14 h 10 minAudiobook12 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
In a world of careful manners, what happens when the heart refuses to go where anyone sends it?
Doctor Cupid by Rhoda Broughton takes you into Victorian drawing rooms and country houses, where polite behavior keeps strong feelings just beneath the surface. Love meets the rules of society at dinners, dances and country visits. What people hope for and what their hearts choose are not always the same.
Broughton explores love and rivalry with a sharp eye and a dry sense of humor. The title hints at matchmaking and meddling, but affection resists easy direction. Quick sentences, lively dialogue and an amused narrator bring warmth to a world where manners shape every encounter and feelings refuse to stay simple.
What you’ll discover
- Feelings beneath the manners Look beneath polite behavior to find the strong emotions it keeps out of sight.
- Love beyond anyone's plans Explore the gap between where people direct affection and where it chooses to go.
- Rivalry with a smile Discover how competing hopes give this romance its tension and its dry humor.
- A sharp, warm voice Enjoy lively dialogue and a narrator whose amused eye stays close to the heart.
- The drawing-room world Step into country houses where social rules shape meetings and love complicates careful manners.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoy Victorian country life, sharp social comedy, tender love stories and sisters bound by loyalty, and who like a story with gardens, children, animals and moral choices at its heart.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two houses and a ledger of debts
- A dinner party and a sharp first meeting
- A fox, a bandage and a muffin order
- Freddy lets Prue down and Talbot mows the lawn
- A song, a farewell and a gift of lavender
- Oxford, a proposal and a long winter
- Magdalen Tower and a love at last
- A misunderstanding that costs everything
- What the book is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- Peggy LambtonThe elder sister, strong, truthful and devoted to her garden, who cares for Prue above everyone and is slow to trust.
- Prue LambtonThe seventeen-year-old younger sister, frail and romantic, who gives all her hope to Freddy Ducane.
- John TalbotA clever secretary at the Foreign Office, tied for years to a married woman he no longer loves and drawn to Peggy.
- Freddy DucaneLady Roupell's charming young nephew, who pleases everyone, promises everything and rarely does what he promises.
- Lady Betty HarboroughA rouged, flirtatious duke's daughter, married to a good-natured husband, who clings fiercely to Talbot and to her little son.
- Lady RoupellThe old mistress of the manor, blunt and generous, who digs her garden in a man's coat and sees more than she says.
- Mrs. EvansThe vicar's gossiping wife, who wears her dyed wedding dress to every dinner and pockets sweets for her many children.
- Lily HarboroughBetty's eight-year-old daughter, who adores Talbot, tells tall tales and asks questions at exactly the wrong moment.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 14 h 10 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 12 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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Doctor Cupid
by Rhoda Broughton · 1886
Two sisters, a charming young man and a visitor with a past meet in a village where every choice costs.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Doctor Cupid is a novel by Rhoda Broughton, an English writer who died in 1920. It follows two sisters, Peggy and Prue Lambton, who live in a small red house in the shadow of a grand manor, and the visitors who pass through their quiet lives.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two houses and a ledger of debts
The story opens in a small red house on the edge of a great park. Margaret Lambton, called Peggy, and her seventeen-year-old sister Prue sit with a slate on which Peggy has drawn up what the Big House owes them and what they owe it. The list is funny and sour at once. The manor takes their company, their dance music and the bores among its guests, and gives back envy, headaches and the odd damaged fine lady.
One item is added last: an endless supply of Freddy Ducane, whenever nothing better comes along for him. Prue blushes and calls it a loss. Peggy watches her with unease. Freddy is the nephew of Lady Roupell, the old lady who owns the manor, and he has spent a good many starlit evenings looking for constellations in the walled garden with Prue.
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What is Doctor Cupid about?
It follows sisters Peggy and Prue Lambton in a country village, where a charming young man and a worldly visitor with a past test their trust and affection, and where love brings both joy and pain.
Who is Doctor Cupid in the book?
The title is not a person in the story. It comes from the Sidney line on the title page and points to love, which governs what the characters do and the choices they make.
Who wrote Doctor Cupid and when?
Rhoda Broughton, an English novelist who died in 1920, wrote it in the Victorian period. It is a work of fiction with a country setting, a small cast and a lively, ironic narrator.
The author
Rhoda Broughton
1840–1920 · Welsh novelist
Rhoda Broughton (1840–1920) was a Welsh novelist born in Denbigh, Wales. She lived in Oxford and later in Headington, where she died. Her first novels appeared in 1867. She wrote Nancy, published in 1873, and Doctor Cupid, published in 1886. She continued publishing novels into the twentieth century.
More by Rhoda Broughton
All 2 booksMore like this
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