Orley Farm

First issued in 1861-1862, this novel centres on a disputed inheritance. Lady Mason has long lived at Orley Farm with her son Lucius under a codicil that left the property to him rather than to the heir of her late husband's first marriage. When Joseph Mason and the attorney Dockwrath reopen the case, a charge that the codicil was forged and a public trial threaten her standing. Around the lawsuit gather lawyers in London and Birmingham, a commercial family, and young people whose marriages are entangled with the farm. It is a legal novel about respectability, maternal deceit, and how a single document can unmake a household.

Quarter bound in pale blue series binding, pale grey paper boards with the border in grey-green or pale blue. Pale grey endleaves. Pale grey or dark blue slipcase.