my Novel" — Volume 10
1853
Baron Lytton's tenth volume unfolds in a world where reputation is currency and hearts are gambled like coins at a gaming table. At its center stands Riccabocca, a disenchanted Italian nobleman living in English exile, his philosophical calm masking a turbulent past that threatens to engulf everyone he loves. His daughter Violante, beautiful and innocent, has caught the eye of the cunning Peschiera, a man whose charm conceals designs far more sinister than romance. Meanwhile, Randal Leslie finds himself tangled in the web of Riccabocca's history, his own ambitions colliding with secrets that could destroy the fragile peace of this household. What unfolds is Victorian society at its most ruthless: a world where a woman's fortune makes her a prize, where old sins cast long shadows, and where men scheme beneath the polished surface of polite conversation. Lytton, master of the genre, weaves personal drama with sharp social critique, asking what price innocence pays in a world designed to devour it. This is volume ten of a sweeping novel, but it stands alone as a portrait of ambition, love, and the dangerous games the privileged play.
