most famous carols and the unique poetry of the giants of literature dedicated to this one and only holiday: The Gift...

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