EDEN AND HONOR

by Marilyn Harris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 20, 1988

The seventh installment in Harris' lively Eden series sees the noble and cantankerous English dynastic family dragged into the 20th century--kicking and screaming, as usual. Eden Castle, on the north Devon coast, is a busy place on a dreary March day in the late 1890's. As Lady Eleanor Eden fretfully paces the parapets, her son Geoffrey returns, minus one leg and crazy as a loon, from the Boer War. Downstairs, Eve--daughter of Eleanor's sister, Lady Mary Eden (who lives in the American South)--is giving birth to the latest Eden, Christopher. Christopher is soon joined in the crib by Alexander (son of Eleanor's son Frederick and his wife, Marjorie, missionaries newly back from India). In the meantime, Eden series fans will be glad to know that the grand old man, John Murray Eden, is alive and roaring. Supposedly tamed by his young wife Susan, he's now having a fit because his beautiful 17-year-old niece, Charlotte, is living without benefit of wedlock with his estranged half-Indian adopted son, Aslam--now the richest man in all of London. All of this--and innumerable subplots--take us to WW I. Christopher and Alexander split--Alexander to war, Christopher to demonstrate against it as a pacifist. Aslam is mysteriously murdered. And who should come down from the attic but barmy old Uncle Geoffrey--remember him?--who now takes a decidedly unsettling hand in family affairs. For a newcomer to the series, the phrase in medias res may take on fresh, poignant meaning--in the first ten pages alone, 12 major characters walk in, baggage of their lives in hand. Still, this should delight veteran Eden followers: Harris still writes some of the best pot-boiling melodrama around, and even has a sense of humor.

Pub Date: Feb. 20, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION