A Fatal Silence: Restored Classics to Go Edition
Jul 2026 · Otbebookpublishing
Ebook
182
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About this ebook
At market day in Haltham, Miss Stafford, the respected schoolmistress of Deepdale, appears to be only a plain, dutiful woman in a modest dress—but beneath that controlled exterior lies a striking beauty and a sorrowful secret. Her sharp handling of the rude Gribble children, her sudden tenderness toward a farmer's baby, and her uneasy response when seaman Seth Brunt calls her by an old name all hint at a hidden past she has struggled to bury. Brunt's secret visit soon confirms her fear: he has come with news of the Captain, the man tied to her former life, now near death and begging for mercy she cannot give. As gossip spreads through the Gribble household and beyond, Paula Stafford's carefully built respectability begins to collapse under suspicion. Humiliated, exhausted, and haunted by memories of abuse and abandonment, she refuses any reconciliation with the past, even as others urge sympathy. Around her, the village bristles with judgment, while Hal Rushton offers a rare note of defense and warmth. In the end, Paula prepares to leave Deepdale altogether, unwilling to stay where shame and old wounds have been reopened. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
At market day in Haltham, Miss Stafford, the respected schoolmistress of Deepdale, appears to be only a plain, dutiful woman in a modest dress—but beneath that controlled exterior lies a striking beauty and a sorrowful secret. Her sharp handling of the rude Gribble children, her sudden tenderness...
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About the author
Florence Marryat was a prolific Victorian novelist, actress, journalist, and lecturer whose lively career reflected both the opportunities and constraints facing ambitious women in the nineteenth century. Born into a literary and naval family, she grew up close to the worlds of storytelling, public life, and social observation, and she went on to build an unusually varied career that included more than a hundred books, popular fiction, ghost stories, and writings on spiritualism. Marryat was known in her own time for her fast-paced, emotionally charged narratives and for her willingness to write about marriage, desire, class, family conflict, and women's independence with a candor that could be both entertaining and unsettling. Her work often explores the pressures placed on women to conform, the costs of respectability, and the tension between public appearance and private feeling, themes that still resonate in a culture preoccupied with identity, gender roles, and social performance. Though long overshadowed by better-remembered Victorian names, she remains significant as a writer who captured the anxieties and entertainments of her age while pushing against its limits. Today, readers can find in her fiction a sharp eye for character, a sense of melodramatic momentum, and a surprising modernity in her treatment of emotional and social freedom. She will especially appeal to readers who enjoy Victorian fiction with strong women, moral complexity, and a touch of sensational intrigue.
Florence Marryat was a prolific Victorian novelist, actress, journalist, and lecturer whose lively career reflected both the opportunities and constraints facing ambitious women in the nineteenth century. Born into a literary and naval family, she grew up close to the worlds of storytelling, publ...
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