Kate Westwood
Description
Margaret Dashwood, the youngest sister of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, has grown up in the shadows of her two siblings, and is thought by her family,
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when we first observe her in Sense and Sensibility at the tender age of thirteen, to be ‘a good humoured well-disposed girl; but as she had imbibed a good deal of Marianne’s romance, without having much of her sense, she did not, at thirteen, bid fair to equal her sisters at a more advanced period of life.’
But Margaret has been much underestimated by her family. She has blossomed into young woman of greater worth than she had been given credit for, although outside her immediate family she is admired mostly for her beauty. Naïve and innocent, she has an untouched country freshness that is pleasing to her family and friends. That is, until she is invited to Norland Park by John and Fanny Dashwood, and is thrust into London’s fashionable and sometimes aggressively consumerist society for the winter season. It is here that she is forced into ‘a better knowledge of the world’, as Colonel Brandon terms it, and indeed, a better knowledge of herself.
It is here, too, that she meets the charismatic and cosmopolitan Charles Ambrose, whose knowledge and experience fascinate her. Torn between two worlds, and two suitors, Margaret is confronted by secrets that threaten the very core of her beliefs. Forced to make decisions that will forever change her future, and that of her family, she must draw on all her resources to navigate the new world in which she finds herself.
A Return to Norland is a coming of age story but it also takes a look at the lives of those we left five years ago, at the end of Sense and Sensibility, as well as many of the characters we have known and loved from Austen’s original novel. This sequel novel will take readers on a journey of discovery as we watch Margaret, Elinor and Marianne find their way back to the peace and happiness they once treasured, long ago, at Norland Park, and will haunt readers long after turning the final pages.
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