11 h 22 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 22 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when public ambition, private faith, and forbidden love each ask for a different life?
In Victorian England, Robert Orange has a public career to build and a faith that makes demands of its own. Forbidden love deepens the conflict. His ambitions and beliefs pull against each other, while the pressure of public life leaves little room for a purely private choice.
John Oliver Hobbes brings these tensions into drawing rooms alive with sharp talk. Politics, religion, and the heart belong to the same conversation. Her quick, ironic speakers and polished prose invite you to listen closely, catching what a pointed remark reveals about a person or the society around them.
What you’ll discover
- A divided inner life Follow a man whose public hopes pull against the demands of his private faith.
- Love under social pressure Explore forbidden love in a world where the heart cannot stand apart from society.
- Drawing rooms with bite Enter conversations where quick wit and irony sharpen the portrait of Victorian manners.
- Faith woven into life Consider belief as a force within ambition and love, rather than a separate subject.
- Prose worth lingering over Enjoy polished sentences and pointed remarks that reward a patient, attentive reading.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy Victorian society novels full of sharp talk, if questions of faith and doubt fascinate you, or if you like stories where politics and love pull people apart.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Sara weighs a duke while thinking of Orange
- A friend's secret breaks Sara's hidden hope
- Reckage looks loyal but loves his own glory
- A wedding morning ends in a quiet doubt
- Lunch table gossip brings a dangerous rumour
- The honeymoon villa hides a blue telegram
- Agnes and Rennes choose love over duty
- Sara, Reckage and the ambassador play their games
- Renunciation and desire pull against each other
- Letters, journals and essays shape the telling
Who’s who
- Robert OrangeA young Catholic politician of French family, disciplined and devout, who wants to serve God and win the one woman he loves.
- Brigit ParfleteA seventeen-year-old of imperial birth and an actress's daughter, who loves Orange deeply and feels a calling to the stage.
- Lady Sara de TreverellThe earl's brilliant, headstrong daughter, who craves power and passion and secretly loves Orange while a duke waits for her answer.
- Lord ReckageCharming heir to an earldom and leader of a political society, who admires Orange but chases his own glory.
- Pensée, Viscountess Fitz RewesA gentle, devout widow and loyal friend who loves Orange in silence and wants only to help him and Brigit.
- Agnes CarillonA bishop's daughter, engaged to Reckage, who believes in duty until love for the painter David Rennes tests her.
- David RennesA gifted portrait painter, restless and self-doubting, who is in love with Agnes and unable to watch her marry another.
- Prince d'AlchingenThe Alberian ambassador, a smooth and cynical diplomat who plays with the lives of others to protect his government.
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Robert Orange
by John Oliver Hobbes · 1900
A wedding at dawn, a rumour at lunch and a chase to France: Robert Orange's marriage may be no marriage at all.
Medium level10–20 hours to readfrançais
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In short
A small yellow carriage waits outside a grand London house in October 1869, and a young lady steps in with a duke's marriage proposal on her mind and another man in her heart. Would you take power without love?
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Sara weighs a duke while thinking of Orange
Lady Sara de Treverell, only child of the Earl of Garrow, drives to the Carlton Club to collect her father. The Duke of Marshire has proposed, and her father longs for the match. Sara wants power, and she knows the duke has none.
In the carriage she tells her father plainly that she does not love the duke. He answers that marriage needs an invincible sympathy rather than an unshakable love. Sara says she feels exactly that for a friend, Robert Orange. The earl is startled, because Orange has a foreign pedigree that English society distrusts.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 8 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1900
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 7 h 20 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Hobbes, John Oliver. Robert Orange. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/robert-orange.
Hobbes, J. O. (2026). Robert Orange. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/robert-orange (Original work published 1900)
Hobbes, John Oliver. Robert Orange. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/robert-orange.
@book{hobbes2026robert,
author = {Hobbes, John Oliver},
title = {Robert Orange},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/robert-orange},
note = {First published 1900}
}
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What is Robert Orange about?
It follows Robert Orange, a young Catholic politician, and his marriage to Brigit Parflete in 1869. Around them move Sara, Reckage and Agnes, as the book weighs love, faith and ambition against one another in London society.
Who is Robert Orange based on?
Orange is a fictional character. Real figures appear around him, notably Mr. Disraeli, and the debates of the day over the Church of England and the Catholic revival give the story its setting.
Who is Lady Sara de Treverell?
Sara is the Earl of Garrow's daughter, a brilliant, passionate young woman of twenty-two. She is offered a duke's hand but is drawn to Orange, and her sharp wit hides a deep loneliness.
The author
John Oliver Hobbes
1867–1906 · American novelist and playwright
John Oliver Hobbes was the pen name of Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie, born in Boston in 1867. She moved to England as a child and died in London in 1906. She wrote novels and plays. Her novels include Some Emotions and a Moral (1891) and Robert Orange (1900).
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