HER DARK INHERITANCE ... I love that title! I started reading it solely because that title promised so much. Despite being published back in 1892, the novel is quite fast-paced - I had barely started reading before I reached the first couple of deaths, a rescue, a love triangle, an evil step mother and the obligatory mystery promised in the title.
Story: After the death of her beloved stepfather, sixteen year Beatrix Dane has to travel to New Orleans to live with the mysterious person who for some reason had chosen to finance her upbringing.
The heroine is beautiful and good, of course. And the villians are ugly and ever so evil. But despite the solidly drawn archetypes, it is worth noticing how everyone - good or bad - are blatantly in love with the idea of getting lots an' lots of money.
I really liked this book, but sure, it belongs to another time. Slavery was prohibited at the time of writing, but the book nevertheless has a whiff of it. This threw me out of the story and into analysing mode. Despite this, it is an entertaining ride with lots of melodrama and swooning.
Fave quote:
"No, I am not insane; there is no insanity in the Dane family. I am not idiotic; I am as sane and sound as you are, and more than you will be when you learn the truth concerning yourself. Don't shrink away and cower out of sight like that. Be a woman. Do you know what that means? It means to bear the burden of another's sin; to carry its consequences about in your heart—your tender, guiltless, woman's heart—until your life is darkened and ruined forever."
And notice the nice front page layout:
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