Plain or Ringlets

First published in 1860, this comic novel follows Rosa McDermott at the seaside resort of Roseberry Rocks, where a gypsy prophecy and two suitors - the attractive John Bunting and the wealthy Jasper Goldsmith - turn courtship into a public sport. The title names the rival preferences for how Rosa should wear her hair. Surtees fills the book with hunting men, match-making mothers, hotel society, and the money calculations that sit under flirtation. It is a satire of mid-Victorian resort and county life, closer to a manners novel than to a pure hunting narrative, though the chase still runs through it.

Bound in red artificial leather decorated in gold. Pale yellow endleaves. Gold slipcase.