6 h 51 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 51 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when good manners make it harder to say what matters?
In The Twelfth Hour, Ada Leverson brings her dry wit to the careful world of English society. Visits, invitations, dinners and letters follow their proper forms. Drawing rooms and marriages carry feelings far larger than their rules allow, while humour gathers around what people leave unsaid.
The title points to the last possible moment: the pressure of delay, and the need to decide. This Edwardian comedy of manners invites you to consider love alongside social expectations. Leverson’s sharp, affectionate eye makes politeness worth watching, especially where sensible behaviour and private feeling pull in different directions.
What you’ll discover
- Rules with real weight Enter a society where the proper form of a visit or invitation matters.
- Feelings beneath the surface Look beyond drawing room manners to the large emotions those small rules contain.
- The pressure of timing Let the title sharpen your attention to delay, decision, and the moment to act.
- Wit that notices Enjoy Leverson’s gift for polished remarks that pair a telling observation with humour.
- What politeness leaves unsaid Find comedy in the distance between strong feelings and the words manners permit.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy sparkling dialogue, society comedy, Edwardian London, Oscar Wilde's wit, and affectionate portraits of vain, kind and foolish people in love.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Felicity is loved but left alone
- Poverty troubles a secret engagement
- Savile treats love with solemn care
- A party brings rivalries into view
- Bertie offers the attention Felicity misses
- A generous offer carries a condition
- Silence gives suspicion room to grow
- Strict rules cannot settle their feelings
- Love needs company as well as devotion
Who’s who
- Felicity, Lady ChetwodeA small, fair, witty young wife who gives advice to everyone and wants her husband to be home more often.
- Lord ChetwodeHer gentle husband, a racing man and collector of china who hates scenes and is nearly always away.
- Savile CroftonFelicity's sixteen-year-old brother at Eton, grave and secretive, who arranges the love affairs of his whole family.
- Sylvia CroftonFelicity's beautiful sister, twenty years old, who is privately engaged to her father's secretary and wants to marry him.
- Frank WoodvilleSir James's secretary, once an heir and now poor, torn between love, pride and a strict conscience.
- Bertie WiltonA witty young dandy and gossip, mad about motorcars, who sets out to win Lady Chetwode.
- Mr. RidokanakiA rich Greek banker of fifty who wants to marry Sylvia and offers Woodville a distant job.
- Aunt WilliamSavile's old-fashioned aunt, a lover of recipes, woolwork and propriety, who secretly adores her nephew.
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The Twelfth Hour
by Ada Leverson · 1907
Felicity's husband haunts the races, her schoolboy brother manages family romances, and a Greek banker waits.
Easy read2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What do you do when your husband loves racehorses and old china more than he loves being seen with you? That is the question facing Felicity, Lady Chetwode, in the first pages of The Twelfth Hour.
The Twelfth Hour at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 55 min3 h 5 min fast, 4 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 55,900 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
- First published
- 1907by Ada Leverson
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A beauty at her mirror, a husband away
The story opens in the bedroom of Felicity, Lady Chetwode, in Park Street. She is about twenty-five, small and fair, and she has been called a beauty since the age of two. Her husband has furnished every corner in the French style of Louis Quinze. He is seldom there to enjoy it, and if anyone asks after him, the answer is nearly always that he is away.
Her brother Savile comes in, sixteen years old, handsome and very serious. He talks like a man of the world and scolds her for dining out while her husband is at Newmarket. In a few minutes the talk gives the whole cast. Their sister Sylvia is hunted by Mr. Ridokanaki, a Greek banker, and Savile suspects she likes their father's secretary, Frank Woodville.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1907
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 30 min
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Leverson, Ada. The Twelfth Hour. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twelfth-hour.
Leverson, A. (2026). The twelfth hour. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twelfth-hour (Original work published 1907)
Leverson, Ada. The Twelfth Hour. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twelfth-hour.
@book{leverson2026twelfth,
author = {Leverson, Ada},
title = {The Twelfth Hour},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twelfth-hour},
note = {First published 1907}
}
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What is The Twelfth Hour about?
It follows the Crofton family through a London season. Felicity misses her absent husband, Sylvia loves her father's penniless secretary, and young Savile tries to solve everyone's problems with help from a Greek banker, a dandy and a fortune-teller.
Who is Savile in The Twelfth Hour?
He is Felicity and Sylvia's sixteen-year-old brother, a grave Eton schoolboy who thinks like a man of the world. He manages his family's affairs, has two romances of his own, and acts as the book's secret hero.
When was The Twelfth Hour written and is it a true story?
It is a novel by Ada Leverson, set in the Edwardian years in London. The characters are invented, though real singers, artists, places and fashions appear in the background to give a lifelike setting.
The author
Ada Leverson
1862–1933 · English novelist and humorist
Ada Leverson was a British novelist born in London in 1862. She lived in London and died there in 1933. She wrote six novels published between 1907 and 1916. They include The Twelfth Hour (1907), Love’s Shadow (1908), Tenterhooks (1912), Bird of Paradise (1914), and Love at Second Sight (1916).
More by Ada Leverson
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