The Tallants of Barton, Vol. 1 (of 3): A Tale of Fortune and Finance

Christopher Tallant rose from nothing to become a merchant prince, and now he dwells in splendor at Barton Hall, overlooking the Avonworth Vale. But wealth has come at a cost: two wives buried, a daughter bound by duty, a son hungry for his own fortune. Hatton paints a world where ambition is both virtue and vice, where a man may conquer commerce yet lose his soul to it. Around the Tallants swirls a cast of dreamers and strivers: the artistic Phillips, the respectable Somertons clinging to their fading gentility, the social climbers and the true believers. This is Victorian England on the make, where money talks and love often goes unspoken. Volume One introduces the architecture of a family's fortunes before the cracks appear in the foundation.