Exquisite read telling the life of John Barnard, a stern and righteous Norfolk businessman in the early Victorian years. Stuck in an unloving marriage with a wife becoming increasingly dependent on madeira; bereft after losing five children in infancy; disappointed in his eldest son who was sent down from Cambridge then emigrated; and in his daughters, spinsterish Euphemia, and Ellen, disfigured by a birthmark - he gives all his love to remaining daughter Mary. But he is unable to recognise her intrinsic selfishness and coldness... ( )