Book 1

The Heiress

by Molly Greeley

Published 5 January 2021

'The sheer beauty of Greeley's prose has few rivals. She takes us inside a troubled, resilient and poetic mind and gives us a heroine to both sympathise with and root for. With stunningly lyrical writing, Greeley elevates Austen-inspired fiction onto a whole new plane.' - Natalie Jenner, author of The Jane Austen Society

As a fussy baby, Anne was prescribed laudanum to quiet her, and has been given opium-heavy syrup daily ever since on account of her continuing ill health. While her mother is outraged when Darcy chooses not to marry Anne, as has been long planned, Anne can barely raise her head to acknowledge the fact. But little by little, she comes to see that what she has always been told is an affliction of nature might in fact be one of nurture - and one, therefore, that she can beat. In a frenzy of desperation, she throws away her laudanum and seeks refuge at the London home of her cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam.

Suddenly wide awake to the world but utterly unprepared, Anne must forge a new identity for herself among those who have never seen the real her - including herself.

With wit, eroticism and a deep compassion for the human heart, The Heiress is a sparklingly rebellious novel that takes a shadowy figure from the background of one of the world's most beloved books and throws her into the light.