Henry Esmond is the modest but appealing hero of his own story. Set, for the most part, in the early years of the eighteenth century, Esmond is regarded as a bastard member of his noble family. He gains some ability in arms, exercises his capable brain, and finds that the tumultuous events of those years give him ample opportunity to make his way as a military man. But as political intrigues and love interests come in to play, Esmond discovers there is more to his past than his present circumstances would suggest.
The History of Henry Esmond had a mixed reception. George Eliot was put off by it, finding aspects of the plot "uncomfortable." Anthony Trollope, on the other hand, admired the work and thought it "the greatest novel in the language"-as, indeed, did Mrs. Trollope, who so wore out her copy with repeated re-readings that it needed to be replaced.
Modern assessments recognize Thackeray's fine technical achievement in the effective first-person voice, and his deft handling of the complex plot which, in the words of one modern literary critic, "won Henry Esmond the fame of Thackeray's best executed work."
Perfect for readers who love sweeping historical fiction with richly drawn characters and political intrigue, this masterpiece from one of Victorian literature's greatest voices delivers romance, mystery, and military adventure in equal measure. Thackeray's brilliant storytelling weaves together personal drama and historical events to create an unforgettable tale of honor, love, and the quest for identity in turbulent times.
The source for this public-domain ebook is Standard Ebooks (standardebooks.org). Ebooks from other sources often have typos, inconsistent spelling, missing accent marks, and missing punctuation. Ebooks from Standard Ebooks are proofread line by line against a scan of the original printed pages, then proofread again from cover to cover. They are also formatted and typeset following a professional-grade style manual, resulting in new editions supporting state-of-the-art ereader technology: automatic hyphenation, popup footnotes, complete and consistent metadata, high-resolution and scalable vector graphics, and ereader-compatible tables of contents. All of this makes the finished ebooks accurate, functional, and beautiful, a pleasure to read. (Waking Lion Press is not affiliated with or endorsed by Standard Ebooks.)
