Contraband; Or, a Losing Hazard

In the glittering, treacherous world of the Victorian hunting season, Mrs. Lascelles must decide whether to risk her hard-won independence for a man twice-widowed and blackened by scandal. Sir Henry Hallaton rides well, drinks well, and has buried two wives " fittingly described as accidents by a society that both craves and corrupts its most glamorous sinners. When these two meet after a day's hunt, their charged conversation reveals a mutual fascination that defies propriety and good sense alike. Whyte-Melville writes with sharp eye for the game's true stakes: not the fox, but the elaborate courtship of status, desire, and reputation that defines English high society. The title itself gambles on binary outcomes, and so too do its players. For readers who savor the dangerous romanticism of Braddon or the social anatomies of James, this is a novel about what happens when a woman who has chosen freedom must choose again.