Prince Fortunatus

The London stage glitters with ambition and desire in this late-Victorian drama of art and aspiration. At its heart stands Lionel Moore, a baritone whose voice could launch a thousand dreams but whose heart proves far more treacherous terrain. When Lady Adela Cunyngham and her brother Lord Rockminster step backstage after a performance, they enter a world where theatrical glamour and society's expectations collide with devastating consequences. Then arrives Nina Rossi, returned from Naples with her own designs on the London stage and on Lionel's guidance, and perhaps his heart. What follows is a delicious dance of competing desires: between the polished aristocracy and the rough magic of the theater, between professional ambition and genuine feeling, between the roles we play and who we truly are. Black captures the intoxicating friction between London's drawing rooms and its dressing rooms with sharp observation and genuine romantic flair. The novel pulses with the particular thrill of watching artists navigate a world that both adores and exploits them.