| Author: | Sheila Myers | ISBN: | 9780692402405 |
| Publisher: | Sheila Myers | Publication: | November 30, 2016 |
| Imprint: | Language: | English |
| Author: | Sheila Myers |
| ISBN: | 9780692402405 |
| Publisher: | Sheila Myers |
| Publication: | November 30, 2016 |
| Imprint: | |
| Language: | English |
William Durant and his sister Ella have spent most of their youth living abroad while their father, Dr. Thomas Durant, invests in land and builds a railroad empire in the wake of the American Civil War. They are provided with every opportunity that their father’s amassed wealth can buy: travel, private tutors, and entrance into the inner circles of Victorian-era gentry. Their world is shaken however when in their early twenties, while fully engaged in London high society, Dr. Durant summons them to return to America. Even more shocking is that their father is recovering from a major political scandal that threatens to bankrupt the Durant family fortune.
Trapped by a tyrannical father, and a birthright they can’t escape, both are driven to leave a legacy they can call their own. Ella pursues the life of an artist, falling in love with a fellow writer who will never meet with her father’s approval. William is put in charge of enticing New York’s wealthiest to invest in the family’s Adirondack landholdings. But while he mingles at Delmonico’s with the Carnegies, Vanderbilts and Forbes, he seeks refuge in this vast wilderness. It is there he pioneers a form of rustic architecture on Raquette Lake that is still admired today.
As their relationship with their father becomes strained, both brother and sister are at risk of being cut off from the family fortune. This epic family saga reveals the fissures between brother and sister when jealousy, greed, and ambition threaten familial loyalties.
William Durant and his sister Ella have spent most of their youth living abroad while their father, Dr. Thomas Durant, invests in land and builds a railroad empire in the wake of the American Civil War. They are provided with every opportunity that their father’s amassed wealth can buy: travel, private tutors, and entrance into the inner circles of Victorian-era gentry. Their world is shaken however when in their early twenties, while fully engaged in London high society, Dr. Durant summons them to return to America. Even more shocking is that their father is recovering from a major political scandal that threatens to bankrupt the Durant family fortune.
Trapped by a tyrannical father, and a birthright they can’t escape, both are driven to leave a legacy they can call their own. Ella pursues the life of an artist, falling in love with a fellow writer who will never meet with her father’s approval. William is put in charge of enticing New York’s wealthiest to invest in the family’s Adirondack landholdings. But while he mingles at Delmonico’s with the Carnegies, Vanderbilts and Forbes, he seeks refuge in this vast wilderness. It is there he pioneers a form of rustic architecture on Raquette Lake that is still admired today.
As their relationship with their father becomes strained, both brother and sister are at risk of being cut off from the family fortune. This epic family saga reveals the fissures between brother and sister when jealousy, greed, and ambition threaten familial loyalties.
