The Content Reader

I downloaded this book of historical fiction since I liked the summary of the story. I see now, when I am about to write a review, that it was first published in 1932! This is quite a surprise since it feels very fresh and I was sure it was a new book. I finished it some weeks ago, and it gave me a very mixed impression so I really had to think about it for a while. It is not the quite easy, half romantic historical fiction I thought it was. It was quite something else. It starts when Mary Showler elopes with a young noble man to get married. However, somehow, when they end up in an inn for the night, she realises that he never intended to marry her at all. She is a girl from a French noble family which was impoverished when Napoleon fell from power, and she is now working as a teacher in a school in England. Once she realises that he does not want to marry her she leaves him to go back to the school. Too late to have her job back she supports herself as a governess. She changes wo...