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A Proper Education for Girls
Elaine diRollo
Crown
April 2009
On Sale: April 14, 2009
370 pages
ISBN: 0307408353
EAN: 9780307408358
Kindle: B00268EV3G
Paperback / e-Book
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Paperback (April 2009)
Literature and Fiction
Not since the Brontës have we seen the likes of the
Talbot sisters, plucky peach growers with a peculiar
upbringing and a flair for subversion. Set in England and
India in the mutinous year of 1857, A Proper Education
for Girls tells the story of Alice and Lilian Talbot,
twins separated for the first time in their lives by
their martinet father. After an affair comes to a tragic
end, Lilian is banished from the Talbot mansion and
married off to a sickly missionary in India. Unwilling to
play the part of the demure missionary wife, beautiful,
tomboyish Lilian quickly takes advantage of her husband’s
hypochondria and her newfound freedom as a British
expatriate, tramping off into the jungle to paint
pictures of the indigenous flora and secretly learning
the language and customs of her adopted homeland. Meanwhile, the plain but sharp-witted Alice remains on
her father’s isolated estate, serving as curator to his
strange and vast Collection under the watchful eye of the
malevolent Dr. Cattermole. The Collection, which has
taken over every inch of the rambling estate, is the
essence of Victorian England—antiquated and ingen- ious,
austere and excessive. Twelve perfectly synchronized
grandfather clocks stand at attention at the bottom of a
staircase. Botanical specimens have overrun the
conservatory, turning the room into a tropical
greenhouse. Forgotten houseguests roam amid fossilized
sea creatures, display cases of Greek pottery, and
mechanical contraptions. A peach tree, inherited from
their mother and planted in a wheelbarrow for
portability, is a constant reminder of Lilian’s absence.
Though Mr. Talbot has cut off all communication between
the sisters, a cryptic letter from Lilian manages to slip
through, and hidden in the envelope is a puzzling
photograph of a tiger hunt. Alice sets about cracking the
code in the letter, finding an unlikely ally in Mr.
Blake, the photographer hired to document the Collection.
While Mr. Talbot is absorbed in the eccentric but
seemingly benign Society for the Propagation of Useful
and Interesting Knowledge, Alice plots her escape from
both her oppressive father and Dr. Cattermole’s
unspeakable plans for her future.
Intrigue is rife in India as well, where Lilian continues
to defy convention. Playing her many admirers off one
another, she quietly works toward the goal of reuniting
with her sister. But the violent onset of the Indian
rebellion against British rule threatens to derail her
plans. And back at the Talbot estate, the Society’s
experiments are taking a menacing turn. Will the sisters'
resourcefulness and profound devotion to each other be
enough to save them? Capturing the Victorian era in all
of its whimsy and horror, A Proper Education for Girls is
a superb debut novel about the power of sisterhood.
From the Hardcover edition.
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