Trevethlan: A Cornish Story. Volume 1 (of 3)

The narrative opens with the ailing patriarch of an ancient Cornish family dying in a Gothic state-chamber, charging his son to preserve family pride and refuse favours or alliances that might humiliate their name. The heir vows to restore the estate by assuming a low profile in London under an assumed name to win independence without exposing the house to mockery, and promises to avoid the allied Pendarrel family. The novel sketches the castle's decay and the family's crotchety inheritance customs, and explores themes of pride, social rank, inheritance, and the tensions between tradition and practical recovery.