
Set against the genteel backdrop of a Southern summer, the story follows Neil Emory, a brooding man with a shadowed past, and his entangled affections for the spirited Gwendoline Gwinn and the captivating actress Cassandra Clovis. Their interactions swirl through lavish parlors and bustling social gatherings, revealing the tensions between duty, desire, and reputation. As whispers of scandal ripple through the genteel circles, the characters grapple with the pull of love and the expectations of their world.
At the heart of the tale thunders Cliquot, a magnificent but notoriously unruly thoroughbred whose lethal reputation haunts the racetrack. When a tragic accident claims a jockey, the pressure mounts to find a rider brave enough to tame the beast and claim victory. The narrative races forward with vivid descriptions of the track, the roar of the crowd, and the suspense of a mystery rider who might finally break the stallion’s curse.
Language
en
Duration
~3 hours (213K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Demian Katz, Craig Kirkwood, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Images courtesy of the Digital Library@Villanova University.)
Release date
2021-10-21
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1841–1928
A Mississippi writer with an unusually wide creative range, she wrote novels, poetry, songs, and dramatic pieces that drew on Southern life and history. She is especially remembered for the novel Cliquot and the children's story Little Mose.
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