Fiennders Keepers - Hardcover

Marsh, Jean

2.89

72 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031215528X ISBN 13: 9780312155285

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1997

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Richard Fiennders and Mary Bowden have been friends since childhood, but as their friendship turns into adult love, they are separated by a mother determined to keep her son from marrying beneath him and a mother anxious to remain in her employer's favor.

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From Booklist:

Marsh, noted author (The House of Elliott, 1994) and Emmy-winning coauthor of a series (Upstairs, Downstairs), centers this novel in late nineteenth-century rural England, where upper-class Richard Fiennders and working-class Mary Bowden emerge from childhood to find themselves becoming more than friends. Naturally, their families contrive to thwart any continuing relationship, for marriage would be socially unacceptable. Richard's parents, the wealthy owners of Fiennders' Abbey, arrange an extended international education for their son; Emma Bowden and her husband, John, the Fiennders' head gamekeeper, arrange for the marriage of their delicately beautiful daughter to the local blacksmith. Through 20 years of loneliness and personal tragedy, Mary sustains the romantic ideals of her adolescence and her love for Richard, himself seemingly trapped in a loveless marriage. The final chapters fast-forward to 1990, when the ultimate fates of Mary and Richard are revealed in the reminiscences of descendants of the families. A lively format, a heavy dose of romantic intrigue, and colorful, if underdeveloped, characters make an enjoyably readable book. Grace Fill

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