I so enjoyed this book, I assumed it would be drab and wordy like other books in its day, but it was quite lovely! Two sisters find out they are penniless after a freak accident befalls their father and their mother dies in childbirth. The parents hadn't been married until the year they passed away and hadn't updated the will. The children weren't "legitimate" at the time of the old wills creation. The fortune was left to the nearest relative, the eldest brother of the father. We end up following the fortune from person to person as the brother dies leaving the wealth to his son- Noel Vanstone.
I thought the characters were clever- I especially liked Mr. Wragge's speech on how he was a leech and how he was entitled to what other people had-regardless on how hard they had worked for it even though he never worked. His scheming was probably more stressful than if he just got a job. It reminded me of a lot of people today! The housekeeper of Noel Vanstone was also intriguing on how obvious her manipulating was, but Noel really believed he thought up everything she told him to do because she added "I agree with you sir" as if they were his thoughts. The book was amusing. It was suspenseful up to the very end and you just knew Magdalen's (the youngest sister) plan to marry her father's nephew was going to fail. I also liked how things ended where the oldest sister who just gave up and succumbed to her fate married the man who got their fortune after Noel Vanstone's death. I was glad Mr. Wragge ended up working in the end, though how honest his work was is debatable.
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