Four-Part Setting
Feb 2014 · A&C Black
Ebook
380
Pages
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About this ebook
Fleeing from her failed marriage, Rose Pelham seeks sanctuary in Peking, China, with her cousins, Anastasia and Antony Lydiard. The romantic attentions of Captain Hargreaves are a welcome distraction from her woes, but in the society of Anglicised 1920's Peking, it is hard for such relationships not to draw notice and create scandal.
A long trek to the 'Mountain of a Hundred Flowers' offers a chance to escape prying eyes, but Rose's intellectual cousins cannot stop Captain Hargreaves from joining them, along with the most disagreeable Roy Hellier. The trip is fraught with peril, as the 'T'ao-Pings' or 'masterless soldiers' – cut loose from the feudal Chinese armies – are roaming the country, terrorising villagers and leaving turmoil in their wake. Faced with the realities of the dangerous journey, the five become close, and relationships shift and change under the pressure.
But back in the reality of society, it is time for Rose to make some very hard choices. Should she push for a divorce, and marry the man she truly loves, at the cost of being socially ostracised? Or should she make amends, and try to recover the lost love of her cold husband?
In Four-Part Setting, first published in 1939, Anne Briggs expertly tells a tale of love, loss, and tangled loyalties.
A long trek to the 'Mountain of a Hundred Flowers' offers a chance to escape prying eyes, but Rose's intellectual cousins cannot stop Captain Hargreaves from joining them, along with the most disagreeable Roy Hellier. The trip is fraught with peril, as the 'T'ao-Pings' or 'masterless soldiers' – cut loose from the feudal Chinese armies – are roaming the country, terrorising villagers and leaving turmoil in their wake. Faced with the realities of the dangerous journey, the five become close, and relationships shift and change under the pressure.
But back in the reality of society, it is time for Rose to make some very hard choices. Should she push for a divorce, and marry the man she truly loves, at the cost of being socially ostracised? Or should she make amends, and try to recover the lost love of her cold husband?
In Four-Part Setting, first published in 1939, Anne Briggs expertly tells a tale of love, loss, and tangled loyalties.
About the author
Ann Bridge (1889-1974), or Lady Mary Dolling (Sanders) O'Malley was born in Hertfordshire. Bridge's novels concern her experiences of the British Foreign Office community in Peking in China, where she lived for two years with her diplomat husband. Her novels combine courtship plots with vividly-realized settings and demure social satire.
Bridge went on to write novels around a serious investigation of modern historical developments. In the 1970s Bridge began to write thrillers centered on a female amateur detective, Julia Probyn, as well writing travel books and family memoirs. Her books were praised for their faithful representation of foreign countries which was down to personal experience and thorough research.
Bridge went on to write novels around a serious investigation of modern historical developments. In the 1970s Bridge began to write thrillers centered on a female amateur detective, Julia Probyn, as well writing travel books and family memoirs. Her books were praised for their faithful representation of foreign countries which was down to personal experience and thorough research.
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