17 h 14 minAudiobook15 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 if the secrets binding your heart also keep you from knowing what you truly want?
In Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Alice, or the Mysteries, Ernest Maltravers reaches middle life still uncertain about love and public ambition. This continuation of Ernest Maltravers follows a life already shaped by deep feeling. Alice, a girl of humble origin, remains bound to him by affection and secrets about her birth.
Evelyn Cameron, a young woman of rank and refinement, offers another possible path for Ernest’s heart. Meanwhile, the worldly Lumley Ferrers treats life as a game of advantage. Through tangled loves, hidden bonds and competing ambitions, the novel asks how love, error and chance shape a person—and what it takes to see clearly.
What you’ll discover
- A heart still searching Follow Ernest as he weighs love and ambition without yet knowing what he truly wants.
- Secrets beneath deep affection Discover Alice’s place in a romance where hidden birth and strong feeling bind lives together.
- Another path for love Meet Evelyn Cameron, whose rank and refinement open another possibility for Ernest’s uncertain heart.
- Ambition as a game Watch Lumley Ferrers approach life through schemes, advantage and the pursuit of ambition.
- Trials toward clearer sight Explore the title’s idea of initiation, as trials lead a soul toward understanding.
Who will love it
Readers who love Victorian romance, family secrets and elegant villains will enjoy this, as will anyone drawn to stories of honor and temptation, of country houses and Parisian salons, and of ideals tested by love.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A girl is sent away from home
- An heiress becomes a guest of honor
- A proud man learns to hope again
- A minister who lives on borrowed money
- A debt of honor and a stranger's pain
- Love that must stay silent
- Paris, ideas and a wandering madman
- Pride, honor and the claims of duty
- How the tale is told
Who’s who
- Evelyn CameronA warm, impulsive seventeen-year-old heiress who longs for her mother's confidence and cannot bring herself to love the lord she is promised to.
- Ernest MaltraversA famous writer turned wanderer, proud and sad, who returns to his ancestral home sure he has finished with love and ambition.
- Lord VargraveLumley Ferrers, a charming, scheming minister deep in debt, who needs Evelyn's fortune to save his career and will stop at little to win it.
- Lady VargraveEvelyn's gentle mother, who lives in seclusion by the sea, carries a secret sorrow, and hopes only for her daughter's happiness.
- Mr. AubreyThe old village curate, wise and kind, who teaches Evelyn and quietly guards the hidden history of her mother's household.
- Caroline MertonEvelyn's worldly friend, clever and ambitious, who dreams of rank and a brilliant marriage even as her heart is given elsewhere.
- George LegardA handsome young colonel with a good heart and a debt of honor to Maltravers, who falls in love with Evelyn and holds back.
- Mr. ClevelandMaltravers's cheerful old guardian, a lover of art and good company, who wants his former pupil to find a home and a wife.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Alice, or the Mysteries
by Edward Bulwer-Lytton · 1838
A Devonshire heiress must choose between a scheming lord and a brooding genius who has sworn off love.
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In short
Alice, or the Mysteries is a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who died in 1873. It is the second half of the story of Ernest Maltravers, a gifted writer whose youth ended in loss.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A girl is sent away from home
The story opens on an April evening at a cottage in Brook-Green, Devonshire. Lady Vargrave, a gentle woman who looks younger than her years, sits with her old friend Mrs. Leslie. They worry about Evelyn, who will soon be asked to accept or refuse Lord Vargrave. He is the nephew of her late husband, and the old lord hoped the two would marry. Mrs. Leslie has heard that the nephew is artful and cold, and she fears for the girl's happiness.
Evelyn herself bounds across the lawn with her great Newfoundland dog, Sultan, all light and laughter. She sings sweetly and loves the books of Ernest Maltravers, whose verses stir her mother in a strange way. Her teacher is Mr. Aubrey, the old curate, the kindest man in the parish. One morning she asks him why her mother never speaks of her early life. He answers that Lady Vargrave has known trials, and that love should wait for confidence rather than demand it.
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What is Alice, or the Mysteries about?
It follows Ernest Maltravers, a proud writer, and Evelyn Cameron, a young heiress promised to the scheming Lord Vargrave. Their love, a family secret and a minister's ambitions carry the story from Devonshire to Paris.
Do I need to read Ernest Maltravers first?
It helps, since this novel continues Maltravers's story. However, the book recalls his earlier loves and losses clearly enough that a new reader can follow the plot and the people without trouble.
Who is Lord Vargrave in the novel?
Lumley Ferrers, a clever, ambitious minister who inherited his uncle's title but not his fortune. He wants to marry Evelyn for her money, and he is the book's charming, cold-hearted schemer.
The author
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
1803–1873 · English novelist and politician
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) was a British novelist, playwright and politician. He was born in London and lived at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire. His novels include Paul Clifford (1830), The Last Days of Pompeii (1834), Zanoni (1842) and The Coming Race (1871). He served in Parliament and died in Torquay.
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