The story in one page
At the Small House at Allington, Lily Dale is the picture of devotion until Adolphus Crosbie, a London official with expensive tastes, arrives. He secures Lily’s heart and a promise of marriage, but a weekend at Courcy Castle convinces him that a Lady Alexandrina fits his career goals better than a penniless girl in a cottage. While Lily remains stubbornly loyal to a man who threw her away, her neighbor John Eames transitions from a clumsy clerk to a minor hero. The story charts the slow, painful realization that a bad marriage is a life sentence and that some hearts, once broken, simply refuse to be mended by a more convenient suitor.
Who's who
- Lily Dale
A steadfast woman who refuses to marry again after being jilted.
- Adolphus Crosbie
A cynical social climber who trades love for a miserable aristocratic marriage.
- John Eames
A government clerk who grows from a bumbling boy to a man.
- Squire Dale
The grumpy master of the Great House who struggles to be kind.
- Amelia Roper
The daughter of a boarding-house keeper who relentlessly pursues John Eames.
What it's really about
- Constancy
- Lily treats her first love as a permanent, albeit broken, contract.
- Social Ambition
- Crosbie's desire for status leads directly to his domestic ruin.
Why it's memorable
- John Eames pinning Crosbie to the floor at a London railway station platform.
- The Earl of De Guest being rescued from a charging bull by a clerk.
The ending, explained
Spoilers — show the ending
Lily remains at the Small House, resolving to be happy despite her broken engagement. Meanwhile, Lady De Courcy and her daughter Lady Alexandrina settle into Baden-Baden, where their household is reduced to a single carriage horse.
For your book club
- Is Lily’s refusal to ever love again noble or merely self-destructive?
- Does Crosbie deserve his miserable fate, or is he a victim of the era's class pressures?