17 h 47 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a husband expects obedience and his wife refuses to make herself smaller?
Carinthia Jane grows up among mountains, far from the calculations of fashionable English society. Courageous, enduring, and direct, she judges people on her own terms. In George Meredith’s The Amazing Marriage, her union with the wealthy Earl of Fleetwood puts that independence under pressure.
Fleetwood is drawn to Carinthia, yet resents the claims marriage makes on his freedom. His wealth and social standing give his moods real force. Around them, others watch, advise, and judge. Among them is Gower Woodseer, a thoughtful young man whose perspective brings wealth and conduct into sharper focus.
What you’ll discover
- Courage beyond convention Meet a mountain-raised heroine whose direct judgments challenge the expectations of fashionable society.
- Attraction meets obligation Follow the tension between Fleetwood’s desire for Carinthia and his resistance to marital claims.
- Power inside a marriage See how money and standing turn a husband’s moods into more than private feelings.
- Another way of seeing Consider wealth and conduct alongside Gower Woodseer, a thoughtful presence within Fleetwood’s circle.
- Words tested by actions Explore shifting viewpoints and sharp encounters that expose gaps between self-image and behavior.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like novels with a sharp comic voice, strong heroines and high society scandals. It welcomes readers drawn to questions of love, pride and honor.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An old scandal opens the story
- Two orphans leave the mountains
- A lord, a tramp and a gaming town
- A promise made in a quadrille
- A wedding day that goes strangely wrong
- The Whitechapel Countess
- Wales, a child and uneasy shelter
- A philosopher faces the claims of others
- What the book is really about, and how it is told
Who’s who
- Carinthia Jane KirbyThe brave, plain-spoken daughter of the Old Buccaneer, raised in the Alps; she trusts her husband and loves her brother.
- Edward Russett, Earl of FleetwoodThe richest young nobleman in England, proud of never breaking his word, and moody, restless and quick to take offense.
- Chillon KirbyCarinthia's brother, a soldier who loves Henrietta and holds to his father's code of honor; short of money and proud.
- Henrietta FakenhamA beautiful, pleasure-loving girl who loves Chillon; Fleetwood once wanted her.
- Gower WoodseerA Welsh wandering philosopher and bootmaker's son who becomes Fleetwood's friend and secretary.
- Madge WinchA loyal, fiery young woman from Whitechapel who becomes Carinthia's maid and defender.
- Livia, Countess of FleetwoodThe earl's stepmother, a cool and elegant gambler who manages society.
- Dame GossipThe chattering narrator who begins the tale and keeps interrupting with her sources and ballads.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 17 h 47 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Die wundersame Ehe in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Die wundersame Ehe
by George Meredith · 1895
A proud earl who cannot break his word marries a mountain girl, then leaves her on their wedding day.
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In short
What happens when a man who never breaks his word gives it in a moment of pique? George Meredith's The Amazing Marriage follows Lord Fleetwood, the richest young earl in England, who promises to marry a mountain girl named Carinthia Kirby.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
An old scandal opens the story
The book begins with a gossiping narrator, Dame Gossip, who defends the beautiful Countess Fanny of Cressett. Fanny is a young wife who falls in love with the old sea adventurer Captain Kirby, called the Old Buccaneer. London bets on whether he will carry her off.
On the chosen midnight a maid in a blonde wig takes Fanny's place in the carriage, and the crowd is fooled. Fanny and Kirby escape toward the coast, and a shadowy fight on the heath near the Punch-Bowl follows. Nobody ever learns who the attacker was.
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What is The Amazing Marriage about?
It follows the marriage of Lord Fleetwood, a proud earl, and Carinthia Kirby, a mountain girl. A promise made in haste leads to a wedding, a quarrel, a separation and a long struggle between pride and love.
Who is the Old Buccaneer?
Captain Kirby, Carinthia's father, is a sea adventurer who elopes with Countess Fanny of Cressett. His book Maxims for Men is quoted throughout the novel by his children and others.
Who is Dame Gossip?
She is the chattering voice who tells the opening chapters and keeps breaking in with rumors and ballads. The author playfully argues with her about how a story should be told.
The author
George Meredith
1828–1909 · English novelist and poet
George Meredith was a British novelist and poet born in Portsmouth, England, in 1828. He published his first poetry collection in 1851 and the novel The Amazing Marriage in 1895. He lived at Box Hill in Surrey from 1867 until his death in 1909.
More by George Meredith
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