Doctor Thorne (Penguin Classics)

Son of a bankrupt landowner, Frank Gresham is intent on marrying his beloved Mary Thorne, despite her illegitimacy and apparent poverty. Frank''s ambitious mother and haughty aunt are set against the match, however, and push him to save the family''s mortgaged estate by making a good marriage to a wealthy heiress. Only Mary''s loving uncle, Dr Thorne, knows the secret of her birth and the fortune she is to inherit that will make her socially acceptable in the eyes of Frank''s family — but t...