Story summary
Краткое содержание: Доктор Купидон
- Чтение: 8 мин.
- 10 parts
- Аудио скоро
A proud gardener and a man tied to another woman meet over a dinner of venison.
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Доктор Купидон — кратко о книге
Краткое содержание: 8 min на чтение
- Время чтения
- Около 8 h6 h 20 min fast, 9 h 30 min slow
- Длительность
- Слов: 114 300
- Уровень в библиотеке
- Средний longer sentences, everyday words
- Первая публикация
- 1886by Рода Бротон
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Сколько времени нужно на чтение классики · Обновлено
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Доктор Купидон in short
Doctor Cupid follows two sisters in a country village and the people who turn their lives upside down. Peggy is strong, practical and slow to trust. Prue is fragile and ready to give everything to one charming young man.
What Доктор Купидон is about
Picture a dinner where a proud young woman decides in advance to be rude to the man beside her. Peggy Lambton has heard the gossip about John Talbot, and she answers his polite questions in single words. By the time the soup is cleared, he has made her laugh anyway, over a black wedding dress and a badger that was never a badger.
Doctor Cupid is a Victorian novel by Rhoda Broughton, set in an English village. It is a sharp comedy of manners that cuts deeper as it goes. You will meet two sisters, a tame fox, a vicar's wife in a dyed wedding dress, and two children who say the thing nobody wants said.
Для кого. Readers who enjoy Victorian comedies of manners, village gossip, gardens and animals, and love stories driven by sharp dialogue will feel at home here.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Two sisters live beside the Big House
The story opens in a small red house just outside the park of a great one. Peggy Lambton and her younger sister Prue add up on a slate what the Big House owes them and what they owe it. The list is a joke, full of dance music, sick dogs, borrowed bores and workhouse teas.
Peggy is twenty-two and carries the weight of everything. She runs the garden, feeds a parrot, a cat, a shaggy dog and a tame fox, and visits the poor of the parish. Prue is seventeen, thin and delicate, and Peggy has looked after her since their mother died.
One item on the slate is the acquaintance of several damaged fine ladies. Prue blushes at his name, and Peggy watches her with quiet unease. Over it all rules Lady Roupell, called milady, who is plain, blunt and kind.
A small house beside a big one is where this story starts, and it shapes every choice that follows.
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A first dinner pairs enemies who laugh
At the dinner party Peggy is seated beside John Talbot, and she has planned to be cold.
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A runaway fox changes Peggy's opinion
Next morning Talbot lies in the grass and is claimed by the Harborough children, Lily and Franky.
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Mowing a lawn builds an odd friendship
Freddy cancels a ride with Prue so that he can entertain Betty, and Prue spends days waiting and wasting away.
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Talbot sees the cost of his five years
Talbot has spent five years sacrificing his career to Lady Betty.
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Freddy's charm leads Prue into trouble
At a Beast Party Lady Betty sings a song about who will kiss a soldier's girl, and the men roar with delight.
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Talbot finds Peggy and loses her again
On the first of May Talbot climbs the tower of Magdalen College to hear the choir sing at dawn.
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A yacht, a ball and a fading girl
In August Freddy is back at the Manor and as sweet as ever.
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Love is measured by what it gives
One of the book's quiet questions is what love costs and who pays.
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A comic voice carries a sorrowful tale
Broughton tells the story in the present tense, with a narrator who steps forward to joke or to sigh.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Peggy Lambton The strong, practical elder sister who runs the Red House and its garden, guards Prue fiercely and trusts very few people.
- Prue Lambton Peggy's frail seventeen-year-old sister, who gives all her heart to Freddy Ducane and will not hear a word against him.
- John Talbot A thoughtful Foreign Office secretary and countryman at heart, tired of his long tie to Lady Betty and drawn to Peggy.
- Lady Betty Harborough A rouged, witty duke's daughter who sings daring songs and clings to Talbot, yet adores her little son.
- Freddy Ducane Lady Roupell's charming nephew, who says whatever pleases each listener and cannot refuse anyone anything.
- Lady Roupell Called milady, the blunt, kind owner of the Manor, who digs in a frieze coat and gives advice with a shrug.
- Mrs. Evans The vicar's gossiping wife, who wears her dyed wedding dress to every grand dinner and always has a remedy.
- Lily and Franky Harborough Lady Betty's young children, who say aloud what the grown people hide and adore John Talbot and Peggy.
How it ends (spoiler)
Betty visits the Red House in mourning for little Franky, who has died, and brings his knife as a gift to Peggy. She also says that Talbot was innocent in the walled garden, and that her own arms were around him against his will. Peggy, stunned, wishes him back. Talbot arrives in the night and kneels beside her at Prue's bed. At dawn Prue wakes, counts off her fortieth day, asks for her sister's kiss and dies peacefully.
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Вопросы о книге Доктор Купидон
What is Doctor Cupid about?
It follows two sisters, Peggy and Prue Lambton, in an English village near a grand estate. Peggy meets John Talbot, a man tied to Lady Betty, while Prue loves the charming Freddy Ducane. The book weighs love, loyalty and self-sacrifice with plenty of humor.
Who is John Talbot in Doctor Cupid?
He is a thirty-two-year-old secretary at the Foreign Office who has spent five years as the devoted companion of Lady Betty Harborough. He loves the countryside, children and gardens, and gradually falls in love with Peggy Lambton.
Why is the novel called Doctor Cupid?
The title comes from a line by Sir Philip Sidney printed at the start, asking Doctor Cupid, the god of love, to answer for the speaker. The story shows how love can cure or harm, and how little it answers.
When was Doctor Cupid written and is it a true story?
Rhoda Broughton wrote it as a Victorian novel, so it is fiction. Its village, characters and plot are invented, though the details of Victorian country life, social rank, fashions and dinners are drawn from the world she knew.
Is Doctor Cupid easy to read?
Its chapters are short and full of lively dialogue. Broughton's wit, funny minor characters such as Mrs. Evans, and scenes with children and animals make it enjoyable for modern readers who like character-driven stories and clear, direct storytelling.
Как сослаться на это издание
Broughton, Rhoda. Doctor Cupid. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/doctor-cupid.
Broughton, R. (2026). Doctor Cupid. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/doctor-cupid (Original work published 1886)
Broughton, Rhoda. Doctor Cupid. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/doctor-cupid.
@book{broughton2026doctor,
author = {Broughton, Rhoda},
title = {Doctor Cupid},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/doctor-cupid},
note = {First published 1886}
}
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