Belinda by Rhoda Broughton [Paperback: Average]

Virago Modern Classics paperback in Average condition (478 pages)

"Must I always be an angel, or a goddess?" If anyone knew how sick I am of being a goddess! I declare I should be thankful to be called a Fury, or even a Ghoul, for a change!"

Dresden in the 1880s is the perfect place to enjoy the spring, driving in open carriages in the Grosse Garten, visiting delightful Schlosses nearby. In just such a manner Belinda and Sarah Churchill while away the month of May, their happiness marred only by Sarah's (seventh) fiancé, the dried-up academic, Professor Forth. Belinda has fallen in love with a young student, David Rivers, who loves her too. But in this age of reticence and propriety, when women are idealized yet cannot speak their mind, the course of true love can easily be diverted. Suddenly David is recalled to England and Belinda, finding herself alone, resigns herself to a life of loveless duty amongst the dreaming spires of Oxbridge. Here her trials and tribulations, with gay young students and crusty old professors alike, provide a wonderfully witty satire on the arid joys of the Groves of masculine Academe.