Patrician

Length: 9 h 50 min
Chapters: 52
Language: English
Genre: Published 1900 onward
First published: 1911

The book revolves around the story of two love affairs. Miltoun (an aspiring politician) proposes to Mrs Audrey Noel, only to find that she is not a widow as everyone supposes, but that her husband is still alive and therefore the match is impossible. Meanwhile, Miltoun’s younger sister Barbara develops an equally unwise romance with the rebellious Courtier.

The story of what happens to these ill-matched pairs is played out against a brilliant portrayal of the Victorian upper class, its snobbery and its concerns. (The patrician in the title refers to Miltoun, who is thus called by Courtier, whose politics are the opposite to his.)

Summary by Simon Evers

Chapters

From LibriVox, read by volunteers and in the public domain. LibriVox page (opens librivox.org), the text (opens gutenberg.org), all files on the Internet Archive (opens archive.org).