The Three Cousins

Mrs Morrison, wife of the Bishop of Solway, is dedicated to providing her husband with the homely atmosphere he cherishes, and hosting the sumptuous dinner parties he so enjoys - however dull she may find these. For this perfect picture of domesticity conceals a woman of independence, personally more interested in the future of her young cousin, Laura Lexington. Laura, the only child of a widower whose love of luxury causes him to ignore her, is heir to the fortune of Sir Joseph Lexington. At eighteen, she is also beautiful, Mrs Cobhurst, the third of the cousins, a widow in her mid-thirties, is interested in marriage, but only to the right - that is, rich - man. Thus it is that she spends a considerable amount of her time trying to make herself look younger, and therefore more attractive to a man of means. As the stories of the three women, and their different approaches to the all-important subject of matrimony, unfold, we are drawn into the web of intrigue, charm, love and romance.Written by the author of Domestic Manners of the Americans and The Widow Barnaby, The Three Cousins, first published in 1847, is a witty novel, also interesting for the light it sheds on Victorian morals and contemporary attitudes to marriage.