![]() ![]() Her life undergoes a monumental change one spring day in 1844, when a letter arrives for her mother from a gentleman named Nicholas van Ryn, a cousin whom Miranda didn’t even know she had. Fortunately for Miranda, she looks the part of a romantic heroine, with a delicate figure and tumbling golden hair (as we’re often reminded). ![]() ![]() Unlike her brothers and sister she has always been a dreamer, caught up in tales of knights and ladies and fluttering romance: the modest country life, with its stout, clumsy suitors, holds little appeal for her. ![]() Miranda Wells is the eldest daughter in a simple, honest and devout farming family who live near Greenwich in Connecticut. Moreover, I’ve hardly read any historical fiction set in America (beyond Gone with the Wind) and so Dragonwyck went some way towards filling that gap. Now, I’ll be frank and admit that I didn’t enjoy this as much as Katherine, and in fact found the heroine a bit of a wimp, but it was still fun to read as an undemanding piece of Gothic sensationalism. Of course it initially caught my eye for its rather hideous 1970s cover, but then I realised that it was by Anya Seton, who wrote Katherine, which I’d read and enjoyed, and so I thought I’d give it a go. It’s about time I read Dragonwyck: I bought it at last year’s village fete and we’ve just, last Saturday, had this year’s fete. Does anyone know of a better photo of Anya Seton than this showing her on her wedding day? ![]()
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