The Adventuress: A Novel
An English woman from a poor neighborhood learns how to manipulate rich men and the financial market, moving herself up the impossible ranks of the UK class system in Coleridge's latest novel (after Pride and Avarice). Cath Fox is a striking chameleon, seen first as a teenaged matron at a prestigious women's college who sleeps with teachers and steals from students. She begins an affair with a student's handsome father, which ends with him returning to his wife. Cath finds work in an erotic massage parlor for men where she serves octogenarian Lord Blaydon, becoming his personal nurse and eventually his fiancée. But when the Lord dies moments after his proposal, Cath finds herself on the streets again only to begin the greatest adventure of her life, involving high paying careers and multiple marriages to wealthy/powerful men that land her in royal courts. Her story is intertwined with the lives of those she's touched but barely acknowledged, including a daughter she gave birth to and abandoned before her time as a matron. Coleridge's narrative moves with ease but lacks both linguistic vitality and character depth. It's an entertaining read, and she sets the stage for an absorbing literary venture but disappointingly manages only to skim the surface. (June)