Publisher's Synopsis
With its wit, sensuality and compassion, The Heiress is a sparklingly rebellious novel that takes a shadowy figure from the background of beloved classic Pride & Prejudice and throws her into the light. As a fussy baby, Anne was prescribed laudanum to quiet her and has been given the opium-heavy syrup ever since, on account of her continuing ill health. While Lady Catherine is outraged when Darcy chooses not to marry her daughter, Anne barely even notices. But little by little, she comes to see that what she has always been told is an affliction of nature might in fact be one of nurture - and one, therefore, that she can beat. She finally throws away her laudanum and seeks refuge at the London home of her cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam. Suddenly wide awake to the world but utterly unprepared, Anne must forge a new identity among those who have never seen the real her - including herself. "With stunningly lyrical writing, Greeley elevates Austen-inspired fiction onto a whole new plane." NATALIE JENNER, author of The Jane Austen Society "Haunting. The Heiress has all the hallmarks of nineteenth-century Gothic, which doesn't shy away from "modern" ills, such as the opiate crisis, Munchausen syndrome by proxy, and homophobia. Highly recommended." FINOLA AUSTIN, author of Bronte's Mistress
