The Ladies: A NovelA tender and imaginative retelling of the adventures of two of history’s most compelling women In 1778 Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby left County Kilkenny for Wales to live together as a married couple. Both well born, highly educated Irish women, the Ladies of Llangollen, as they came to be known, defied all eighteenth-century social convention and spent half a century together in a loving relationship. Removed from the intrusive gaze of the world, the fictional Eleanor and Sarah retreat to their shared home to study literature and language and enjoy their solitude. In an imagined account, Doris Grumbach brings this gripping chronicle to new audiences. With a keen sense of the rhythms and routines of longtime partnership, Grumbach breathes vivid life into this fascinating story of a passion both shocking and steadfast. |
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Anna Seward arms beautiful believe beloved beside Burke called Castell Dinas Bran Cavanaugh chair close clothes coach dairy daughter day book delight dinner door DORIS GRUMBACH dress Dublin Edmunds Eleanor Butler eyes face father fear felt Fownes gardens girl hair hand Harriet Bowdler head heavy Holyhead horse Inistiogue Irish Kilkenny Castle kitchen Lady Adelaide Lady Betty Lady Eleanor Lady Eleanor Butler letter live Llangollen looked Lord Butler Madame de Genlis maid marriage Mary-Caryll Miss Butler Miss Ponsonby morning mother moved Nancy never night once Ormonde Oswestry Pengwern Plas Newydd retirement River Dee road Saint-Preur Sarah Ponsonby seemed sent settled sight Sir William sister smiled stone stood story talk thought Tighe told took trees Vale village waiting walked William Fownes William Wordsworth window woman Woodstock Wrexham wrote young