Marcella

In 1894, no novel divided London quite like Marcella. Mary Augusta Ward wrote a book about a young woman who believes in socialism but inherits an estate, and the tension between what she preaches and what she becomes is absolutely ruthless. Marcella Boyce is twenty-one, an art student in Kensington, burning with idealistic passion for the poor. When her father inherits Mellor Park, she's dragged from everything she loves, her friends, her studies, her bohemian life, and planted in the Midlands aristocracy she's scorned. Determined to help anyway, she catches the attention of Aldous Raeburn, the Tory heir campaigning for Parliament. But Marcella discovers that high principles collide harshly with messy reality, and that loving people and wielding power over them may be mutually exclusive. This is a novel for anyone who has ever believed something fiercely, then watched the world test those beliefs. Ward writes with psychological precision about idealism corrupted, class without easy answers, and a woman's struggle to maintain her soul in a world that demands compromise.