"Wealthy Beatrice Lacey has grown up on her family estate, Wideacre, and loves it more than anything. She is tormented by the fact that it will never be hers, as eighteenth century inheritence laws forbaade allowing a female child to inherit. Therefore, Beatrice plots her father's death, knowing that she can bend the legal heir, her brother, Harry, to her will. She seduces Harry, and the two begin an incestuous relationship, that is not stopped by Harry's marriage, or the birth of their children, or Beatrice's marriage. Beatrice is able to pass one of their children off as belonging to Harry and his wife, and the other as belonging to her husband. However, Beatrice grows more and more ruthless in her desire for complete ownership of wideacre, and her greed begins to suck the once prosperous estate dry. As a noose of her own making begins to tighten, Beatrice struggles to ensure the estate will go to her children."
fran laniado, Resident Scholar
"Set in early English gentry life, Wideacre is a historical novel which chronicals the life of Beatrice Lacey and her family. Beatrice is a favored child growing up, taken under her father's wing and shown the mechanics and passion of running a moderate estate, which held firm to traditional 'old ways' amid surrounding estates experimenting with more modern popular ways of farming and land ownership. Her brother Harry, by the current law, will inherit Wideacre and the title of Squire. Stunned her father would chose Harry over herself as future Squire of Wideacre, when Harry does not love the land, Beatrice commits to changing traditional law by any means necessary to secure the future of Wideacre and its heirs. Shadowed by only one who has intimate knowledge of the extreme means Beatrice is capable of, can she change the law for Wideacre and secure its future for the Lacey Family?"
Laura, Resident Scholar
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Review Analysis of Wideacre
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- thoughtful
Time/era of story
- 18th century
Romance/Romance Problems
Yes
Kind of romance:
- secretly interested in business objective
Family, struggle with
Yes
Struggle with:
- inheritance
Kind of sex:
- incest
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Taboo sex story?
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- business executive
- wealthy
Age:
- a teen
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
- society
Age:
- long-lived adults
Profession/status:
- wealthy
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a substantial amount
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- quite fatty
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 6 (an above average amount)
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
Farm/Ranch?
Yes
Farm/Ranch:
- farm
- lot of descript of crop raising
Misc setting
- fancy mansion
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
- very explicit references to deaths and torture
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
- descript of kissing
- touching of anatomy
- impregnation/reproduction
- actual description of hetero sex
- descript. of female anat. (the big B's)
- descript. of nude males (the big P)
Unusual Style:
- a lot of stream of consciousness
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
