Felix Holt

Published in 1866 and set at the time of the 1832 Reform Act, this novel joins a Midland election to a story of inheritance. Felix Holt, a watchmaker and Radical who refuses a genteel career, meets Esther Lyon, the minister's daughter, whose taste runs to refinement. At Transome Court, the faded Mrs Transome and her returning son Harold, standing as a Radical for his own advantage, preside over a household with a buried legal past. The campaign brings bribery, riot, and a secret about estate and birth. The book is a political novel about class, conscience, and the uses of a vote.

Bound in red cloth blocked with a gilt design. Dark green slipcase.