title: Damaris
author: Sheridan, Jane
description: In the luxurious splendor of London Regency society, English aristocrats and French emigres await the outcome of Napoleon's campaigns while passing their time in decadent dalliance. The reckless beauty, Damaris, Countess of Malfrey, is the toast of this town, though none know that her ill-concealed, passionate liason with the Marquis d'Egremont is the act of a sensuous but tormented woman, trapped in a loveless marriage, deprived of her children, starved for a normal life. The scandal of her indiscretions erupts amid political upheaval forcing Damaris and her French lover to flee to America. Here, in the unfamiliar wildness of the New England landscape, the roughness of democratic life and manners, and the unshakeable moral values of these Puritan descendants, the Countess Damaris faces the challenge of a new life and the romantic attraction of simplicity and vitality in the magnetic person of Howard Booth - Yankee entrepreneur and political leader. How she confronts this challenge, learns her own heart, and comes into her birthright is told in this vivid tapestry, populated by worldly nobles and small-town gossips, punctuated by family intrigues, duels, and political insurrectin, resplendent with color and emotion, tenderness and adventure.