The Lost Heir by Phoebe Marlow

 

Title: The Lost Heir

Author: Phoebe Marlow but published anonymously 

Publisher : Newsham & Otley

Source book: Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer

Phoebe Marlow does not enjoy her first London Season. She finds Society to be filled with frivolous and arrogant people. On her return home Phoebe is inspired to write a roman à clef using many of the people she met in London as a basis for her characters. Luckily (perhaps), Phoebe’s old governess, Miss Sibylla Battery, has a cousin who works for the publishing house of Newsham & Otley. For better or worse The Lost Heir is published and quite unexpectedly becomes the talk of the town.

Phoebe is particularly unimpressed with the arrogance of Sylvester Rayne, Duke of Salford. She bases the appearance of the wicked uncle, Count Ugolino, on Sylvester. 

The fictional Count Ugolino imprisons his orphaned nephew Maximilian in a castle. Other characters are Matilda, Maximilian’s golden haired sister; Lady Josceline, based on Lady Sefton (a Society hostess IRL and frequently mentioned in Georgette Heyer novels); Florian, who helps Matilda rescue her brother from Count Ugolino’s clutches; and Baron Macaronio.

Phoebe has no idea that Sylvester is guardian to his nephew, 6 year old Edmund Rayne, but Society takes note and wonders if Sylvester has sinister plans for the little boy. It doesn’t help matters that Edmund’s very silly mother, Ianthe, is wrongly convinced that one of the characters in the book is based on her. 

You will not be surprised to learn that eventually Phoebe and Sylvester fall in love and plan to marry. And if you gasped with astonishment at the snippet of ludicrous plot from Phoebe’s novel, try reading a genuine gothic novel like The Castle of Otranto (Horace Walpole, 1764) or The Mysteries of Udolpho (Ann Radcliffe, 1794).

Images borrowed from the internet