The story begins with, Lord Colambre, the sensitive hero of the novel, who just before coming of age, finds that his mother Lady Clonbrony's attempts to buy her way into the high society of London are only ridiculed, while his father, Lord ...

It satirises Anglo-Irish landlords at a time when the English and Irish governments were trying to formalise their union. The novel is alluded to in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'.

The lively comedy of this novel in which a young woman comes of age amid the distractions and temptations of London high society belies the challenges it poses to the conventions of courtship, the dependence of women, and the limitations of ...

This volume also includes Ennui, the entertaining 'confessions' of the Earl of Glenthorn, a bored, spoiled aristocrat.

The Falconers accept patronage from Lord Oldborough but by the end of the book it is the Percys who are perceived as possessing the greater moral worth and wealth by the success of their own efforts.

His ensuing adventures take him from rural Ireland to fashionable Parisian society, where his good intentions in the areas of books, love and money are thoroughly tested." --Book jacket of 2000 ed.